Australian Susan: "I actually envy Beth being able to snuggle up in bed and stay cosy warm with a good book: the equivalent here is being able to lie about in the air-con whilst others get sweaty and smelly."
I don't think lying in bed when you're sick or in pain is any kind of pleasure. It's nothing like playing hooky. In fact, I've found it dreadful. I doubt Beth is taking a nice day off. She's most likely in a great deal of pain and would give anything to be able to be up and doing something instead of being bedbound. Even the agricultural workers who stayed in bed to save on heat couldn't have been having a pleasant time of it.
My Dad, my brother, my husband, my sons, just about all the men I've known, have dressed themselves since the were old enough to do it for their whole lives. What did Sam need a boy to do to help him dress? Just run and fetch or was there more to it?
Carbon monoxide can be produced by anything burning, including wood and ordinary coal. A stopped up fireplace or stove flue can create dangerous levels of CO. It's horrifying to think of the lethal conditions that people didn't understand in Pepys' time, and, in fact, for many years after.
In those days people with toothache--and it must have been common--just had to grin and bear it. It must have been excruciating. They had opiates, though.
The toothbrush as we know it today was not invented until 1938. However, early forms of the toothbrush have been in existence since 3000 BC. Ancient civilizations used a "chew stick," which was a thin twig with a frayed end. These 'chew sticks' were rubbed against the teeth. The bristle toothbrush, similar to the type used today, was not invented until 1498 in China. The bristles were actually the stiff, coarse hairs taken from the back of a hog's neck and attached to handles made of bone or bamboo.
* The first mass-produced toothbrush was made by William Addis of Clerkenwald, England, around 1780.
* Mass production of toothbrushes began in America around 1885.
Al Doman. That attitude is what kept women subjugated for millennia. It was only when women came out of the shadows that they began to be shown the least bit of respect. It took 300 years after Pepys' time for women to find the courage to speak up for themselves and it took another fifty years or so for them to get any traction. Slavery was more easily overturned than the subjection of women, which is rampant in the world to this day. It's very telling that in the US male former slaves got the vote long before free white women or former female slaves did.
I suppose Sam never thought of getting something a little less grand than his "best black cloth suit, trimmed with scarlett ribbon . . . with my cloake lined with velvett, and a new beaver . . . with my black silk knit canons I bought a month ago," so he could afford something nice for his wife. "Self-centered fop" springs to mind. Elizabeth should have insisted on going to church with him, wearing a plain, patched homespun dress and a cheap unfashionable hat and shawl to show him up! She could have borrowed them from her maydes if she didn't have anything plain enough.
Bradford is right, Elizabeth probably did as much as the maydes did and she was responsible to get it done right. She also might have been complaining that Sam is seldom home and that she is stuck in the house all day. She's a "poor wife" indeed. I suppose Sam thought he was doing her a great favor by coming home to dinner once in a while.
". . . and I home to a speedy, though too good a dinner to eat alone, viz., a good goose and a rare piece of roast beef."
I wonder if he meant that it was rare to have a "piece roast beef" or that the beef was cooked rare? I'm guessing that they cooked beef to death in those days as I hear they did in England well into the 20th century. Unfortunately for Sam, et al, it was too early for Yorkshire Pudding, which wasn't invented until the 1740s, so Sam missed one of those perfect food combinations.
Rye bread: it was probably very dense and likely hard in those days. It would have been made with 100% rye flour, which would not rise very much. It could have been something like German Black Bread--certainly an acquired taste. Peasants probably ate it. Very unlikely to be anything like Rye-Krisp.
"I hear to-day that my boy Waynman has behaved himself so with Mr. Davis that they have got him put into a Barbadoes ship to be sent away, and though he sends to me to get a release for him I will not out of love to the boy . . ."
One can only wonder if Sam ever regretted ignoring Waynman's desperate pleas for help. What a horrible life and a death sentence for a poor boy, probably no more than 15 years old. As they say, with friends (or would-be protectors) like that, who needs enemies?
Robert Harneis, I think you are right, people of what we would deem "normal" intelligence who live in a society where calculations are done will be able to calculate at a basic level without having been formally taught. The itinerant farmers you mention surely had their own method of calculating and most likely they taught each other and passed down their knowledge to the next generation. They might not have known the standard words for numbers, but they apparently could calculate their own way--and do it correctly.
Pepys is to be commended for teaching his wife basic arithmetic, but you can be sure he wouldn't teach her higher mathematics or any academic subjects, such subjects being for men only. He would teach her what he deemed to be useful to her (or to himself) by his own reckoning and nothing more. I doubt he ever thught to criticize the system that denied women formal education.
