Episode 16: A Thousand Unaccountable Things

Although Defoe’s account is scarcely chronological, at this point in the novel we have come to the height of the epidemic, when, by official accounts, around 7,000 people were falling victim to the plague every week. Here he describes what are by now the familiar horrors of the epidemic and his growing restlessness at his self-imposed seclusion. By the way, the so-called Solomon Eagle mentioned in this account was a real person, a composer by the name of Solomon Eccles, who became a Quaker and renounced music as profane entertainment. [For notes on the main themes of the novel, visit https://londonplague.com/postscript/. To see some ways in which our reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic are anticipated in the Journal, see https://londonplague.com/concordance/.] Credits:  Podcast produced by Sam Brelsfoard. Music from Funeral Sentences of Henry Purcell (1659-1695), performed by the Choir of Clare College at the University of Cambridge, Timothy Brown conducting.  Used b