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De Quincy described his first time taking opium: "Arrived at my lodgings, it may be supposed that I lost not a moment in taking the quantity prescribed. I was necessarily ignorant of the whole art and mystery of opium-taking: and, what I took, I took under every disadvantage. But I took it:—and in an hour, oh! Heavens! what a revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest depths, of the inner spirit! what an apocalypse of the world within me!"

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  • This is from about 1821. Why are you using this text to learn English?
    – James K
    Commented Dec 25, 2022 at 12:07
  • This is a very famous book but the English is two centuries old.
    – Lambie
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 15:37
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    The book may be old, but there is nothing archaic about the phrase "under every disadvantage". Countless similar constructions are common in everyday speech, including "under no illusion", "had every opportunity" etc
    – Astralbee
    Commented Feb 2, 2023 at 15:41

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Being 'under a disadvantage' would most likely be said as 'having a disadvantage' or 'at a disadvantage' in modern English, but it is far from archaic - it is just very formal, which was the default writing style at the time your text was written.

So, "being under every disadvantage" just means that the writer or narrator felt that any disadvantage he could possibly have, he did have.

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