Read At Day's Close: Night in Times Past Online
Authors: A. Roger Ekirch
15.
DUR
, Nov. 30, 1785; Borsay,
Urban Renaissance
, passim; Peter Clark,
The English Alehouse: A Social History
(London, 1983), 256–259.
16.
9 George II. c.20; “Mémoire sur Necessité d’Éclairer la Ville, Présenté par Quelques Citoyens au Conseil,” Jan. 26, 1775, Archives Geneve, Geneva; J. M. Beattie,
Policing and Punishment in London, 1660–1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of Terror
(Oxford, 2001), 221–223; Wolfgang Schivelbusch,
Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century
, trans. Angela Davies (Berkeley, Calif., 1988), 9–14.
17.
Times
, May 14, 1807; “F. W.,”
LM
, Jan. 6, 1815; Jane Austen
, Sandition
(Boston, 1975), 221; O’Dea,
Lighting
, 98; Pounds,
Home
, 388; Brian T. Robson,
Urban Growth: An Approach
(London, 1973), 178–183; John A. Jakle,
City Lights: Illuminating the American Night
(Baltimore, 2001), 26–37.
18.
LC
, Jan. 17, 1758; “Case of the Petitioners against the Bill, for Establishing a Nightly-Watch within the City of Bristol,” 1755, BL;
PA
, July 15, 1785; Alan Williams,
The Police of Paris, 1718–1789
(Baton Rouge, 1979), 71; Ruff,
Violence
, 88–91.
19.
BC,
Aug. 11, 1762; David Philips and Robert D. Storch,
Policing Provincial England, 1829–1856: The Politics of Reform
(London, 1999), 63; Beattie,
Crime
, 67–72; Elaine A. Reynolds,
Before the Bobbies: The Night Watch and Police Reform in Metropolitan London, 1720–1830
(Stanford, Calif., 1998); Stanley H. Palmer,
Police and Protest in England and Ireland, 1780–1850
(Cambridge, 1988), passim; David Philips, “‘A New Engine of Power and Authority’: The Institutionalization of Law-Enforcement in England 1780–1830,” in Gatrell et al., eds.,
Crime and the Law
, 155–189; James F. Richardson,
Urban Police in the United States
(Port Washington, N.Y., 1974), 19–28.
20.
“Night Hawk,”
Mechanics Free Press
(Philadelphia), Nov. 7, 1829; Louis Bader, “Gas Illumination in New York City, 1823–1863” (Ph.D. diss., New York Univ., 1970), 334; Mary Lee Mann, ed.,
A Yankee Jeffersonian: Selections from the Diary and Letters of William Lee of Massachusetts
(Cambridge, Mass., 1958), 37; Pounds,
Home
, 388; Johan Goudsblom,
Fire and Civilization
(London, 1992), 150, 176–178. For the salutary impact of street lighting, in general, on crime, see Jane Jacobs,
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
(New York, 1961), 41–42; Kate Painter, “Designing Out Crime—Lighting, Safety and the Urban Realm,” in Andrew Lovatt et al., eds.,
The 24-Hour City
... (Manchester, 1994), 133–138.
21.
Maurice Rollinat,
Oeuvres
(Paris, 1972), II, 282. Allan Silver, “The Demand for Order in Civil Society: A Review of Some Themes in the History of Urban Crime, Police and Riot,” in D. Bordua, ed.,
The Police: Six Sociological Essays
(New York, 1967), 1–24; Anna Clark,
Women’s Silence, Men’s Violence: Sexual Assault in England, 1770–1845
(New York, 1987), 118.
22.
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Essays & Lectures
, ed. Joel Porte (New York, 1983), 1067; Joachim Schlör,
Nights in the Big City: Paris, Berlin, London 1840–1930
, trans. Pierre Gottfried Imhof and Dafydd Rees Roberts (London, 1998), 287; Mark J. Bouman, “The ‘Good Lamp Is the Best Police’ Metaphor and Ideologies of the Nineteenth-Century Urban Landscape,”
American Studies
32 (1991), 66.
23.
