Friday 12 June 1663

Up and my office, there conning my measuring Ruler, which I shall grow a master of in a very little time. At noon to the Exchange and so home to dinner, and abroad with my wife by water to the Royall Theatre; and there saw “The Committee,” a merry but indifferent play, only Lacey’s part, an Irish footman, is beyond imagination. Here I saw my Lord Falconbridge, and his Lady, my Lady Mary Cromwell, who looks as well as I have known her, and well clad; but when the House began to fill she put on her vizard, and so kept it on all the play; which of late is become a great fashion among the ladies, which hides their whole face.

So to the Exchange, to buy things with my wife; among others, a vizard for herself. And so by water home and to my office to do a little business, and so to see Sir W. Pen, but being going to bed and not well I could not see him. So home and to supper and bed, being mightily troubled all night and next morning with the palate of my mouth being down from some cold I took to-day sitting sweating in the playhouse, and the wind blowing through the windows upon my head.

23 Annotations

First Reading

Miss Ann  •  Link

Our boy sure does like to keep up with the current fashions! I wonder if "vizards" will make a return - Vivienne Westwood would be the most likely fashionista I suppose.

jeannine  •  Link

Miss Ann
You are too kind-I was thinking he only bought it because it would HIDE her BEAUTIFUL face from other men! Sam may like the latest trends (usually for himself when parting with money is concerned) so although this seems like a nice present for Elizabeth, there's something in it for Sam too.

Tom Burns  •  Link

"... being mightily troubled all night and next morning with the palate of my mouth being down from some cold I took to-day sitting sweating in the playhouse, and the wind blowing through the windows upon my head."

Ah ha! See what happens to oathbreakers! And it will be much harder to keep that oath in the future, for where else but the playhouse will she wear her new vizard! (Hmmm. I could speculate on that last, but I will defer to our readers' sensibilities...)

Stolzi  •  Link

"the palate of my mouth being down..."

Certainly a novel diagnosis. Perhaps it refers to that stuffy feeling in the back of the throat which one gets from the cold and the grippe and the postnasal drip, yeccch.

Yes, I was wondering about the oath, too. Perhaps Samuel saw that it was time to do =something= to make Bess happy before banishing her to the country. Where she'll hardly have any opportunity to wear the vizard.

jeannine  •  Link

"Vizard masks
This refers to the Restoration fashion of wearing a face mask which covered the entire face, the vizard mask soon became associated with prostitution and a 'vizard mask' became a synonym for a 'Daughter of Venus'(prostitute). The vizard-masks were in abundance at the playhouses and plied their trade at each level of the auditorium. Originally they were worn by ladies not wishing to risk an insult to their modesty when attending a new comedy, indeed they become very popular in the reign of Charles II. Pepys talks of going to buy his wife a vizard. Later the wearing of full facial masks was abolished, because of the connection with prostitutes. The comic potential of such confusion is at once apparent and was used by numerous playwrights. William Wycherley uses masks to great effect in his famous play The Country Wife:

Pinchwife: Pshaw, a mask makes people but more inquisitive, and is ridiculous a disguise as a stage-beard...
No, I'll not use her to a mask, 'tis dangerous; for masks have made more cuckolds
than the best faces that ever were known.11
(Act iii, scene i.)"

From the interesting website
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_…

John M  •  Link

I wonder how difficult it was to be the daughter of the Lord Protector in Restoration London.

Was Cromwell's head still on public display at this time? Mary Cromwell would have been on the receiving end of a lot of curious glances (at the very least). Maybe this is why "when the house began to fill up she put on her Vizard".

in Aqua scripto  •  Link

vizard; to hide behind or from, a protection from a misglance or to keep thy inner thoughts from being too obvious, today we use the smile to keep a poker face. Sam wants a Visard to prevent king of flat feet from knowing Eliza's response to the glance over the common prayer book, also better start covering Elizabeth's famous golden locks, other wise the visage be known.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"being down from some cold I took to-day sitting sweating in the playhouse,and the wind blowing through the windows upon my head"
Hot-Cold, Ying-Yang theory of disease; my mother still believes in it, no matter how I try to explain that virus cause cold.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

“being down from some cold I took to-day sitting sweating in the playhouse,and the wind blowing through the windows upon my head”

But Sam is potentially correct to the extent that lowering immune resistance via cold will offer a clearer path for the bugs awaiting their chance.

in Aqua scripto  •  Link

Which bugs? those in well or those in the Gods?

TerryF  •  Link

IF SP had a "cold," what was he doing 2-3 days ago?

