Wednesday 15 November 1665

Up and all the morning at the office, busy, and at noon to the King’s Head taverne, where all the Trinity House dined to-day, to choose a new Master in the room of Hurlestone, that is dead, and Captain Crispe is chosen. But, Lord! to see how Sir W. Batten governs all and tramples upon Hurlestone, but I am confident the Company will grow the worse for that man’s death, for now Batten, and in him a lazy, corrupt, doating rogue, will have all the sway there.

After dinner who comes in but my Lady Batten, and a troop of a dozen women almost, and expected, as I found afterward, to be made mighty much of, but nobody minded them; but the best jest was, that when they saw themselves not regarded, they would go away, and it was horrible foule weather; and my Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes, she dropped one of her galoshes in the dirt, where it stuck, and she forced to go home without one, at which she was horribly vexed, and I led her; and after vexing her a little more in mirth, I parted, and to Glanville’s, where I knew Sir John Robinson, Sir G. Smith, and Captain Cocke were gone, and there, with the company of Mrs. Penington, whose father, I hear, was one of the Court of justice, and died prisoner, of the stone, in the Tower, I made them, against their resolutions, to stay from houre to houre till it was almost midnight, and a furious, darke and rainy, and windy, stormy night, and, which was best, I, with drinking small beer, made them all drunk drinking wine, at which Sir John Robinson made great sport. But, they being gone, the lady and I very civilly sat an houre by the fireside observing the folly of this Robinson, that makes it his worke to praise himself, and all he say and do, like a heavy-headed coxcombe.

The plague, blessed be God! is decreased 400; making the whole this week but 1300 and odd; for which the Lord be praised!

20 Annotations

First Reading

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Interesting that, after the bosom-holding behavior the other evening, Sam and Mrs. Penington simply "civilly sat and houre by the fireside" and nothing more ... maybe it's because she's only "indifferent handsome"? Or is it because Sam doesn't feel like he has the upper hand (since many of his affairs are as much about power and control as they are about sex)? Or...

jeannine  •  Link

"But, Lord! to see how Sir W. Batten governs all and tramples upon Hurlestone, but I am confident the Company will grow the worse for that man’s death, for now Batten, and in him a lazy, corrupt, doating rogue, will have all the sway there. After dinner who comes in but my Lady Batten, and a troop of a dozen women almost, and expected, as I found afterward, to be made mighty much of, but nobody minded them; but the best jest was, that when they saw themselves not regarded, they would go away, and it was horrible foule weather; and my Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes, she dropped one of her galoshes in the dirt"....

Two thoughts as I read this.

#1 --remember the saying 'if you don't have something nice to say about someone then don’t say it'? I can only imagine how short (and boring) the Diary would be if Sam had heeded that advice!!

#2 --perhaps for the OED crowd. I was intrigued by the expression 'spicke and span' and wondered where that expression came from so I went to my daughters “Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms” and here is what it said “There are 2 possible explanations about the origin of this famous phrase. One comes from the Old Norse language. “Spick’ meant trim or neat. “Spanny” was a word that meant absolutely new. In the 1500s the two words might have been put together to mean “new and neat”. Another theory comes from the days of the great sailing ships. “Spick’ was a spike or nail. “Span” was a wood chip. A “spick and span new’ ship (the original wording) was one on which every spike and chip was brand-new. By the 19th century this idiom was popular in the United States. Its popularity was helped by its alliteration (SPick-and-SPan).”

cgs  •  Link

1665 PEPYS Diary 15 Nov., My Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes.

Sam gets the prize for writing it

cgs  •  Link

spick [sample]

n.1
Fat meat or bacon; fat, grease, lard. c832
n2 Lavender.
1558
....1656 RIDGLEY Pract. Physick 85 Take..Spick, six grains, with Honey of Roses.
spick,
n.3
A spike-nail.
1611 FLORIO, Chiodo, a naile, a spicke. 1628 in Foster Eng. Factories India (1909) III. 251 Spicks and nailes of all sorts.

[Var. of dial. speak: see E.D.D.]

A withy or rod, usu. pointed and doubled, used to secure thatch; a spar (SPAR n.4).
1890


spick, a.