Illiterate and innumerate women throughout history successfully ran households, helped on farms and other businesses and raised children. In the 17th Cntury, the majority of men were completely unschooled too. Only the upper and upper middle classes had access to formal education.
Is it possible that Pepys' "gown" was a dressing gown?
Thanks, Sarah. I didn't realize he was writing in shorthand. That might explain it, but as GrannieAnnie says he could have used an initial as so many diarists did. I now wonder if a translators was responsible for turning names or other references to Elizabeth into "my wife."
Pepys refers to his wife as "my wife" six times in this short entry. He seldom refers to her by her name. That seems odd to me. He is writing a diary presumably for his own use. Does he think he might forget their relationship? Maybe it was a convention then, but I can't imagine referring to my husband as "my husband" when writing in a private diary . I wouldn't even refer to him as "my husband" to close friends or family members who I know know him as "my husband."
Would anyone here refer to his or her spouse that way in private writings or within the family or with close acquamtences? How we tend to refer to people, depending on our relationship, is very interesting. For instance, when I speak to my brother about his wife or children I don't say, "your wife" or "your son" or "your daughter", I refer to them by their names.
I remember, years ago, seeing the phrase "I doubt" used in some old English novels--perhaps George Elliott's--to mean something like "I think" or "I know", instead of the modern definition of uncertainty. I assumed at the time that it was part of the dialect spoken by the characters. But I have been unable to find this usage noted in any dictionary. Since Pepys is using it in the same way, I wonder if the the word originally had a positive connotation in the English language of his day--which continued at least into the 19th century, but has gradually changed over the centuries.
Comments
Second Reading
About Sunday 6 December 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Thanks, Sarah.
About Monday 7 December 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Australian Susan: "I actually envy Beth being able to snuggle up in bed and stay cosy warm with a good book: the equivalent here is being able to lie about in the air-con whilst others get sweaty and smelly."
I don't think lying in bed when you're sick or in pain is any kind of pleasure. It's nothing like playing hooky. In fact, I've found it dreadful. I doubt Beth is taking a nice day off. She's most likely in a great deal of pain and would give anything to be able to be up and doing something instead of being bedbound. Even the agricultural workers who stayed in bed to save on heat couldn't have been having a pleasant time of it.
About Sunday 6 December 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
My Dad, my brother, my husband, my sons, just about all the men I've known, have dressed themselves since the were old enough to do it for their whole lives. What did Sam need a boy to do to help him dress? Just run and fetch or was there more to it?
About Saturday 5 December 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Carbon monoxide can be produced by anything burning, including wood and ordinary coal. A stopped up fireplace or stove flue can create dangerous levels of CO. It's horrifying to think of the lethal conditions that people didn't understand in Pepys' time, and, in fact, for many years after.
About Wednesday 2 December 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
In those days people with toothache--and it must have been common--just had to grin and bear it. It must have been excruciating. They had opiates, though.
The toothbrush as we know it today was not invented until 1938. However, early forms of the toothbrush have been in existence since 3000 BC. Ancient civilizations used a "chew stick," which was a thin twig with a frayed end. These 'chew sticks' were rubbed against the teeth.
The bristle toothbrush, similar to the type used today, was not invented until 1498 in China. The bristles were actually the stiff, coarse hairs taken from the back of a hog's neck and attached to handles made of bone or bamboo.
* The first mass-produced toothbrush was made by William Addis of Clerkenwald, England, around 1780.
* Mass production of toothbrushes began in America around 1885.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/my…
About Sunday 29 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Al Doman. That attitude is what kept women subjugated for millennia. It was only when women came out of the shadows that they began to be shown the least bit of respect. It took 300 years after Pepys' time for women to find the courage to speak up for themselves and it took another fifty years or so for them to get any traction. Slavery was more easily overturned than the subjection of women, which is rampant in the world to this day. It's very telling that in the US male former slaves got the vote long before free white women or former female slaves did.
About Sunday 29 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
I suppose Sam never thought of getting something a little less grand than his "best black cloth suit, trimmed with scarlett ribbon . . . with my cloake lined with velvett, and a new beaver . . . with my black silk knit canons I bought a month ago," so he could afford something nice for his wife. "Self-centered fop" springs to mind. Elizabeth should have insisted on going to church with him, wearing a plain, patched homespun dress and a cheap unfashionable hat and shawl to show him up! She could have borrowed them from her maydes if she didn't have anything plain enough.
About Saturday 28 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
No "poor wife" today. She is apparently over the moon with Sam's promise of a trip to Calais.
