According to Claire Tomalin's biography of SP, in 1652 the mother of Elizabeth St. Michel (Sam's wife) "was alone in Paris with her two children. She was persuaded to hand them over to Catholic friends, who placed Elizabeth in an Ursuline convent and Balthasar [her brother] as page to the papal nuncio." Later, when Pepys was suspected of being Catholic, Balthasar wrote a statement "with the specific intention of proving that his sister was a staunch Protestant.whereas It is clear from Pepys's own account that the Catholic faith never lost its hold on her: when, for instance, he bought a mass book for himself in 1660 and sat up late reading it, it 'gave great pleasure to my wife to hear that that she long ago was so well acquainted with.'" Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, p. 57.
There was no standard punctuation in those days, and I believe the "ill dressed" refers to the house, not the fish. So the punctuation is fine, even by the standards of a copy editor of today!
My friend and fellow author of historical fiction J.D. (David) Davies has a lovely post on his blog today about visiting Sam's country house for the first time: http://gentlemenandtarpaulins.com…
The buttock of a hog, oh dear. This discussion reminds me that when my father and I were in Barcelona in 2003, we went to a nice restaurant near the cathedral, which had a set-price tourist menu posted in the window. The main dish was described in English as "hog."
Gallantry in Sam's period meant anything from flirting to outright sex. OED: "courtliness and devotion to the female sex, polite or courteous bearing or attention to ladies" or "amorous intercourse or intrigue."
Which sounds as though Charles's notoriously debauched court was getting off to a rolling start. It was rumored that he spent his first night back in London (May 29, 1660, his birthday) in the arms of his mistress Barbara Villiers (later Lady Castlemaine, the Duchess of Cleveland), and she did bear a child nine months later.
James, the Duke of York, later James II, was accompanied back to England by Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's advisor, Edward Hyde, who he had already secretly married.
I wrote an article of about 5000 words on "1660: The Year of the Restoration of Theatre" that I won't post here because I may try to publish it as a Kindle Single, so I can't have posted in it its entirety anywhere. If anyone is really interested, I'll be happy to send it to you.
By February or March, three acting companies were performing, but not with official permission, and not with women. In May actors were charged with putting on plays illegally. In July, Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant were authorized to form the King's Company and Duke's Company respectively, and to build theatres. (Their duopoly lasted for thirty years.)
On November 5, 1660 (Bonfire Night), the King's Company presented its first authorized performance, Beaumont & Fletcher's "Wit Without Money," at the Red Bull. The next day they did James Shirley's "The Traitor," and the day after that "The Beggar's Bush" by John Fletcher.
On Thursday, November 7, the King’s Company opened its new home in Vere Street, just off the southwest corner of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which had previously been Gibbons's Tennis Court, presenting Shakespeare’s "Henry IV, Part One." Literally overnight, the players had left behind Elizabethan performance conditions and moved into a new era in English theatre.
Women were not permitted to appear in public theatres (they did appear in court masques) until Charles authorized it soon after his Restoration. On December 8, an actress with the King’s Company, likely Anne Marshall, played Desdemona in Othello. It was the first time that a woman had appeared on an English stage, and the occasion was marked by a special prologue.
I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that Sam will be at the King's House in a few months and attend the theatre frequently a lot in subsequent years and will have a lot to say about it! Nell Gwynn was one of the earliest actresses, and her career is prominent in my novel "The Darling Strumpet." Sam was a friend of hers and is a character in the book, which was just yesterday reissued in mass market paperback.
In the run-up to the release of my novel "The Darling Strumpet" in 2011 (based on the life of Nell Gwynn), I wrote a series of articles on the events in London of the months of 1660, beginning with May: http://hoydensandfirebrands.blogs…
My second book, "The September Queen" (U.K. title "The King's Mistress" is the first fictional account of the story of Jane Lane, who helped Charles escape after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. This is the story that Charles told Pepys aboard the newly-christened Royal Charles, as recorded in today’s entry.
History is indebted to Sam, who invested a great deal of time and care to ensure that the story of Charles’s escape after the Battle of Worcester was preserved for posterity. In September 1680, Sam spent two three-hour sessions with Charles at Newmarket, using his famous shorthand to take down Charles’s account of his odyssey, which Sam later edited with his characteristic skill and flair. He also collected all the other contemporary accounts of others who helped Charles during his six weeks on the run, giving us an enthralling -- and sometimes almost minute-by-minute --account of what Charles did, said, wore, and ate as he desperately tried to get safely out of England, where Cromwell's army was hunting for him. It’s a very complete picture of an amazing piece of history from the point of view of the people who participated in it.
