Saturday 22 February 1667/68

Up, and by coach through Ducke Lane, and there did buy Kircher’s Musurgia, cost me 35s., a book I am mighty glad of, expecting to find great satisfaction in it. Thence to Westminster Hall and the lobby, and up and down there all the morning, and to the Lords’ House, and heard the Solicitor-General plead very finely, as he always do; and this was in defence of the East India Company against a man that complains of wrong from them, and thus up and down till noon in expectation of our business coming on in the House of Commons about tickets, but they being busy about my Lord Gerard’s business I did give over the thoughts of ours coming on, and so with my wife, and Mercer, and Deb., who come to the Hall to me, I away to the Beare, in Drury Lane, and there bespoke a dish of meat; and, in the mean time, sat and sung with Mercer; and, by and by, dined with mighty pleasure, and excellent meat, one little dish enough for us all, and good wine, and all for 8s., and thence to the Duke’s playhouse, and there saw “Albumazar,” an old play, this the second time of acting. It is said to have been the ground of B. Jonson’s “Alchymist;” but, saving the ridicuiousnesse of Angell’s part, which is called Trinkilo, I do not see any thing extraordinary in it, but was indeed weary of it before it was done. The King here, and, indeed, all of us, pretty merry at the mimique tricks of Trinkilo. So home, calling in Ducke Lane for the book I bought this morning, and so home, and wrote my letters at the office, and then home to supper and to bed.

21 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Ossory to Ormond
Written from: [London]
Date: 22 February 1668

Intends to prosecute his journey into Ireland, with all speed. Hears that "My Lord of Meath" [apparently, Edward Brabazon, second Earl of Meath] has come to town with many complaints, in order to the presenting of which to the King, he made some endeavour to obtain the countenance of the Duke of Buckingham, who, it is said, caused him to be informed that he, Buckingham, was related to the Duke of Ormond, "and would not contribute" to Ormond's disturbance.

http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…

Carl in Boston  •  Link

excellent meat, one little dish enough for us all, and good wine, and all for 8s
I have heard a shilling was a day's wages, or was in the time of Bertie Wooster. This meal would have cost 8 days' wages, and thought inexpensive.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Carl in Boston, you make a very good point. Moreover, there is the matter of "the King's shilling" in which Pepys is implicated as an Officer of the Navy Office. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King's_shilling

Mary  •  Link

and there did buy Kircher’s Musurgia

Oh dear, Sam has recently spent hours 'titling' all his books, shelving them and indexing them - all nice and neat and orderly - and straight away goes and buys another book! He hasn't mentioned disposing of any of his earlier purchases (except for L'Escholle des Filles, which presumably never made it as far as the book-case) and he's already determined that his book-cases are now full, so where is this one going to go? Cue the carpenter?

djc  •  Link

2s a head for an excellent meal, 35s for a book!

JWB  •  Link

"When John Dryden wrote the Prologue for the 1668 revivial of Albumazar, he got the relationship between the Tomkis and Jonson plays backwards, and accused Jonson of borrowing from Tomkis."[4] Wikipedia

And so did Pepys.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"“Albumazar,” an old play, this the second time of acting. It is said to have been the ground of B. Jonson’s “Alchymist;”"

L&M note this mistaken assumption derived from Dryden's preface for the 1668 revival of “Albumazar,” first performed five years after the 1610 premier of the “Alchymist”: Dryden got it backwards.

cgs  •  Link

maids wage 3quid per annum or 3 bob Per day, twose what Samuel paid a maid for 24/7 for tossing the poe out and for delousing.

mick d  •  Link

There could be misunderstanding of quids and bobs here on either side, but I take 3 quid to be 60 shillings (or bobs) So surely just over one bob per week, not 3 bob per day?

cum salis grano  •  Link

Quid [slang] is 20 bob [slang] shillings or one old pound.

A good source for costs for !660 and a good read too, is the well informed Liza Picard "Restoration London"
Samuel paid his first maid 2L and all that you could eat.

GrahamT  •  Link

A little off-topic linguistic pedantry here: "bob" is used for singular and plural, "bobs" is never heard, so; a bob (a shilling) , two-bob (two shillings = one florin), five-bob (five shillings = one crown)
e.g.
Scouts' fund raising - Bob-a-Job,
Ten-bob note - old currency note worth half a sov/quid/pound, replaced by the 50 pence piece at decimalisation.
Quid is a pound = 20 bob = 240 old pence = 100 new pence. Easy.

pepfie  •  Link

Further pedantry to revisit mick d's arithmetical point:

(3 quid p.a. = ~2 d p.d.) ≠ (3 bob p.d. = 54 quid 15 bob p.a.)

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to the Lords’ House, and heard the Solicitor-General plead very finely, as he always do; and this was in defence of the East India Company against a man that complains of wrong from them,"

L&M: For the case (Thomas Skinner vs. E. India Company) see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
It was the occasion of a long dispute between the Commons and the Lords, and became a leading case in the master of original jurisdiction of the Lords in civil cases. The Solicitor-General was Sir Heneage Finch. The proceedings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the ridicuiousnesse of Angell’s part, which is called Trinkilo"

L&M: Trincalo, a blustering farmer, is the chief comic role in Albumazar. and was played by Edward Angel, one of the original members of the Duke of York's Company.

Harry R  •  Link

"and there did buy Kircher’s Musurgia, cost me 35s.,"

During the month Sam has been organising his books to his great satisfaction, being "fain to lay by several books to make room for better" (2nd Feb) and now he's bought this door stopper. Reading on in the diary the last mention of the book is on 4th March, when he brings home the bound copy. It's beautifully illustrated but appears to be in Latin, and is 745 pages long. Perhaps he never read it.

I picked up this link from a 13/03/2011 annotation by Michael Robinson

http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/E…
.

Scube  •  Link

Harry R - thanks for that. I wondered whether it was in Latin or perhaps German. As for the relative prices of a good meal with wine and a book, those have certainly changed.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Musurgia: Ah, for the times when the devil was in the tritone and equal temperament hadn't compromised our ear with immoral sounds!

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"It's beautifully illustrated but appears to be in Latin, and is 745 pages long. Perhaps he never read it."

Oh yes, Pepys could read it. See what an Oxford or Cambridge University education entailed:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Which accounts for the many young men who attended but did not graduate.

Harry R  •  Link

"Ah, for the times when the devil was in the tritone..."

Kircher was a Jesuit scholar. I can imagine that there will be a chapter or two on the morality of certain musical forms. Wandering off the subject a little I found this article, with some interesting comments attached.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazi…

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