The Journeyman Engineer,
The Great Unwashed
(London, 1869), 199; A. H. Bullen, ed.,
The Works of Thomas Middleton
(1885; rpt. edn., New York, 1964), VIII, 14; A. Roger Ekirch, “Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British Isles,”
AHR
106 (2001), 383–385; Thomas A. Wehr, “A ‘Clock for All Seasons’ in the Human Brain,” in R. M. Buijs et al., eds.,
Hypothalamic Integration of Circadian Rhythms
(Amsterdam, 1996), 319–340; Thomas A. Wehr, “The Impact of Changes in Nightlength (Scotoperiod) on Human Sleep,” in F.W. Turek and P.C. Zee, eds.,
Neurobiology of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
(New York, 1999), 263–285; P. Lippmann, “Dreams and Psychoanalysis: A Love-Hate Story,”
Psychoanlytic Psychology
17 (2000), 627–650. Of dreams, Roger Bastide has written: “In our Western civilization, ... the bridges between the diurnal and nocturnal halves of man have been cut. Of course, people can always be found—and not only in the lower classes of society—who consult dream books, or who at least examine their dreams and assign to them a role in their lives. But such vital functions of the dream remain personal and never become institutionalized. On the contrary, far from constituting regularized norms of conduct they are considered aberrant; they are classed as ‘superstitions’; sometimes it is even suggested that people who look for significance or direction in dreams are not entirely all there” (“The Sociology of the Dream,” in Gustave Von Grunebaum,
The Dream and Human Societies
[Berkeley, Calif., 1966], 200–201).
24.
R. W. Flint, ed.,
Marinetti: Selected Writings
, trans. R. W. Flint and Arthur A. Coppotelli (New York, 1979), 56.
25.
Frederic J. Baumgartner,
A History of Papal Elections
(New York, 2003), 191; Rev. Dr. Render,
A Tour through Germany
... (London, 1801), II, 37. Although the year is wrongly given as 1816, the
Zeitung
article, “Arguments against Light,” is translated in M. Luckiesh,
Artificial Light: Its Influence upon Civilization
(New York, 1920), 157–158.
26.
Schlör,
Nights in the Big City
, trans. Imhof and Roberts, 66; Christian Augustus Gottlief Goede,
A Foreigner’s Opinion of England
... , trans. Thomas Horne (Boston, 1822), 47; Richard L. Bushman,
The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities
(New York, 1992), 365; Garnert,
Lampan
, 126; Schindler,
Rebellion
, 221; Eugen Weber,
France Fin de Siècle
(Cambridge, Mass., 1986), 54.
27.
Victor Hugo,
Les Misérables
, trans. Isabel F. Hapgood (New York, 1887), II, Pt. 1, 313–316; Schivelbusch,
Disenchanted Night
, 105, 97–114, passim; Wolfgang Schivelbusch, “The Policing of Street Lighting,”
Yale French Studies
73 (1987), 73, 61–74, passim; Eugène Defrance,
Histoire de l’Éclairage des Rues de Paris
(Paris, 1904), 104–106; Garnert,
Lampan
, 123–129.
28.
Joseph Lawson,
Letters to the Young on Progress in Pudsey during the Last Sixty Years
(Stanningley, Eng., 1887), 33; [Charles Shaw],
When I Was a Child
(1903; rpt. edn., Firle, Eng., 1977), 37; Silvia Mantini, “Notte in Città, Notte in Campagna tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna,” in Mario Sbriccoli, ed.,
La Notte: Ordine, Sicurezza e Disciplinamento in Età Moderna
(Florence, 1991), 42; Pounds,
Culture
, 420–423; James Obelkevich,
Religion and Rural Society: South Lindsey, 1825–1875
(Oxford, 1976), passim; Judith Develin,
The Superstitious Mind: French Peasants and the Supernatural in the Nineteenth Century
(New Haven, 1987).
29.
George Sturt,
Change in the Village
(1912; rpt. edn., Harmondsworth, Eng., 1984), 121, 8.
30.
Dagobert D. Runes,
The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison
(New York, 1948), 232; Ekirch, “Sleep We have Lost,” 383–385; Patricia Edmonds, “In Jampacked Days, Sleep Time is the First to Go,”
USA Today
, April 10, 1995; Andree Brooks, “For Teen-Agers, Too Much to Do, Too Little Time for Sleep,”
New York Times
, Oct. 31, 1996; Amanda Onion, “The No-Doze Soldier: Military Seeking Radical Ways of Stumping Need for Sleep,” Dec. 18, 2002, Web:
www.abcNEWS.com
. For explorations of nighttime in modern life, see Murray Melbin,
Night as Frontier: Colonizing the World after Dark
(New York, 1987); Kevin Coyne,
A Day in the Night of America
(New York, 1992); A. Alvarez,
Night: Night Life, Night Language, Sleep, and Dreams
(New York, 1995); Christopher Dewdney,
Acquainted with the Night: Excursions through the World after Dark
(New York, 2004).