He could have been circulating socially/ putting his immune system at risk at that time (iIt takes a little time for the bugs/germs to gestate) -- We know he is always out and about; but might his immune system also have been just a little stressed by his final (non-)confrontation with Pembleton, or the confrontation of Ashwell, et al., in the wine cellar?

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Pshaw, a mask makes people but more inquisitive, and is ridiculous a disguise as a stage-beard…
No, I’ll not use her to a mask, ‘tis dangerous; for masks have made more cuckolds
than the best faces that ever were known

Jeannine, a most appropriate quote & makes me wonder about Sam buying a vizard for his wife (or her wanting one) since the mystery come-on is so obvious. As to burkas, I guess it depends on the imagination. Vizards on showily dressed women display the goods with a beeak-a-boo wink. Burkas cover all.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Bugs? Generally bacteria, but it can stand for viruses as well.

***

The vizard, tis the fashion.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"So how does the Master and Commander of all things metrical be doing?" Batten hisses to Minnes as they watch Pepys happily hard at his new ultra Ruler.

"Metrical...?" Minnes stares.

Had no idea little Pepys was poetical.

***

Pauline  •  Link

'Elizabeth’s famous golden locks'
This has taken me by surprise, in Aqua. Is Elizabeth a blonde?

in Aqua scripto  •  Link

Sam never calls her black? the name for a brunette, and at this time angles/normans coloring dominated the scene.
So an ill conceived assumtion [not proven or non liquet] Her paintings be of a dark hue.

Wim van der Meij  •  Link

It may well be that in these days the ladies' (sometimes quite big) sunglasses serve the same purpose as the masks of Sam's time.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"saw “The Committee,” a merry but indifferent play, only Lacey’s part, an Irish footman, is beyond imagination."

Lacy, who specialised in dialect roles, played Teague in this play, Sir Robert Howard's most popular comedy, now at the TR, Drury Lane. Teague was a more convincing character than any previous stage Irishman partly because Howard had modeled him on his own Irish servant. The Committee was first acted in 1662 and published in Four new plays (1665). (Per L&M footnote)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

In the House of Commons today -- an Irony

Howard's Estate.
Ordered, That the Committee to which the Bill to confirm a Sale of Land, made by Sir Robert Howard, is committed, be revived; and do meet this Afternoon at Two of the Clock, in the Place formerly appointed. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

In Lords today, a hearing of the case between the Earls Bridgwater [sic] and Middlesex for agreeing to duel http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

The Lord Chamberlain acquainted the House, "That, during the Time of the late Adjournment of the Parliament, there was a Falling-out between Two Peers of this House, upon which ensued a Challenge. The Occasion was, upon a Letter sent from the Earl of Bridgwater to Sir Chichester Wraye; upon which the Earl of Middlesex sent a Challenge in Writing to the Earl of Bridgwater."

The great length to which the House of Lords go to broker a settlement is described, "And the Commissioners [for the Office of Earl Marshal] presenting their Opinions therein to the King, and His Majesty approving thereof, sent for the Earl of Bridgwater and the Earl of Midd. and caused the same to be read to them; to which the Earl of Bridgwater submitted; but the Earl of Midd. did not, but demeaned himself so, as he gave His Majesty great Offence thereby. Whereupon the King hath referred the Consideration of the whole Business to this House, to the End it may receive their Lordships Resentment, and such Course may be taken as may preserve the public Peace of the Kingdom; and that His Majesty may have Right done Him."

And the Lords determine that the E. of Middlesex be committed to The Tower and the Earl of Bridgwater committed to the Usher of the Black Rod [who puts him in house arrest].

This dispute will be resolved on 27 June: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

StanB  •  Link

When they use to ride abroad, they have visors made of velvet... wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they look so that if a man that knew not their guise before, should chance to meet one of them he would think he met a monster or a devil: for face he can see none, but two broad holes against her eyes, with glasses in them.

— Phillip Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses (1583)

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘vizard, n. and adj. < visor n. by confusion of ending < Latin. Now arch.
1. a. A mask; = visor n. 2. Very common from c1560 to c1700.
. . 1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. iii. 50 Some wild young men.., lay in wait for him, attired like furies, with vizards and torches.

. . c. A mask as used to protect the face or eyes.
. . 1669 S. Pepys Diary 25 June I to my office,..to write down my journal..and did it, with the help of my vizard, and tube fixed to it, and do find it mighty manageable, but how helpful to my eyes this trial will show me

. . 5. A person wearing a visor or mask; spec. a woman of loose character wearing a mask in public, a prostitute. Obs. (Cf. vizard-mask n. 2.)
. . 1660 Exact Accompt Trial Regicides 164 Afterwards I saw the Vizards going into a Chamber there . . ‘

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