At Day's Close: Night in Times Past

At

DAY’S
CLOSE

NIGHT IN TIMES PAST

A. Roger Ekirch

W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
New York  London

FOR
ALEXANDRA, SHELDON, AND CHRISTIAN

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

GENESIS 1:1–5

CONTENTS

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Preface

SHUTTING-IN

PART ONE: IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH

PRELUDE

ONE
Terrors of the Night: Heavens and Earth

TWO
Mortal Perils: Plunder, Violence, and Fire

PART TWO: LAWS OF NATURE

PRELUDE

THREE
The Fragility of Authority: Church and State

FOUR
A Man’s House Is His Castle: Domestic Fortifications

FIVE
Darkness Visible: Navigating the Nightscape

PART THREE: BENIGHTED REALMS

PRELUDE

SIX
Works of Darkness: Labor

SEVEN
The Common Benefactress: Sociability, Sex, and Solitude

EIGHT
Knightwalkers: Princes and Peers

NINE
Masters by Night: Plebeians

PART FOUR: PRIVATE WORLDS

PRELUDE

TEN
Ordinances of the Bedchamber: Rituals

ELEVEN
Unraveling the Knitted Sleeve: Disturbances

TWELVE
Sleep We Have Lost: Rhythms and Revelations

COCK-CROW

Notes

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

Peter Paul Rubens,
Return from the Fields
, seventeenth century, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence / Art Resource, New York

Georg Mack the Elder,
Comet Seen at Nuremberg during November, 1577
,
seventeenth century, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin / Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Art Resource, New York

Anon.,
The Influence of the Moon on the Heads of Women
, seventeenth century, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

Matthias Grunewald,
The Devil Attacking the Window
(detail from
St. Anthony the Hermit
from the Isenheim Altarpiece), ca. 1512–1516, Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar / Bridgeman Art Library

Claude Gillot,
The Witches’ Sabbath
,
eighteenth century, Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Art Library

William Hogarth,
Night
(pl. 4 of
The Four Times of the Day
), 1738

William Hogarth,
A Night Encounter
, ca. 1740, Private Collection (Courtesy of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London)

Essaias van de Velde,
A Village Looted at Night
,
1620, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Jan Beerstraten,
The Great Fire in the Old Town Hall
, Amsterdam, 1652
, seventeenth century, Johnny van Haeften Gallery, London / Bridgeman Art Library

Gerard Vlack,
Sleeping Servant
, n.d., Courtesy of the Graphische Sammlung der ETH, Zurich

Jean Le Pautre,
The 1674 Festival at Versailles Organized by Louis XIV to Celebrate the Re-conquest of the Franche-Comté
,
seventeenth century, Chateau de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles / Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Art Resource, New York

Gabriel Bella,
The Good Friday Procession in Illuminated Saint Mark’s Square
, eighteenth century, Biblioteca Querini Stampalia, Venice / Art Resource, New York

Anon.,
The Midnight Magistrate
, eighteenth century, courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon,
Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime,
1808, Louvre, Paris / Art Resource, New York

Thomas Rowlandson,
Housebreakers
, 1788, Huntington Library, San Marino, California

Anon.,
Clipping the Church
, nineteenth century, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Taunton

Thomas Frye,
Young Man Holding a Candle
, eighteenth century, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Trophîme Bigot,
A Boy Pouring Oil into a Lamp
, 1620, Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome / Alinari, Art Resource, New York

Gerrit van Honthorst,
Dentist
, 1622, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Vincent van der Vinne,
The Safe Refuge
, 1714, from Adriaan Spinniker,
Leerzaame Zinnebeelden
(1757; rpt. edn., Soest, Netherlands, 1974), 174

Thomas Rowlandson,
A Linkboy
,
1786, The Frances Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. Gift of Mr. And Mrs. Francis Fitz Randolph (Mary E. Hill, class of 1945-4)

Adriaen Brouwer,
Dune Landscape by Moonlight
, seventeenth century, Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museum zu Berlin / Bildarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Art Resource, New York

Thomas Bewick,
Benighted Traveler
,
n.d.

Anon.,
The Labourer’s Clock, or a Very Easy Method of Telling the Time at Night by the Stars
, eighteenth century, Musée de la Révolution Francaise, Vizille / Bridgeman Art Library

Pehr Hilleström,
The Testing of an Egg
, 1785, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Joseph Wright of Derby,
The Blacksmith’s Shop
, eighteenth century, Hermitage, St. Petersburg /Bridgeman Art Library

Anon., John Hunt,
Nightman and Rubbish Carter, near the Wagon and Horses in Goswell Street, near Mount Mill
,
London, eighteenth century, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

Francesco Bassano the Younger,
Autumn Harvest
(Grape-picking),
1585–1590, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna / Erich Lessing, Art Resource, New York