31.
Montague Summers, ed.,
Dryden: The Dramatic Works
(1932; rpt. edn., New York, 1968), VI, 159; Arthur R. Upgren, “Night Blindness,”
Amicus Journal
17 (1996), 22–25; David L. Crawford, “Light Pollution—Theft of the Night,” in Derek McNally, ed.,
The Vanishing Universe: Adverse Environmental Impacts on Astronomy
(Cambridge, 1994), 27–33.
32.
Warren E. Leary, “Russia’s Space Mirror Bends Light of Sun into the Dark,”
NYT, Times
, Feb. 5, 1993; “Russian Space Mirror Reflector Prototype Fails,”
Boston Globe
, Feb.5, 1999.
INDEX
Page numbers in
italics
refer to illustrations
Adamites,
229
Adams, John, 85, 189, 190
Adams, Thomas, 292
Addison, Joseph, 109–10, 216
adultery, 191, 193–94, 314
Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, The
(Smollett), 306
Aeneid
(Virgil), 303
African cultures, 4, 303, 320
Agostinetti, Di Giacomo, 170
Alan of Lille, 268, 302
Alberti, Leon Battista, 96, 124
Albertus Magnus, 76
alcohol,
see
drinking
ale, 25, 161, 164, 188, 235
alehouses, 25, 46–47, 116, 187–90, 208, 330
clientele of, 188
displays of strength in, 190
female patrons of, 190, 192
furnishings of, 187
libertines in, 218,
219,
220, 222–23
male companionship in, 187, 189–90
murders in, 46
as night-cellars, 236, 250,
251,
252
prostitutes in, 190, 223, 244
All Hallow’s Eve, 140
Allison, Jane, 305–6
almanacs, 129
Alorese people, 320
America, 5, 10, 26, 28, 30, 35, 44, 91, 95, 110, 112, 145
almanacs published in, 129
aristocratic gangs in, 217
arson in, 55
bundling in, 197, 199, 200, 201, 202
candlewood in, 109
cesspool emptying in, 166
corn huskings of, 177–78
courtship in, 191
crime in, 33
curfews in, 256
drunkenness in, 25
fire-hunting in, 241
fire-priggers in, 55–56
fires in, 49–50, 51–52, 55–56
game laws of, 241
indentured servants in, 233
lookouts in, 77
mishaps in, 28
mosquitoes in, 294
nightwatch in, 76, 79, 81, 250
nightwatch’s weapons in, 77
prostitution in, 244
punishment for burglary in, 87
removal of dead bodies in, 167
robberies in, 35
tallow candles in, 106
taverns in, 189, 190, 192–93
trained police force and, 80
wolves in, 30
women’s nocturnal labor in, 163, 177
youth gangs in, 233
see also
slaves
American Revolution, 257
“Aminta One Night had Occasion to Piss,” 296
Amory, Thomas, 14
Amphitryon
(Dryden), 338–39
Amsterdam, 20,
50,
112
alehouses in, 46
aristocratic gangs in, 224
canal barriers in, 64
drinking houses of, 236
height of buildings in, 26
lantern lighting mandated in, 67
Leidsegracht canal of, 26
nocturnal labor in, 157
streetlights in, 72
tavern brawls in, 47
watchmen in church towers of, 77
watchmen’s weapons in, 77
amulets, 98, 99, 142
Anabaptists, 228–29
Anatomy of Melancholy, The
(Burton), 289
andatores di notte,
32
Angel of Darkness, 4
animals,
see
livestock; wild animals
Antigua, 257–58
Antioch, 5
apparitions, celestial, 10
Appleyard, Walter, 198
apprentices, 81, 232–35, 281
beds of, 277–78
curfews on, 256
lying-out by, 232–33, 255
nocturnal excursions of, 234–35
pilfering by, 240
runaway, 234
in youth gangs, 222, 245, 247, 249, 252, 253
ar cannerez
,
19
Archer, Isaac, 115, 272
Ardennes Forest, 30
Arkwight, Sir Richard, 327
Aristotle, 119, 205, 263, 313
Armageddon, 15
Arrais, Amador, 307
arson, 37, 52–55, 63, 238, 257
of burglars, 54
“fireraising,” 54–55
motives for, 55
punishments for, 48–49, 53, 54
threats of, in anonymous letters, 54
Artemidorus of Ephesus, 313
Arthur, Mary, 282
artificial illumination, 332–39
bogwood, 108–9
broken sleep and, 303–4, 334–35
candlewood, 104, 108–9, 162, 236