Short for SPICK AND SPAN a.
1882 GOSSE Gray vi. 127 His servant..had to keep the room as bright and spick as an old lady's bandbox.

1920 D. H. LAWRENCE Lost Girl vi. 99 He liked to have his clothes neat and spick.
spick, v.
[f. SPICK n.3]

span: a width of hand arch bridge...
Span[OE. span(n, spon(n, = WFris. span, EFris. sponne, MDu. (and Du.) spanne, MLG. spen(ne, OHG. spanna (MHG. and G. spanne, spann), ON. spann-, sp{ohook}nn (Icel. spönn, Norw. dial. spann, sponn; Sw. spann, Da. spand), app. related to spannan SPAN v.2
The Germanic word is the source of med.L. spannus and spanna (spanga, spana), It. spanna, OF. espanne, espane, and espan (mod.F. empan). In OE. the word is very scantily recorded, and its currency after 1300 may be partly due to OF. influence. The form spayn, which also occurs in the vb., is abnormal, unless it represents an OF. espain which occurs as a variant of espan.]
1..hand width
[ad. Flem., Du., or LG. (also MDu. and MLG.) spannen, = OHG. spannan (G. spannen), OFris. spanna, sponna, OE. spannan to fix or fasten, to join, to draw tight, etc. Cf. also It. spannare, from Germanic.]

v2
1. a. trans. To harness or yoke (oxen, horses, etc.); to attach to a vehicle.
1550

. dial. To fetter or shackle (a horse).
c. transf. To enclose or confine.

2. a. To stretch, extend, make taut or tight; to draw (a bow). Now arch.
The sense appears earlier under SPANNING vbl. n.2
1597

3. a. To wind up the wheel-lock of (a pistol or musket) by means of a spanner. Obs.
1639

span, v.3
[repr. OE. spanan, = OS. and OHG. spanan, MDu. and MLG. spanen, etc. Cf. FORSPAN v.]

trans. To allure, entice, or draw away (a person).
a1250 Owl & Night. 1490 To mysdo one gode manne & his ibedde from him spanne.

spick and span new, a.

[Emphatic extension of SPAN-NEW a. The same first element appears in the synonymous Du. and Flem. spikspeldernieuw, -splinternieuw (WFlem. -spankelnieuw).]

Absolutely or perfectly new; brand-new; perfectly fresh or unworn.
The {beta}-quots. show the more unusual spellings.
{alpha} 1579-80 NORTH Plutarch (1895) II. 217 They were all in goodly gilt armours, and brave purple cassocks apon them, spicke, and spanne newe. spick,
...
1659 FULLER App. Inj. Innoc. II. 31 The Animadvertor will not wear words at the second hand of my using, but will have them spick and span new of his own making.
a1668 DAVENANT Jeffereidos I. Wks. (1673) 225 They found him close, beneath a spick And almost span-new-peuter-Candlestick.

1583 GOLDING Calvin on Deut. clxxxii. 1130/1 They [Papists] make men beleeue that the breade is no more a materiall thing... And that is spycke and spawne newe.

andy  •  Link

and a troop of a dozen women almost,

I wondered what the colective noun was for a dozen women entering a party!

JWB  •  Link

Spic & Span

May I suggest that the phrase is an inversion of "Alpha & Omega" in that "Spick" is German variant for "lard" and "Span" is German for a "sucking pig"; and, both remarkably clean & pure entities in medieval setting- clean through & through, alpha to omega, beginning to end, nascent & rendered.

language hat  •  Link

The phrase has nothing to do with lard or alpha and omega. It is an expansion of the earlier phrase "span-new" (attested from around 1300), which is from Old Norse spán-nýr (spán-n 'chip' + ný-r 'new'). You can read about it here:
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.…

JLR  •  Link

Sam writes:

" The plague, blessed be God! is decreased 400; making the whole this week but 1300 and odd; for which the Lord be praised!"

An omnipotent being worth his salt would have gotten rid of the plague ages ago. His incompetence in the manner makes him hardly worth praising. Never really considered the painful death of '1300 and odd' cause for praising the almighty.

