(Procl. 957) and Michaelmas term deferred on 16 Sept, and transferred to Winchester on 18 Oct. (Procl. 970, 973). Stowe, Annales, 857, gives the total deaths in the City and liberties as 38,244, including 30,578 from plague. Creighton, i. 478, calculates from the weekly tables that with the addition of those suburbs for which records are available, these figures must be increased to 42,945 and 33,347. The report of 60,000 deaths, which Nicolo Molin (V. P. x. 126) found hard to believe, was obviously an exaggeration. The weekly plague bill for the City and liberties reached 30 on 26 May, 43 on 9 June, and rose very rapidly from the end of the month, reaching a maximum of 2,495, with 542 for the recorded suburbs, on 1 Sept. On 22 Dec. the plague deaths for City, liberties, and the suburbs henceforward included in the City lists (120 parishes in all) was still 74. Nicolo Molin's statements on 5 Dec. that the plague had almost disappeared, and on 15 Dec. that it was never mentioned (V. P. x. 124, 126), must have been optimistic.
1604. Nicolo Molin (V. P. x. 132 sqq.) records the totals of the bills (probably a week or so late) in despatches from 26 Jan. to 23 Oct. He gives 15 on 26 Jan. and 27 for the City only on 8 Feb., and thereafter 20 is only reached in a few weeks of May, August, and September; 30 never. On 23 Oct. there had only been 6 in the last fortnight, and 'as that is nothing out of the common, I will not make any further reports on this subject' (V. P. x. 190). A play restraint was removed on 9 April, but the reason given was the expiration of Lent, and it is not impossible that the theatres may have been open before Lent, which began on 22 Feb. The warrant of 8 Feb., however, for a special royal subsidy to the King's men (App. B) suggests that they were still unable to perform in public on that date.
1605. Creighton, i. 493, says there was 'not much' plague; but a letter of 12 Oct. (Winwood, ii. 140) notes a 'sudden rising of the sickness to thirty a week', followed by some abatement, and there was a restraint of plays for infection on 5 Oct. which was removed on 15 Dec.
1606. This was a year of plague. The deaths reached 33 on 10 July and 50 on 17 July, rose to a maximum of 141 on 2 Oct., and remained, but for one or two weeks, above 40 to 4 Dec. and above 30 to the end of the year. The total, for 121 parishes, was 2,124. Michaelmas term was adjourned on 23 Sept. (Procl. 1038) and access to court restrained on 1 Nov. (Procl. 1039). There is no record of a specific order for the restraint of plays; possibly it was automatic as a result of the play-bill.
1607. During the first half of the year the plague deaths were under 30, except for 38 on 1 Jan., 33 on 5 Feb., 30 on 12 March, 33 on 19 March, and 43 on 30 April. They increased in the autumn, passing 30 on 9 July and 40 on 23 July, to a maximum of 177 on 24 Sept. After 19 Nov. they fell below 30. The total for the year was 2,352. As early as 12 April the City, unjustified as yet by the plague bill, asked for a restraint of plays. Access to court was restrained on 2 Nov. (Procl. 1050).
