Visitations of the Plague at Leicester

Extract

Had Daniel Defoe not immortalised himself as the author of that inimitable work “Robinson Crusoe,” he would still have held a prominent place in the foremost rank of English novelists by the production of two of his less known works, which have been over-shadowed by his great masterpiece, namely, the “History of the Plague in London,” and the “Memoirs of a Cavalier.” These historical romances, or, as they might be more accurately termed, imaginary autobiographies founded on facts, are such life-like delineations of character, and so historically true in colouring, down to the minutest touches of detail, while the scenes depicted have such an absorbing interest thrown over them, that we might well believe them to be veritable chronicles of the two imaginary heroes who are supposed to relate the events in which each is described as bearing so prominent a part, and either of whom might well exclaim with Father Æneas:

“Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi

Et quorum pars magna fui.”