Fact or fiction? A Journal of the Plague Year (1665), Daniel Defoe

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]I would you know hope everybody's really well. Now, I've picked up a copy of Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year since we're all talking about rat piss and mouse droppings and bubonic [clears throat] plague.

[00:00:12]And I thought well, there's going to be some clues in here because I'm very interested in whether or not all pandemics have been some form of government hoaxes or at least not exactly what they've been purported as in historical documents. Now, this is sometimes referred to as an historical document but it's it's it's actually a work of fiction. Defoe, whose real name was Foe, he added the De but was he a friend or a foe?

[00:00:37]Um he was a government propagandist. He was also a secret agent between 90 or 60 97 1701 and for William the Third in England and Scotland and between 1703 and 1714 for some government minister called Harley and other ministers.

[00:00:53]And apparently he loved role-playing and disguise and a bit of a master of words and playing with words. born in London 1660.

[00:01:02]Uh I find this time very interesting historically. We had the Great Fire of London 1666.

[00:01:08]And around this time we really see the satanic hold taking its position and really influencing science, literature, and basically everything became kind of inverted and continues to this day.

[00:01:22]So, very very interesting. He was pilloried. Um I think it was some kind of anti-religious sentiment he put out in a pamphlet at some point. But um I think it's interesting as well that we have your man Anthony Burgess. So, he's the guy who wrote A Clockwork Orange and he writes the introduction.

[00:01:39]And he tells us a few things. Now, A Clockwork Orange is about as satanic as they come, isn't it? Was is this a little Freemasonic nod and a wink?

[00:01:46]He says here that uh this Journal of a Plague Year, right, is a rather cunning work of art, a confidence trick of the imagination.

[00:01:55]That's kind of telling us, isn't it?

[00:01:56]comfort and a trick of the imagination.

[00:01:59]And uh we find out that Defoe's education was unusually progressive. Um they were looking at kind of at the scientific scientism inquiry.

[00:02:09]And of course then we get the Well, you know, there's the heliocentric model gets introduced around this time as well. So, this is very, very interesting. He got into financial difficulty. There were eight lawsuits against him. He was hanging around with thieves and at one point. And it looks like he made some kind of positive impact. He was writing government propaganda. He was looking for a central bank at one point, income tax.

[00:02:33]I mean, what's this about? Um very much of the Fabian way, all right?

[00:02:38]So, it's all very, very interesting.

[00:02:40]Uh let's see. Is there anything else in that?

[00:02:43]Harmless trickery. Harmless, is it?

[00:02:47]>> [gasps] >> Exemplified in a Journal of the Plague Year. Harmless trickery. Mm, okay.

[00:02:53]Uh see, like a Journal of Plague Year came out in 1722.

[00:02:57]So, you know, it's just the ages after the plague year.

[00:03:01]And he would have been only five at the time, right? So, it's not really a journal, but a lot of people reading it think it is.

[00:03:09]Um let me see. So, he's saying this is all hearsay. He cannot vouch for the truth in it. He cannot vouch for the truth in it.

[00:03:17]Uh so, they're telling us they're telling us here uh novel form calls for near total suspension of disbelief.

[00:03:24]Mm. Well, I'm not going to suspend my disbelief.

[00:03:27]Real events give him a good fictional beginning, but strict adherence to truth would not have given him a good end, right?

[00:03:35]They're telling us.

[00:03:37]And and then he said it's kind of leading the way for H. G. Wells. He was another government propagandist. So, the work stands as the most reliable and comprehensive account of the Great Plague that we possess. Does it?

[00:03:49]Creative imagination.

[00:03:51]So, I haven't started yet. I'm great at starting books, terrible at finishing them. And then there's just a little here, um, London's Plague, a clinical summary. Apparently, it was the fleas that came from the rats that passed it on to the humans.

[00:04:03]Um, but was it really? Or is that just what they want us to believe?

[00:04:07]So, anyway, I'm going to start it up.

[00:04:10]I'm not sure I'll finish it, but I'm I'm just going to go through it anyway and see what's in there. And we'll get back to you. So, let's see.