When I was researching my book, I followed some of the route of Charles's escape and travels with Jane, and blogged about it. Lots of pictures of Worcester, Boscobel and Moseley Old Hall and their priest holes, and other places along the way. http://theroyalmiracle.blogspot.c…
I also wrote short articles on "The Royal Miracle," as Charles's escape came to be known. Here's the link to the piece on History in an Hour: http://www.historyinanhour.com/20…
If you want to read more about Charles’s escape (it was an enormously formative event for him and he told the story over and over for the rest of his life), I can recommend Charles II’s Escape from Worcester, edited by William Matthews, which presents Pepys’s transcription of Charles’s account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts; The Escape of Charles II After the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard; A. M. Broadley’s 1912 The Royal Miracle: A Collection of Rare Tracts, Broadsides, Letters, Prints, & Ballads Concerning the Wanderings of Charles II After the Battle of Worcester, which also chronicles the delightfully daffy 1911 reenactment of the events; both the 1897 and 1908 editions of The Flight of the King by Allan Fea, as well as his After Worcester Fight; The Boscobel Tracts, a collection of contemporary accounts edited by J. Hughes and published in 1857; The Wanderings of Charles II in Staffordshire and Shropshire by H.P. Kingston; and Jean Gordon Hughes’s A King in the Oak Tree.
Regarding "without book": "On book" and "off book" are still very much in use in theatre. Director to cast: "I want you off book by the end of the second week of rehearsal." "He broke his leg and his understudy wasn't ready and had to go on on book."
To be "on book" also means to follow along in the script during rehearsal, when actors are in the process of getting off book, so they can call for a line ("Line!") and be prompted.
Sorry, Bill - it wasn't "The Maiden Queen" but "Secret Love" in which Nell played Florimel. It was by Dryden - he wrote the part just for her, and the play established her and her lover and mentor Charles Hart as the William Powell and Myrna Loy of the 1660s, playing in a series of "gay couple" comedies (the old kind of gay couple!).
Nell's career on and off stage is a big part of my novel about her, "The Darling Strumpet."
Dick - A delegation from Parliament went to Charles at The Hague, bringing him a portmanteau with 4000L in gold as "earnest" (down payment of) the rest. Can't cite you a source at the moment (maybe even Pepys later?) but it's documented and I wrote that scene in my novel "The September Queen" (UK title "The King's Mistress"), about Jane Lane, who helped Charles escape after the Battle of Worcester.
Hi, friends of Sam, This note doesn’t particularly related to today’s entry, but I hope will be of interest to those following the diary. I recently came across the excellent article by John Phillips on William Bagwell, the shipyard carpenter of Deptford, posted here on July 18, 2012. (Those reading the diary for the first time will have to wait to learn why Bagwell is significant to Sam!) http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…
Using the information from Phillips’s article, I set up a family tree for William Bagwell on Ancestry.com, and also immediately found there christening records for two siblings of William not mentioned in the article. I haven’t added Mrs. Bagwell to the tree yet. http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/55…
This is great, John. Using your information (and listing you as the source), I've just set up a family tree for William Bagwell and family on Ancestry.com. Have actually found baptism records for William (b. 1637) and Margaret (b. 1638) and found another sister Alice, baptized 16 April 1651 and brother Owen, baptized 12 March 1658. No doubt more info will turn up!
Comments
Second Reading
About Sunday 29 July 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
On July 30, Pepys mentions being paid his first quarter's salary, so he did have a formal arrangement.
About Sunday 29 July 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
According to Claire Tomalin's biography of SP, in 1652 the mother of Elizabeth St. Michel (Sam's wife) "was alone in Paris with her two children. She was persuaded to hand them over to Catholic friends, who placed Elizabeth in an Ursuline convent and Balthasar [her brother] as page to the papal nuncio." Later, when Pepys was suspected of being Catholic, Balthasar wrote a statement "with the specific intention of proving that his sister was a staunch Protestant.whereas It is clear from Pepys's own account that the Catholic faith never lost its hold on her: when, for instance, he bought a mass book for himself in 1660 and sat up late reading it, it 'gave great pleasure to my wife to hear that that she long ago was so well acquainted with.'"
