DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE FAME..

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7752, 22 July 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE FAME..

, On April 20, 1731, Daniel Defoe, Journalist and nove'ist, died from lethargy in Ropemakers’ Alley, Moorlields London, he having heon born in the pal i'Si o , ' Cripplegate,-in 1860 or 1661; ho was interred in the neighbouring Bunh.ll Fields Burial Ground Finsbury. He thus lived from the Restoration of Charles the Second through Jive neigna and on into that of George the Second. During that time he wrote 250 published works. One of these which was produced in 1702, just lifter the accession of Queen Anne, was entitled “The Shortest Way with the Dissenters,” of whom he was one by birth; the House of Commons ordered this book to ho burned, and for the authorslup of it he was tried at the Old Bailey in 1703, and placed in the pillory on July 29, 30, and 31 that had bis head put through a hole, and ins hands through two others, and was thus unable to defend himself if pelted by alarms and conspiracies than it had and putrid flesh, which was often done ; but the people formed a guard to doleud Defoe on this occasion, covered the pillory with flowers, and drank his health. Ho was ordered to pay a fine ol 200 marks, each of which was equal fo 13s. 4d; to he imprisoned as long as Queen Aun.o pleased; and was re juired to find securities lor good Ikohaviour during seven years. All this he suffered for a satirical pamphlet against what was ea-Ped occasional conformity, wlicli required a Lord Mayor of London, though a Nonconformist, to attend Churlic of England worship on some occasions. Very few people know that such a publication existed, conij)arcd with the millions who have read n s “ Robinson Crusoe,” of which one of Jho host free libraries contains five copies, while it has not one »f the condemned work. 'Hie subject of “Robinson Cruesoo” was suggested by Alexander Selkirk, - a- Scotchman, having lived alone for nearly five years on Juan Fernandez, an uninhabited island off the Pacific coast of Chili, in South America, and left there at his own request in 1705, when he had quarrelled with - his master, the Captain of the (•hip. Such wa.s the lasting fame which Dafoe thus obtained that in A.D. 1877 Owen Victoria granted a pension to three old ladies of that name who had directly descended from him.