carrying of, as legal mandate, 67, 129
of Church festivals, 70–71
costs of, 73, 162, 295
electric lighting, 6, 104, 110, 337
eyesight affected by, 207
fires caused by, 51–52
in the home, 100–111
of military engagements, 68–69
navigating in darkness vs., 110
of noble entertainments, 210, 211, 212
of nocturnal excursions, 124–27, 131
of nocturnal labor, 156, 161–63, 174
poor quality of, 110–11, 127
at public celebrations, 69
reading by, 207
rules for use of, 109–10
rushlights, 106–7, 111, 162, 207, 295, 336
as sacrilege against divine order, 72
wind’s dousing of, 127, 131, 134
see also
candles; lanterns; oil lamps; street lighting
Ascham, Roger, 232
Ashmole, Elias, 316
assaults, 33, 40, 43, 115
on male intruders in spinning bees, 183
on nightwatch, 83–84, 224, 249, 250, 253
on pedestrians, 45, 47, 139, 224, 225
punishments for, 86–87
sexual,
see
rapes
by youth gangs, 247–49, 250
Asselijn, Jan,
177
assemblies, 212–13, 328
astronomy, Renaissance, 12
Atheist, The
(Otway), 282
Atkinson, Luke, 306–7
Aubrey, John, 110, 150–51, 186, 270
Augustine, Saint, 87
aurora borealis, 10
Austen, Jane, 331
Autumn Harvest
(
Grape-picking
) (Bassano),
169
Babylon, 4
Bacchylides, 191
Bacon, Francis, 120
badges of shame, 151
Badrett, Sarah, 190
Bagbury ghost, 19
Bagnio, The
(Hogarth),
221
Bailyn, Bernard, 153
bakers, 52, 158, 161, 175, 278
Baldwin, William, 163, 301
Ballard, Martha, 113, 134, 163
Ballers gang, 225
Ballet de la Nuit, Le
(Benserade), 211
Bancroft, John, 51
bandits, 35–36, 137, 143–44
banshees, 19
Barbados, 233–34, 248–49, 257
Barber, Mary, 117
Barcelona:
prostitutes in, 65
public celebrations of, 69
removal of dead bodies in, 167
“Barguest of York,” 17
Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 14, 63
Bartoli, Daniello, 60, 180, 203
Bartram, William, 176
Basil the Great, Saint, 20
Bassano, Francesco, the Younger,
169
Bastard, The,
151
bats, 30
Bavaria, 45, 92, 164, 167, 235
Baxter, Margaret, 320
Baxter, Richard, 264, 280, 302–3, 320
bears, 30, 171
Beattie, John, 72
Beck, David, 118, 160, 205
communal sleep of, 296
early winter bedtime of, 265
sleep disturbance of, 291
visiting by, 186–87
writing of, 207–9
youth gang encountered by, 247–48
Beck, Roeltje, 208
Beckford, William, 212, 293
bedbugs, 269–70, 294–95
bedding, 271, 274, 276–77,
277
insects in, 269–70, 288, 294–95
pillows in, 274,
275
bed-faggot, 280
bedfellows,
see
communal sleep
beds, 274–79,
275,
286,
289
communal,
see
communal sleep
curtained, 274,
275,
279, 297
elevated, 274,
275,
276
functions of, 276
high value of, 274–76
of lower classes, 276–79, 287, 296, 297, 299
sleep disturbed by, 295–96, 297
straw pallets, 274, 276–77, 287
trundle, 276
of urban poor, 278
of vagabonds, 278
warming of, 270, 294
bed-staffs, 94–95
bedtime rituals, xxvi, 268–73
alcoholic drinks in, 271
banking fireplaces in, 270
bug hunts in, 269–70, 295,
295
family prayers in, 272
magic invoked in, 272–73
nightdress in, 270–71
servants’ duties in, 271
soporific medicine in, 271
warming beds in, 270, 294
bedtimes, 137, 138, 205, 206, 301, 324, 334
early, 263–64, 265
eating before, 271–72
proverbs about, 264, 266
reading at, 52, 281, 310
seasonal variations in, 266
standard, 265–66
beer, 25, 156–57, 161, 164, 173–74, 187, 235
benefits of, 188
Beerstraten, Jan,
50
beggars, 65, 231, 237–38,
318
badges of shame worn by, 151
beds of, 278
Behaim, Frederich, 207
Beham, Hans Sebald,
195
Behn, Aphra, 153
Bella, Gabriel,
71
benandanti
cult, 319
Benedictine order, 302