Jan Asselijn,
Crab Catching in the Night
,
seventeenth century, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Jean Jacques de Boisseau,
Evening in the Village
,
1800, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Jan Steen,
The Ace of Hearts
,
seventeenth century, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Hans Sebald Beham,
A Spinnstube
,
1524, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Gerrit Dou,
Scholar with a Globe
, seventeenth century, Sammlung Schönborn-Buchheim, Vienna

Joseph Wright of Derby,
Girl Reading a Letter by Candlelight, with a Young Man Peering over Her Shoulder
, ca. 1760–1762, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

Wolfgang Heimbach,
Nocturnal Banquet
, 1640, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna / Art Resource, New York

Giuseppe Grisoni,
Masquerade at King’s Opera House
,
1724, Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Art Resource, New York

William Hogarth,
A Rake’s Progress
(pl. 3), 1735

William Hogarth,
The Bagnio
(pl. 5 of Marriage à la Mode), 1745

Anon.,
Drunken Rakes and Watchmen in Covent Garden
,
1735, Guildhall Library, Corporation of London

François Morellon la Cave,
Night Meeting of the Adamites
,
eighteenth century, Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis

Johann Konrad Seekatz,
Gypsies Before a Campfire
, eighteenth century, The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York / Art Resource, New York

John Quidor,
The Money Diggers
,
1832, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Gift of Mr. And Mrs. Alastair Bradley Martin 48.171

William Hogarth,
The Idle ’Prentice Betrayed by a Prostitute
(pl. 9 of
Industry and Idleness
), 1747

Georg Merckel,
The Curious Death of the Hegen Family, Christmas Eve, 1558
, sixteenth century, Graphic Arts, Zentralbibliothek Zurich

Matthias Stom,
Old Woman Praying
, seventeenth century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anon.,
Tobias and Sara
, ca. 1530, Victoria & Albert Museum, London / Art Resource, New York

William Hogarth,
The Idle ’Prentice Returned from Sea and in a Garret with a Prostitute
(pl. 7 of Industry and Idleness), 1747

Anon.,
A Boulster Lecture
,
seventeenth century, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

William Hogarth,
Francis Matthew Schutz in His Bed
, late 1750s, Norwich Castle Museum / Bridgeman Art Library

Henry Fuseli,
The Nightmare,
1781, Detroit Institute of Arts / Bridgeman Art Library

Gerrit van Honthorst,
The Flea Hunt
,
1621, Dayton Art Institute. Museum Purchase with Funds Provided in Part by the 1980 Art Ball

Thomas Rowlandson,
Haymakers at Rest
,
1798, courtesy of Windsor Castle, The Royal Collection © 2004, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Jan Saenredam,
Night
, seventeenth century, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jacob Jordaens,
The Dream, or The Apparition by Night
, seventeenth century, Staatliches Museum Schwerin

Jean-Honoré Fragonard,
The Beggar’s Dream
, ca. 1769, Louvre, Paris / Art Resource, New York

Henry Fuseli,
Midnight
, 1765, courtesy of the Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Alisa Mellon Bruce Fund, Washington, D.C.

Philip James de Loutherbourg,
Coalbrookdale by Night
,
1801, Science Museum, London / Bridgeman Art Library

Thomas Rowlandson,
A Peep at the Gas Lights in Pall-Mall
, 1809, Guildhall Library, Corporation of London / Bridgeman Art Library)

Anon.,
Lantern Smashing in Vienna
,
1848, from
Genaue Darstellung der Denkwürdigen Wiener Ereignisse des Jahres 1848 in ihren Uraschen und Folgen
(Vienna, 1849)

Europe at Night
, W. Sullivan
, n.d., Hansen Planetarium, SPL / Photo Researchers, Inc.

COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS

Paul Bril,
Fantastic Landscape
, n.d., Galleria Borghese, Rome / Scala, Art Resource, New York

Hieronymous Francken,
Witches’ Kitchen
, 1610, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna / Art Resource, New York

Philip James de Loutherbourg,
Attack by Robbers at Night
, ca. 1770, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes / Bridgeman Art Library

Egbert van der Poel,
Fire in a Village at Night
, 1655, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

Jacopo Bassano,
Workshop of Weavers
,
sixteenth century, Accademia, Venice / Art Resource, New York

Anon.,
Ferry by Moonlight
, n.d., Guildhall Art Gallery, Corporation of London

Gerrit van Honthorst,
The Matchmaker
, 1625, Centrall Museum, Utrecht / Art Resource, New York

Cornelis Troost,
Those Who Could Walk Did; the Others Fell
, 1739, Mauritshuis, Royal Gallery of Paintings, The Hague

Leandro Bassano,
Camp at Night
, n.d., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg

Thomas Luny,
Teignmouth by Moonlight
, eighteenth century, Private Collection / Bridgeman Art Library

David Teniers the Younger,
The Invocation
, seventeenth century, Bordeaux Musée des Beaux-Arts / Cliché du M.B.A. de Bordeaux / photographe Lysiane Gautheir

Giulio Carponi,
The Kingdom of Hypnos
, seventeenth century, Bonhams, London / Bridgeman Art Library