At Day's Close: Night in Times Past (80 page)

as Milky Way, 130

robberies, 33–36,
35,
43, 86

cries for help stifled in, 40

dark nights preferred for, 39–40

grave, 237

by highwaymen, 34–36, 39, 40, 41

murder in, 34, 35–36

nocturnal excursions and, 118–19, 137, 139, 141–42, 144

of pedestrians, 34, 137, 139

by prostitutes of their clients, 245

victim’s lights extinguished in, 40

weapons used in, 34, 36

Robin Good-fellow, 18

Rocco, Father, 72

Rochester, John Wilmont, Earl of, 223–24, 225, 226

role reversal, at festivals, 152

Rolfe, John, 321

Romans, ancient, 4, 62, 168, 228, 303

night life of, 5

nightwatch of, 75

time divisions of, 137, 138

Twelve Tables
of, 84, 87

Rome:

aristocratic gangs in, 225

carrying weapons banned in, 66

Church festivals in, 71

dark lanterns banned in, 67

darkness of night preserved by, 72, 74, 220, 335

disguises prohibited in, 152

great cloaks in, 136

illumination shrines in, 72

Jews of, 228

lower classes of, 235

nocturnal labor in, 160

sexual activity on streets of, 192, 220

street lighting banned in, 335

Romeo and Juliet
(Shakespeare), 192

Romulus, 62

Ronsard, Pierre de, 205

Rothair’s Edict,
87

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, xxv, 63, 74, 110, 122, 143, 144

