[132] Defoe uses these pronouns in the wrong number, as in numerous other instances.

[133] The projecting part of a building.

[134] Their miraculous preservation was wrought by their keeping in the fresh air of the open fields.  It seems curious that after this object lesson the physicians persisted in their absurd policy of shutting up infected houses, thus practically condemning to death their inmates.

[135] Used here for “this,” as also in many other places.

[136] Supply “with.”

[137] Such touches as this created a widespread and long-enduring belief that Defoe’s fictitious diary was an authentic history.

[138] “Running out,” etc., i.e., losing their self-control.

[139] Idiocy.  In modern English, “idiotism” is the same as “idiom.”

[140] Gangrene, death of the soft tissues.

[141] Before “that” supply “we have been told.”

[142] Hanging was at this time a common punishment for theft.  In his novel Moll Flanders, Defoe has a vivid picture of the mental and physical sufferings of a woman who was sent to Newgate, and condemned to death, for stealing two pieces of silk.

[143] Cloth, rag.

[144] They could no longer give them regular funerals, but had to bury them promiscuously in pits.

[145] Evidently a repetition.

[146] In old and middle English two negatives did not make an affirmative, as they do in modern English.

[147] It is now well known that rue has no qualities that are useful for warding off contagion.

[148] “Set up,” i.e., began to play upon.

[149] Constrained.

[150] Because they would have been refused admission to other ports.

[151] Matter.  So used by Sheridan in The Rivals, act iii. sc. 2.

[152] Probably a misprint for “greatly.”

[153] This.

[154] Are.

[155] He has really given two days more than two months.

[156] A count.

[157] Range, limits.

[158] Unknown.

[159] Lying.

[160] Was.

[161] Notice this skillful touch to give verisimilitude to the narrative.

[162] Country.

[163] “Without the bars,” i.e., outside the old city limits.

[164] Profession.

[165] The plague.

[166] The legal meaning of “hamlet” in England is a village without a church of its own:  ecclesiastically, therefore, it belongs to the parish of some other village.

[167] All Protestant sects other than the Established Church of England.

[168] A groat equals fourpence, about eight cents.  It is not coined now.

[169] A farthing equals one quarter of a penny.

[170] About ten miles down the Thames.

[171] The t is silent in this word.

[172] Hard-tack, pilot bread.