About Friday 27 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Bradford is right, Elizabeth probably did as much as the maydes did and she was responsible to get it done right. She also might have been complaining that Sam is seldom home and that she is stuck in the house all day. She's a "poor wife" indeed. I suppose Sam thought he was doing her a great favor by coming home to dinner once in a while.
About Monday 23 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
". . . and I home to a speedy, though too good a dinner to eat alone, viz., a good goose and a rare piece of roast beef."
I wonder if he meant that it was rare to have a "piece roast beef" or that the beef was cooked rare? I'm guessing that they cooked beef to death in those days as I hear they did in England well into the 20th century. Unfortunately for Sam, et al, it was too early for Yorkshire Pudding, which wasn't invented until the 1740s, so Sam missed one of those perfect food combinations.
About Tuesday 17 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Rye bread: it was probably very dense and likely hard in those days. It would have been made with 100% rye flour, which would not rise very much. It could have been something like German Black Bread--certainly an acquired taste. Peasants probably ate it. Very unlikely to be anything like Rye-Krisp.
About Saturday 14 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
"I hear to-day that my boy Waynman has behaved himself so with Mr. Davis that they have got him put into a Barbadoes ship to be sent away, and though he sends to me to get a release for him I will not out of love to the boy . . ."
One can only wonder if Sam ever regretted ignoring Waynman's desperate pleas for help. What a horrible life and a death sentence for a poor boy, probably no more than 15 years old. As they say, with friends (or would-be protectors) like that, who needs enemies?
About Thursday 12 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
". . . he being come to advise her about her hollow sore place."
Could be an ovarian cyst. Quite common, in women of child-bearing age, which produces pain low in the abdomen. Usually benign.
About Tuesday 10 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
SPOILER ALERT--SPOILER ALERT--SPOILER ALERT--SPOILER ALERT
The Queen, whose health Pepys is so concerned with, managed to outlive him.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/C…
About Sunday 1 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Robert Harneis, I think you are right, people of what we would deem "normal" intelligence who live in a society where calculations are done will be able to calculate at a basic level without having been formally taught. The itinerant farmers you mention surely had their own method of calculating and most likely they taught each other and passed down their knowledge to the next generation. They might not have known the standard words for numbers, but they apparently could calculate their own way--and do it correctly.
About Sunday 1 November 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Pepys is to be commended for teaching his wife basic arithmetic, but you can be sure he wouldn't teach her higher mathematics or any academic subjects, such subjects being for men only. He would teach her what he deemed to be useful to her (or to himself) by his own reckoning and nothing more. I doubt he ever thught to criticize the system that denied women formal education.
Illiterate and innumerate women throughout history successfully ran households, helped on farms and other businesses and raised children. In the 17th Cntury, the majority of men were completely unschooled too. Only the upper and upper middle classes had access to formal education.
Is it possible that Pepys' "gown" was a dressing gown?
About Friday 30 October 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Thanks, Sarah. I didn't realize he was writing in shorthand. That might explain it, but as GrannieAnnie says he could have used an initial as so many diarists did. I now wonder if a translators was responsible for turning names or other references to Elizabeth into "my wife."
About Friday 30 October 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Pepys refers to his wife as "my wife" six times in this short entry. He seldom refers to her by her name. That seems odd to me. He is writing a diary presumably for his own use. Does he think he might forget their relationship? Maybe it was a convention then, but I can't imagine referring to my husband as "my husband" when writing in a private diary . I wouldn't even refer to him as "my husband" to close friends or family members who I know know him as "my husband."
Would anyone here refer to his or her spouse that way in private writings or within the family or with close acquamtences? How we tend to refer to people, depending on our relationship, is very interesting. For instance, when I speak to my brother about his wife or children I don't say, "your wife" or "your son" or "your daughter", I refer to them by their names.
About Thursday 29 October 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
I remember, years ago, seeing the phrase "I doubt" used in some old English novels--perhaps George Elliott's--to mean something like "I think" or "I know", instead of the modern definition of uncertainty. I assumed at the time that it was part of the dialect spoken by the characters. But I have been unable to find this usage noted in any dictionary. Since Pepys is using it in the same way, I wonder if the the word originally had a positive connotation in the English language of his day--which continued at least into the 19th century, but has gradually changed over the centuries.
About Wednesday 28 October 1663
Louise Hudson • Link
Clothes press
closet, press, wardrobe
a tall piece of furniture that provides storage space for clothes; has a door and rails or hooks for hanging clothes.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictio…
It has nothing to do with ironing or steaming. It's just a wardrobe, a piece of furniture for storing clothes, hanging or folded.
Photos at the website.