It appears that Sam has a very child-like theology.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

So Crispe is rather too brittle to stand up to Batten?...Just a thin veneer, an outer crust, for Sir Will's machinations?

But, Sam's "...tramples upon Hurlestone..."...He must have howled, writing and rereading this entry. Sometimes God is so much fun, dropping such things in our path...

Pedro  •  Link

Spick and Span New

Quite and entirely new. A spic is a spike or nail, and a span is a chip. So that a spick and span new ship is one in which every nail and chip is new. Halliwell mentions “span new.” According to Dr. Johnson, the phrase was first applied to cloth just taken off the spannans or stretchers. (Dutch, spikspelderniew.)

Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the Court of justice"

Sc. Sir Isaac Penington was a member of the tribunal that presided over the trial and death sentence of King Charles I (L&M note he did not sign the warrant for execution).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List…

jeannine  •  Link

Spick & Span

Thanks to all for your input here and thank's LH for the word origin site--it's great!

language hat  •  Link

"It appears that Sam has a very child-like theology."

With respect, Sam's theology is far more sophisticated than you imagine, and if you think 17th-century ideas of religion are so easily dismissed, you should probably not be commenting on them.

Pedro: Brewer's is worse than useless for etymology.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Is "spick and span" related to "brand spanking new" ? Culturally, i tend to think of "spick and span" to refer to cleanliness rather than newness. Is that just me? If I described my house as "spick and span", I would have something more akin to "all shipshape and Bristol fashion", rather than - everything in it is new. I appreciate that Sam's meaning is wholly to do with the newness and nice whiteness of Lady B's shoes. I wonder how near he got to either having a handful of mud thrown at him or Lady B accidentlyonpurpose tripping and pulling him over into the mud. "Oh, Mr Pepys, I am *so* sorry!. Here, let me help you up. Oh, dear, I seem to have pushed you down further..."

Coincidence: I read this entry about the terrible storm Sam suffered , after just watching the news reports of our [Qld] worst storm in 25 years last night.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Sam's basic theology strikes me as very practical...One offers homage and service (vows) and one expects a reasonable return (blessings). Though he claims skepticism at times, I suspect he'd like to believe, especially in a benevolent deity who takes a personal interest in Samuel Pepys (as I think most of us would, whether we believe or not)...And though he would be horrified at the notion, is temperamentally enclined to Catholicism, if only because we put on such a good show...And our boy loves show. If he doesn't spend a huge deal of time lamenting over God's strange indifferences, it's because he's a practical man with a lot to do and a daily existence to get through and delight...And besides,there are already men who do that, so why waste effort and time.

JWB  •  Link

Spic & Span

So a span's a chip associated with new. A Span is a new pig too. And Spick=lard goes so naturally with Span=suckling pig to connote end & beginning. As Cincinnatian (hog-butchers, soap makers) it's fit to soap's a shoe-in.

cgs  •  Link

a1668 DAVENANT Jeffereidos I. Wks. (1673) 225 They found him close, beneath a spick And almost span-new-peuter-Candlestick.

dirk  •  Link

From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

-----

The King to James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral
Written from: Oxford

Date: 15 November [for 14th] 1665

Desires the Lord Admiral to issue directions to the Earl of Sandwich for the despatch of a convoy, from the fleet under his Lordship's command, for certain ships bound for Hamburgh, which are now lying at Harwich. ...

----------

Instructions by James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, to Edward Earl of Sandwich
Written from: Oxford

Date: 15 November 1665

Instructions by James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, to Edward Earl of Sandwich, for the issue of orders to all Commanders of ships in the King's service, for seizure, as occasion may offer, of ships of Dutch or Hamburgh build, sailing colourably under the flags of any of His Majesties Allies. ...

----------

James, Duke of York to Sandwich
Written from: Oxford

Date: 15 November 1665

Document type: Original; subscribed & signed. With seal of arms.

Desires the sending of a convoy for certain merchant ships bound for Hamburgh...

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" The plague, blessed be God! is decreased 400; making the whole this week but 1300 and odd; for which the Lord be praised!"

L&M: Total burials during 7-14 November were 1359, of which 1050 were of plague victims, who had numbered 1414 in the previous week.

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