Notes to Pages 106–110• 321Then strayn it and ad to that liquer long pepper ginger nuttmege of each thre[e]
drames bruised. Boyle itt a while, yn [then] take it of[f ] ye ffyer and dissolve in itt 1
ounce of Mitridate and 2 ounces of yr best Treacel and a quarter of a pint of Angelica
Watter or strong Aqua Vita.” ERO MS D/DRg 1 / 141.
21. Pepys,Diary, 6 : 161 , 163 , 108 , 120 ; Bell,The Great Plague, 47 , 155 – 56.
22. A modern psychoanalyst has offered a clue to this tightrope-balancing act, de-
scribing Pepys’ behavior as a fear-of-death syndrome. Martin Howard Stein, “[Pepys’]
Health—A Psychoanalyst’s View,” in Pepys,Diary, 10 : 177.
23. Pepys,Diary, 6 : 154 – 55.
24. Peter Laslett,The World We Have Lost—Further Explored(London, 1983 ), 232 – 33 ,
suggests that 60 % of women and 40 % of men could not write a century after the Great
Plague. Unlike writing, reading left no records, but it is assumed that reading on its own
was more widely practiced than the combination of reading and writing. See Wear,
Knowledge and Practice, 40 n. 74.
25. See Thomas Cocke,Advice for the Poor by Way of Cure and Caution(London,
1665 ), 1 , 5.
26. [William Winstanley],Poor Robin. The Yea and Nay Almanackfor 1666 but dated
June 11 , 1665.
27. Biographical details for William Lilly are in Capp,English Almanacs,esp. 57 – 59.
28. See above, ch. 4 ,n. 12.
29 .The Lives of those Eminent Antiquaries Elias Ashmole, Esquire, and Mr William
Lilly, written by themselves(London, 1774 ), 139 – 40 ; Slack,The Impact of Plague, 34.
30. On Lilly’s clientele, see Thomas,Religion and the Decline of Magic, 319. The sec-
tion on “Medicine and Magic” in Capp,English Almanacs, 204 – 14 , is less suggestive
than Thomas’s reflections. The entire area of early modern medical astrology deserves a
fresh reading; the English almanacs are plentiful, though there are lamentably very few
for 1665 , mainly in their original manuscript form, with L’Estrange’s censorship altera-
tions added. See Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ashmole MSS 158 , 180 , 264 , 347.
31. Robert Neve,A New Almanack(London, 1666 ), is a good example: “Spring is the
most temperate time of the year. Therefore the humours are fit to be emptied, whether
by bloodletting, purging, or otherwise, as the learned physitian shall advise.” In July:
“Use cold herbs and meats, abstain from physick [purging], let the sun be set before you
walk about in the time of any pestilence or plague, keep your windows shut.” After sur-
viving the pestilential summer, you were advised to “finish your physick” in November
and ease off other treatment until March, “unless out of necessity.” This was written
while the Great Plague was still around London and the countryside, and the reference
to the infection may have been added to the normal regime. We have been unable to
find Neve’s almanac for 1665.
32. Andrew Wear, “Early Modern Europe, 1500 – 1700 ,” in Conrad et al.,The Western
Medical Tradition, 243 ; Thomas,Religion and the Decline of Magic, 668.
33. Alan Macfarlane,Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England(London, 1970 ), 117 – 18 ,
179 , 184.
34. See George Thomson,Loimotomia, or the Pest Anatomized(London, 1666 ), 166 – 70.