登陆注册
5301800000012

第12章 Part 2(5)

'An Italian gentlewoman just arrived from Naples,having a choice secret to prevent infection,which she found out by her great experience,and did wonderful cures with it in the late plague there,wherein there died 20,000in one day.'

'An ancient gentlewoman,having practised with great success in the late plague in this city,anno 1636,gives her advice only to the female sex.To be spoken with,'&c.

'An experienced physician,who has long studied the doctrine of antidotes against all sorts of poison and infection,has,after forty years'practice,arrived to such skill as may,with God's blessing,direct persons how to prevent their being touched by any contagious distemper whatsoever.He directs the poor gratis.'

I take notice of these by way of specimen.I could give you two or three dozen of the like and yet have abundance left behind.'Tis sufficient from these to apprise any one of the humour of those times,and how a set of thieves and pickpockets not only robbed and cheated the poor people of their money,but poisoned their bodies with odious and fatal preparations;some with mercury,and some with other things as bad,perfectly remote from the thing pretended to,and rather hurtful than serviceable to the body in case an infection followed.

I cannot omit a subtility of one of those quack operators,with which he gulled the poor people to crowd about him,but did nothing for them without money.He had,it seems,added to his bills,which he gave about the streets,this advertisement in capital letters,viz.,'He gives advice to the poor for nothing.'

Abundance of poor people came to him accordingly,to whom he made a great many fine speeches,examined them of the state of their health and of the constitution of their bodies,and told them many good things for them to do,which were of no great moment.But the issue and conclusion of all was,that he had a preparation which if they took such a quantity of every morning,he would pawn his life they should never have the plague;no,though they lived in the house with people that were infected.This made the people all resolve to have it;but then the price of that was so much,I think 'twas half-a-crown.'But,sir,'says one poor woman,'I am a poor almswoman and am kept by the parish,and your bills say you give the poor your help for nothing.''Ay,good woman,'says the doctor,'so I do,as I published there.I give my advice to the poor for nothing,but not my physic.'

'Alas,sir!'says she,'that is a snare laid for the poor,then;for you give them advice for nothing;that is to say,you advise them gratis,to buy your physic for their money;so does every shop-keeper with his wares.'Here the woman began to give him ill words,and stood at his door all that day,telling her tale to all the people that came,till the doctor finding she turned away his customers,was obliged to call her upstairs again,and give her his box of physic for nothing,which perhaps,too,was good for nothing when she had it.

But to return to the people,whose confusions fitted them to be imposed upon by all sorts of pretenders and by every mountebank.

There is no doubt but these quacking sort of fellows raised great gains out of the miserable people,for we daily found the crowds that ran after them were infinitely greater,and their doors were more thronged than those of Dr Brooks,Dr Upton,Dr Hodges,Dr Berwick,or any,though the most famous men of the time.I And I was told that some of them got five pounds a day by their physic.

But there was still another madness beyond all this,which may serve to give an idea of the distracted humour of the poor people at that time:and this was their following a worse sort of deceivers than any of these;for these petty thieves only deluded them to pick their pockets and get their money,in which their wickedness,whatever it was,lay chiefly on the side of the deceivers,not upon the deceived.

But in this part I am going to mention,it lay chiefly in the people deceived,or equally in both;and this was in wearing charms,philtres,exorcisms,amulets,and I know not what preparations,to fortify the body with them against the plague;as if the plague was not the hand of God,but a kind of possession of an evil spirit,and that it was to be kept off with crossings,signs of the zodiac,papers tied up with so many knots,and certain words or figures written on them,as particularly the word Abracadabra,formed in triangle or pyramid,thus:-ABRACADABRA

ABRACADABR Others had the Jesuits'

ABRACADAB mark in a cross:

ABRACADA I H

ABRACAD S.

ABRACA

ABRAC Others nothing but this ABRA mark,thus:

ABR

AB **

A {*}

I might spend a great deal of time in my exclamations against the follies,and indeed the wickedness,of those things,in a time of such danger,in a matter of such consequences as this,of a national infection.But my memorandums of these things relate rather to take notice only of the fact,and mention only that it was so.How the poor people found the insufficiency of those things,and how many of them were afterwards carried away in the dead-carts and thrown into the common graves of every parish with these hellish charms and trumpery hanging about their necks,remains to be spoken of as we go along.