Bennet, Agnes, 191
Benserade, Isaac de, 211, 276
Beowulf,
20
Bergerac, Cyrano de, 42
Berlin Becomes a Metropolis,
334
Best, Henry, 170, 171, 305
Beware of the Cat
(Baldwin), 163, 301
Bewick, Thomas, 121–22,
131
Bibb, Henry, 239
Biddle, Francis, 175
Bigot, Trophîme,
108
Bishe, Thomas, 244
black dogs, 15, 96
Black Forest, 55
Blackmore, Sir Richard, 49
blacksmiths, 156, 161,
162,
175
Blackstone, Sir William, 88
blanket fair, 281
blindman’s holiday, 155
boats, 25, 62, 172
nocturnal excursions by, 137
nocturnal labor on, 160
pilfering and, 175
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 193, 220
Boccardi, Lorenzo and Giacobo, 172
boggarts, 18, 140
bogwood, 108–9
Boisseau, Jean Jacques de,
181
Boke of Curtasye,
104
Bond, Jane, 163
bonfires,
29,
55, 69
Boorde, Andrew, 264, 305
Boothe, Chester, 10
Borde, Marquis de la, 106
Boscawen, Fanny and Edward, 134
Boswell, James, 70, 95, 118–19, 145, 150, 282
communal sleep of, 280
disguises worn by, 219–20, 222
dreams of, 316, 317, 322
low debauchery enjoyed by, 219–20, 222
on sleep, 267, 268, 270, 287, 304
weapons carried by, 142
Bouchet, Guillaume, 285
boulster lectures, 283,
283
Bourne, Henry, 140, 180, 254
Bovey, James, 310
Bovier de Fontenelle, Bernard le, 12, 153
boxing, 190
Bradbourn, Twisden, 143
Bradwell, Stephen, 271, 276
Bräker, Ulrich, 90, 123–24, 145, 176, 202, 290
Bramer, Leonaert, 231
Brand, John, 19
Brannam, Dennes, 36
“Brave Men at Fires” (Franklin), 115
Bravos, 44
Breton, Nicholas, 91, 151, 182, 267, 323
breweries, 52, 156–57, 161
Brewerton, Jane, 237
briganti,
36
British Magazine,
151
broken sleep, 300–311, 339
artificial illumination and, 303–4, 334–35
Church practices and, 302–3
class differences in, 304
in communal sleep, 308
darkness and, 303–4
in early classical literature, 303
“first sleep” in, 300–302, 303, 305, 308, 311–12, 320,
321,
322–23, 335, 337
in non-Western cultures, 303, 304
reproductive fertility enhanced by, 308–10
“second” sleep in, 301, 303, 306
broken sleep, wakefulness interval in, 300, 301, 303, 305–11, 335
criminal activities in, 306–7
dreams and, 322–23, 334–35
excretory needs in, 305
magic in, 307
personal reflection in, 310–11
prayers in, 307–8
protection in, 304, 322
semi-conscious state in, 311
sexual activity in, 308–10
work done in, 305–6
brothels, 218, 220, 226, 244, 245, 253
homosexual, 230
Brouwer, Adriaen, 118,
127
Brown, John, 170
Brown, Tom, 152
Browne, Sir Thomas, 261, 286, 312, 313
brownies, 18
Buckhurst, Lord, 223
Bugles gang, 225
bulkers,
29,
278
Bullein, William, 272
bull’s-eye lanterns, 125
bundling, 197–202
chaperonage of, 200
chastity protected in, 199
conversations in, 200, 202
enduring popularity of, 201
functions of, 201–2
garments removed for, 199
illegitimacy rates linked to, 200
parental permission for, 199, 201
physical contact in, 200–201
privacy afforded by, 201
rules of, 199
sexual activity in, 200–201, 202
as “sitting up,” 198, 199, 201
trial period provided by, 202
bundling boards, 199
Bundschuh
disturbances, 54–55
bunters, 160
burglaries, burglars, 36–42, 76, 88, 94, 95, 99, 128
arson of, 54
candles as deterrents of, 101
daytime, 38
death penalty for, 87
definition of, 36–37
ghosts impersonated by, 41
in large gangs, 37, 38–39
magic used by, 41, 42
quick rewards of, 37–38
rural, 38–39,
39
seasonal variation in, 39
smugglers impersonated by, 243
unusual noises and, 34, 37
violent, 37, 38, 40
watchdogs and, 96, 97
burials, nocturnal, 213, 229, 237
Burke, Edmund, 3
Burkitt, William, 157