“Roving Maids of Aberdeen’s Garland, The,” 196

Rowlands, Samuel, 31

Rowlandson, Margaret, 270

Rowlandson, Thomas,
96,
126,
299,
332

Rowth, Jane, 307

Ruddocke, Edward, 45–46

rues de la lanterne,
67

Rules of Civility, The,
45

Rush, Benjamin, 290

rushlights, 106–7, 111, 162, 207, 295, 336

Russia, 46, 108, 178, 181

bundling in, 200

space mirror of, 339

watchdogs, 95

Rust, Thomas, 168

Ryder, Dudley, 222, 291

Sabba da Castiglione, Monsignor, 13, 60

Sacchetti, Franco, 158, 193

Saenredam, Jan,
309

Samson, 303

Sand, George, 95

Sanderson, Robert, 116–17, 125, 305

Sanditon
(Austen), 331

Sanger, Abner, 169, 171, 174, 201

Satan, 6, 15–17,
17,
21, 60, 97, 98, 145, 156, 239, 240, 268

burglars’ impersonation of, 41

darkness as realm of, 15–16

at dead of night, 140

disguises of, 15

sleep and, 268

sleep disturbed by, 291–92

village sites associated with, 16

wild animals linked to, 30

witches’ covenant with, 21

Saxon Consistory, 213

sbirri,
76

scavengers, 64, 160, 165, 243

Schoole of Vertue, The,
264

scientific rationalism, 6, 325

Scot, Reginald, 20, 23, 99, 120

Scotland, 16, 24, 92, 138

arson by burglars in, 54

barred windows in, 93

bogwood in, 108–9

bundling in, 197–98, 199

collieries of, 24

criminal prosecutions in, 12

curtained beds in, 279

earthen floors as beds of, 276–77

farmers of, 168–69

fishing in, 171, 177

funeral wakes in, 194

group travel in, 142

kelpies in, 18

law courts of, 87

peat as fuel in, 103

pilfering in, 240

seaweed as fuel in, 103

spinning bees in, 178

spinning in, 164

watchdogs of, 95

witch hunts of, 20

Scowrers gang, 225

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), 290

seaweed, as fuel, 103

“Second Nun’s Tale, The” (Chaucer), 282

Sedley, Sir Charles, 223

Seekatz, Johann Konrad, 231,
232

Seine River, 26, 64

Semple, Robert, 325

sentries, 75, 79

servants, 28,
53,
66, 81, 94, 125, 142, 165, 188, 190, 193, 203, 233–35, 298

arson of, 54, 55

beds of, 277–78, 287, 297

bedtime duties of, 271

candles of, 52, 109–10

communal sleep of, 281–82

at family prayers, 272

indentured, 233

as laundresses, 164

magic employed by, 239

nightmares and, 292

of nobility, 212, 224

nocturnal excursions of, 234–35

nocturnal labor of, 158–60, 168, 170, 175, 176

pilfering by, 175, 240, 255

poaching by, 241

privacy and, 150

as private guards, 165

runaway, 234

social oversight of, 150–51

storytelling of, 3, 5, 120–21

youth dances of, 196

in youth gangs, 245, 247–48, 252

Sewall, Samuel, 28, 52, 91, 99, 314, 316, 317

sexual activity, 116, 191–97, 233, 268

adulterous, 191, 193–94, 314

in alehouses, 190, 192

in bundling, 200–201, 202

in dreams, 314

and extinguishing lights, 192–93, 195, 201, 218

at festivals, 194

of homosexuals, 230, 231, 281

in interval of wakefulness, 308–10

laws against, 191

in literature, 193

low light levels and, 192

marital, 282, 308–10

as masquerades, 216

nocturnal labor and, 175

public displays of affection and, 191

social class and, 191–92

social oversight of, 149–50

venues for, 190, 192, 193, 220

of young people, 192, 194–202;
see also
courtship

youth dances and, 196

see also
prostitutes, prostitution; rapes

Shakespeare, William, xxxi–xxxii, 8, 18, 82, 106, 127, 138–39, 140, 151, 192, 210, 227, 267, 286

