This essay is about the comparisons in narrative sited in the city in Thomas Middleton’s “A Chaste Maid in Cheapside” and Daniel Defoe’s “A Journal of the plague year”. Both Based in London and the surrounding districts giving glimpses of the places and the lives of the people at those times.
Middleton’s London was based in Cheapside, where from the twelve hundreds the main street had been known to have been a Market, the word ‘cheap’ meaning market, from then on always a prosperous trading area. Many of the streets feeding into the main thoroughfare are named after the produce that was originally sold in those areas of the market, for example, Honey Lane, Milk Street, Bread Street and Poultry.
“Next adjoyning is chepe Ward, and thaketh Name of the Market there kept called West- cheping. This Ward also Beginneth on the East, on the Course of Walbrooke, in Buckles bury, and runneth up on both sides to the great Conduit in chepe. “Strype (2007) (1)
Cheapside was not as the name suggests cheap, it was a long thoroughfare in a busy area, with the great conduit at one end and St Pauls cathedral to the western end. It was a prosperous part of London, processions of royalty passed through and pageants were played out for the Kings and Queens of the time. Though trade was considered not very well thought of, but when in need of money the rich considered marriage suitable. The rich would trade their good names for rich bounties.
Furthermore from Bread Street to Friday Street, the houses and businesses were filled with gold merchants. This is where “Yellowhammer”, one of the chief characters in Middleton’s play who was a gold smith, “a pun on the name as a goldsmith hammers yellow”. (14) Also where at times the play is set.
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...vid Roberts. A Journal of the Plague Year. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Defoe, D. (2001) Ed, John Berseth. A Journal of the Plague Year. Dover Publication Inc. Mincola N.Y.
Johnson, M. (2001). Stuart London. Britannia.com http://www.britannia.com/history/londonhistory/stulon.html. [Accessed on the 29/11/10].
Middleton, T. (2007). Ed, Emma French. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Nick Hern Books, London.
Pepys, S. (1981). Ed Robert Latham. Pepys’ Diary. Guild Publishing, Bury.
Strype, J. (2007). A Survey of the City of London. hriOnline, 2007. http:// www.The Stuart London Project, Humanities Research Institute, The university of Sheffield, Sheffield. Stripe, Survey of London (1720), [online](hriOnline, Sheffield).Available from;/stripe/tranformservlet?book 3-001[Accessed06/12/10].
Stow, J. (2005). A Survey of London. Sutton Publishing Limited, Stroud.
Williams, Montagu Q.C. “London: Down East and Up West.” The Victorian Dictionary. 1894. 7 Nov. 2004. . Path: Finance: Money-Lenders.
Starting at the bank of Thames, from 54 B.C. to present day, the historical novel London, by Edward Rutherfurd, charts the two-thousand year old tale of families through ever-shifting fortunes and fates in England’s capital from the time of the Druids to the occurrence of the Blitz. The novel follows the family history of seven fictional families who interact with one another throughout the novel as a way to depict the events that have made English history for more than two millenniums. The families stem from Celtic, Anglo-Saxon,Norman, and Danish decent, creating a diverse culture within London.Furthermore, Rutherfurd intertwines the lives of these fictional families with appearances from historical
Pleasant Riderhood “was an unlicensed pawnbroker, keeping what was popularly called a Leaving Shop, by lending insignificant sums on insignificant articles of property deposited with her as security.” The Leaving Shop was set up by Pleasant’s mother before she died (Dickens 345).
§ Lee, C. 'The Service Industries' in Floud, R. and McCloskey, D. (eds.) The Economic History of Britain Since 1700: Volume 2: 1860-1939 (1994) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9 Daniel Pool, What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist — the Facts of Daily Life in 19th Century England (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), 75.
Gottfried, Robert S. "Plagues, European." Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Vol. 9. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1987. 672-83. Print.
In August 1888, the Whitechapel neighborhood of London first became aware of a monster in its midst. Whitechapel is known to have been home to the most severely unfortunate of souls, the poorest of the poor, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and alcoholics. Prostitutes turned tricks to earn their doss money (money required for a night’s lodging), often, only to spend it on drink instead. Most Whitechapel residents were physically unwell, either from poor nutrition, lack of medical care, filthy living conditions, sexually transmitted diseases, or any number of other factors, that in such conditions, contributed to an unhealthy community. Jack the Ripper, as he is still known today, preyed on these ill fated misfortunates as they went about earning their living in the only manner they knew. His victims: Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols, Annie Chapman (Dark Annie), Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly occupied the lowest rung of Victorian society. The Ripper himself may well have been one of Whitechapel’s own; or, based on what little evidence the police managed to gather, he could just as easily be a Gentleman of high society. Speculation and theories abound as to the identity of this brutal butcher; but it seems that no one will ever be able to speak the name of the Ripper with any measure of certitude.
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
Levy, Bernard. "The Meanings of The Merchant's Tale." Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction. Ed. Leigh Arrathoon. Rochester, MI: Solaris, 1986. 385-403.
Lapaire, Pierre J. "The Plague: Overview." Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Lesley Henderson. 2nd ed. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
It is not specifically known how Anthony Johnson came to own his “modest estate” or how he ended up in Northampton. Historians believe that his former master, Rirchard Bennett,...
My essay focuses on the county of Greater Manchester in North West England. A thriving metropolitan area, the county has been a place of interest since its rise in the Industrial Revolution.
Eric Wilson, “Plagues, Fairs, and Street Cries: Sounding out Society and Space in Early Modern London,” Modern Language Studies, Vol.25, No.3 (Summer, 1995), pp.1-42 (here p.22)
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Lloyd and his mother has a bad economy. They live in the Western Sewage Park in a two-roomed house. In the text, it does not have so much information about their economy, but I assume it is bad, since they can afford a “cheap fan on Princess Street”. We get an aspect of how Lloyds father’s economy is, but it is not that good either. He has been fired from a job that he didn’t made enough money from. Lloyds father had ambitious plans, that he could be somebody, but God was against him.