All this was the effect of the hurry the people were in,after the first notion of the plaque being at hand was among them,and which may be said to be from about Michaelmas 1664,but more particularly after the two men died in St Giles's in the beginning of December;and again,after another alarm in February.For when the plague evidently spread itself,they soon began to see the folly of trusting to those unperforming creatures who had gulled them of their money;and then their fears worked another way,namely,to amazement and stupidity,not knowing what course to take or what to do either to help or relieve themselves.But they ran about from one neighbour's house to another,and even in the streets from one door to another,with repeated cries of,'Lord,have mercy upon us!What shall we do?'

同类推荐
  • 台湾县志

    台湾县志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说转法轮经

    佛说转法轮经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 祖亮启禅师语录

    祖亮启禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛顶尊胜陀罗尼注义

    佛顶尊胜陀罗尼注义

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 香严禅师语录

    香严禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 甜心小娇妻:高冷老公不好惹

    甜心小娇妻:高冷老公不好惹

    结婚一年,他从不碰她,甚至当着她的面,跟别的女人暧昧。木晚晚终于怒了,离婚协议书一纸拍上!“离婚!”“咔嚓”,笔被折断了……结婚一年,木晚晚对晏如修说的最多的,就是,我们离婚吧,最后都被暴力镇压,直到有一天,她现对方的秘密……嗯哼,小样,看你这次还离不离!
  • 呆萌丫头你别跑

    呆萌丫头你别跑

    错认她,便深深爱上,这是冥冥注定,还是执着不放手的原因。若有缘,遇见你,不愿轻易放弃
  • 重生之龙横异界

    重生之龙横异界

    月银雪买下一块白龙玉佩,谁知却穿越成了一条小白龙,还获得的真龙遗留的传承,从此一步步走上龙生巅峰!夙墨玄:她怎么老盯着我?是我长的太帅还是我衣服穿反了?月银雪:他今天的围脖是金水貂的吗?看上去手感好棒,好想摸。夙墨玄:我最讨厌那种靠家族势力随意欺压学生的家伙,我断他两根骨头不过分吧。月银雪:咦?你有事吗?不好意思我刚才有点没收住手,放心人还有气。夙墨玄:……[文案废,改一下会有收藏么?QAQ]
  • Hunter Quatermain's Story

    Hunter Quatermain's Story

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 汐泽我心

    汐泽我心

    遵从自家老妈的命令,从美国大老远飞回来,本以为终于可以休息了,但这是什么回事?是怪她太天真了吗?回国读书是什么鬼?还有,她旁边的那中二病谁啊?
  • 师父太缺爱

    师父太缺爱

    桃花街一哥江燕七和徒弟江小菜闯荡江湖的爆笑故事。师徒二人赚了银票进京去,师徒二人打着“见世面”的名义进京却又各怀鬼胎,进京后相继结识了神秘的莫少轻,貌美的玉芊芊一干人。江燕七自打进京后性情大变,江小菜的身份也不磊落,身边的每个人都别有用心,直到江小菜随身佩戴的“玉血石”终于暴露,所有人在抢夺这块石头的过程中,纷纷暴露了自己背后的目的。而师徒关系也面临着重大的考验……
  • 记忆的痕迹

    记忆的痕迹

    本书文笔流畅优美,视角独特,是一部优秀的作品,值得读者收藏!
  • 甜的有些腻

    甜的有些腻

    一章节就是一个故事各类的空间,各样的人物,美好的爱情。愿天下有情人终成眷属。
  • 后屋

    后屋

    吴文君,女,浙江海宁人,浙江省作家协会会员,上海首届作家研究生班学员,鲁迅文学院第十七届中青年作家高研班学员,作品发表在《北京文学》、《大家》、《收获》、《上海文学》、《中国作家》、《钟山》、《山花》等多家文学期刊。
  • 守护国界主陀罗尼经

    守护国界主陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。