shamans, dreams of, 317

sheep-stealers, 41, 172, 241

shepherds, 171–72

shepherd’s lamp, 129

Sheppard, Jack, 34

“She Went to Bed in the Dark,” 281–82

Shirley, James, 224

shoemakers, 158, 160

“wetting the block” ceremony of, 162

shrines, illuminated, 71–72

shutting-in, xxxii, 91–93, 138, 268

Sicily, 70–71, 121, 143

evening parties in, 212

white witchcraft in, 98

Sidney, Sir Philip, 286

Siena, 75, 86–87

sight, sense of, 8, 124, 128

Signori di Notte,
85

Silesia, 19

silversmiths, 156

slaves, 109, 113, 132, 233–35, 237, 298

amulets of, 99

arsons of, 55, 257

dogs of, 241

dreams of, 317

ghost stories used in control of, 256

insurrections of, 257–58

magic of, 99, 143, 239, 257–58

night-kingdoms of, 251–52

nocturnal excursions of, 233–34, 235, 236, 255–56

nocturnal labor of, 168, 170, 174, 176–77

personal gain of, 176–77

pilfering by, 240, 241, 256

runaway, 234

sleep of, 286, 287

social oversight of, 150–51

youth gangs of, 245, 246, 248–49, 251–52

sleep, xxv, xxvi–xxvii, 14, 24, 46, 51, 59, 60, 145, 261–62, 263–84, 285–87, 304

burglaries and, 37, 38, 42

as classless, 286, 287

communal,
see
communal sleep

concoction as impetus for, 263

in the day, 218

death in, 268–69,
269,
272

evolution of, 261

excessive, 264

historical indifference to, 262

immune system and, 14

as like death, 286

in literature, 267, 285–86

medieval medical view of, 263

modern research on, 268, 280, 303–4, 322–23

optimal temperatures for, 294

positions for, 271–72, 302

proper amount of, 264–65

quality of, 267–68

REM, 322–23

salutary effects of, 263–64

staying awake vs., 60, 77, 203, 338

time needed for lapsing into, 280–81

typology of, 267–68

vulnerability of, 268–69

of wild animals, 290, 303

see also
beds; bedtime rituals; bedtimes; broken sleep; dreams

sleep deprivation, 298–99

sleep disturbances, xxvi, 285–99, 302

anxiety in, 286, 289–90

beds and, 295–96, 297

communal sleep and, 296

demonic intruders in, 291–92

depression in, 289, 290

excretory needs and, 296–97, 305

fears in, 290–92

frigid temperatures and, 294, 297

illness in, 288–89, 297

insects and, 288, 294–95,
295,
297–98

of lower classes, 290, 297–99

nightmares in, 272–73,
291,
292

by nightwatch, 75, 78–79, 293

noisiness in, 291, 292–94, 297, 327

pain in, 288–89

reeking chamberpots and, 296–97

rural, 293

urban, 292–93

in wintertime, 290, 294

sleeping houses, 236

sleepwalking, 267, 319–20

smell, sense of, 133, 192

Smith, Samuel, 284

Smith, Sir Thomas, 115

Smith, Thomas, 116

smoking, 79, 189

Smollett, Tobias, 75, 135, 136, 212, 243, 306

smudges, 37

smugglers, 242–43, 244, 250

burglars’ impersonation of, 243

social activities, 185–202

dancing, 187, 194, 196, 235, 236

in drinking houses, 187–90;
see also
alehouses

drinking in, 186, 187, 188, 189–90

games of chance, 72, 186, 189,
189,
221, 328

of lower classes, 177–84, 235–37

music in, 187, 189

of nobility, 210–17,
see also
masquerades

see also
courtship; sexual activity; spinning and knitting bees; storytelling

social classes, xxvi, 134, 136

broken sleep and, 304

dress differences in, 8

lanterns and, 126–27

lower,
see
lower classes

masquerades and, 214, 216, 328–29

middle, 157, 186–87, 191–92, 208, 280, 304, 324–25, 326, 329, 330

nocturnal excursions and, 125, 126–27, 136–37

sexual attitudes and, 191

sleep as leveler of, 286, 287

solitude of, 203

street lighting and, 335–36

upper,
see
upper classes

social oversight, 333–34

of lower class, 150–51

by neighbors, 147–51, 153, 191–92

solitude, 202–9

needlework in, 208

personal piety in, 206–7

personal reflection in, 202–3, 207

social differences in, 203

writing in, 207–8

see also
reading

Somme River, 62

space mirror, Russian, 339

Spain, 20

burglaries in, 38

carrying weapons banned in, 66

Holy week processions in, 70

illuminated shrines in, 72

marranos
of, 228

murder weapons in, 43

ventas
of, 187

white witchcraft in, 98

youth dances in, 196

youth gangs in, 250

Spartans, 119–20

Spectator,
16–17, 216, 321

Spenser, Edmund, 286, 288

sperm whales, 104–6

Sperrgeld,
63

spinning, 164, 173, 174, 176

spinning and knitting bees, 178–79, 181, 184,
195

courtship at, 194–96

emotional support provided by, 183

French shelters for, 182

gossip exchanged in, 182–83

men’s views of, 183

oral readings at, 203

Spinnstube, A
(Beham),
195

sprites, 18

Spurmakers Guild of London, 156

squatters, 238

Squire Oldsapp: or, the Night Adventures
(D’Urfey), 222

“Squire’s Tale, The” (Chaucer), 301, 311

Stadtpir,
151

Stainhurst, Richard, 79

Standonck, Jean, 203

stars, 129–30, 138,
139,
234, 326

telling time by, 138, 236

in weather forecasting, 171

Statute of Artificers, 157

Statute of Winchester, 31, 75, 76

Steele, Richard, 218, 304

Steen, Jan,
189,
190

Steiner, George, 319

Sterne, Laurence, 271

stillborn infants, magic properties of, 41–42

St. John’s Eve, 140

Stockholm:

fire alarms in, 79

murders in, 46

nightwatch’s weapons in, 77

scaling city walls as crime in, 62

Stoddard, Solomon, 231

Stoeckhlin, Chonrad, 317

Stom, Matthias,
273

stormy petrals, as oil lamps, 107–8

storytelling, 179–82, 184

ghost stories in, 3, 5, 120–21, 180, 256

magic in, 179, 180

motifs of, 180–82

at spinning and knitting bees, 183

stoves, 102

Stower, Mary, 164

Strassenräubers,
36

straw pallets, 274, 276–77, 287

street lighting, 10, 26, 67–74, 332–37

Argand oil lamps in, 331

carrying lights mandated for, 67, 129

Catholic Church and, 69–72,
70,
71,
335

coal gas lamps in, 331, 332–34,
332,
335, 336–37

coast of, 73, 74

crime and, 330–31, 332–34, 336

electric, 337

illuminated shrines as, 71–72

inadequacy of, 73–74

increasing use of, 72–73

lanterns as, 67–68, 73, 74, 129, 246,
337

for military hostilities, 68–69

by oil lamps, 72, 73, 330–31

opposition to, 335

poor quality of, 74

problems of, 74

at public celebrations, 69

restricted to darkest nights, 68, 73, 74, 335

rural resistance to, 336–37