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, p. 57.
About Wednesday 27 June 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
There was no standard punctuation in those days, and I believe the "ill dressed" refers to the house, not the fish. So the punctuation is fine, even by the standards of a copy editor of today!
About Monday 18 June 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
My friend and fellow author of historical fiction J.D. (David) Davies has a lovely post on his blog today about visiting Sam's country house for the first time:
http://gentlemenandtarpaulins.com…
About Tuesday 12 June 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
The buttock of a hog, oh dear. This discussion reminds me that when my father and I were in Barcelona in 2003, we went to a nice restaurant near the cathedral, which had a set-price tourist menu posted in the window. The main dish was described in English as "hog."
About Saturday 9 June 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Gallantry in Sam's period meant anything from flirting to outright sex. OED: "courtliness and devotion to the female sex, polite or courteous bearing or attention to ladies" or "amorous intercourse or intrigue."
Which sounds as though Charles's notoriously debauched court was getting off to a rolling start. It was rumored that he spent his first night back in London (May 29, 1660, his birthday) in the arms of his mistress Barbara Villiers (later Lady Castlemaine, the Duchess of Cleveland), and she did bear a child nine months later.
James, the Duke of York, later James II, was accompanied back to England by Anne Hyde, the daughter of Charles's advisor, Edward Hyde, who he had already secretly married.
About Wednesday 6 June 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
I wrote an article of about 5000 words on "1660: The Year of the Restoration of Theatre" that I won't post here because I may try to publish it as a Kindle Single, so I can't have posted in it its entirety anywhere. If anyone is really interested, I'll be happy to send it to you.
By February or March, three acting companies were performing, but not with official permission, and not with women. In May actors were charged with putting on plays illegally. In July, Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant were authorized to form the King's Company and Duke's Company respectively, and to build theatres. (Their duopoly lasted for thirty years.)
On November 5, 1660 (Bonfire Night), the King's Company presented its first authorized performance, Beaumont & Fletcher's "Wit Without Money," at the Red Bull. The next day they did James Shirley's "The Traitor," and the day after that "The Beggar's Bush" by John Fletcher.
On Thursday, November 7, the King’s Company opened its new home in Vere Street, just off the southwest corner of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which had previously been Gibbons's Tennis Court, presenting Shakespeare’s "Henry IV, Part One." Literally overnight, the players had left behind Elizabethan performance conditions and moved into a new era in English theatre.
Women were not permitted to appear in public theatres (they did appear in court masques) until Charles authorized it soon after his Restoration. On December 8, an actress with the King’s Company, likely Anne Marshall, played Desdemona in Othello. It was the first time that a woman had appeared on an English stage, and the occasion was marked by a special prologue.
I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that Sam will be at the King's House in a few months and attend the theatre frequently a lot in subsequent years and will have a lot to say about it! Nell Gwynn was one of the earliest actresses, and her career is prominent in my novel "The Darling Strumpet." Sam was a friend of hers and is a character in the book, which was just yesterday reissued in mass market paperback.
About Wednesday 23 May 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
In the run-up to the release of my novel "The Darling Strumpet" in 2011 (based on the life of Nell Gwynn), I wrote a series of articles on the events in London of the months of 1660, beginning with May: http://hoydensandfirebrands.blogs…
My second book, "The September Queen" (U.K. title "The King's Mistress" is the first fictional account of the story of Jane Lane, who helped Charles escape after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. This is the story that Charles told Pepys aboard the newly-christened Royal Charles, as recorded in today’s entry.
History is indebted to Sam, who invested a great deal of time and care to ensure that the story of Charles’s escape after the Battle of Worcester was preserved for posterity. In September 1680, Sam spent two three-hour sessions with Charles at Newmarket, using his famous shorthand to take down Charles’s account of his odyssey, which Sam later edited with his characteristic skill and flair. He also collected all the other contemporary accounts of others who helped Charles during his six weeks on the run, giving us an enthralling -- and sometimes almost minute-by-minute --account of what Charles did, said, wore, and ate as he desperately tried to get safely out of England, where Cromwell's army was hunting for him. It’s a very complete picture of an amazing piece of history from the point of view of the people who participated in it.
When I was researching my book, I followed some of the route of Charles's escape and travels with Jane, and blogged about it. Lots of pictures of Worcester, Boscobel and Moseley Old Hall and their priest holes, and other places along the way.
http://theroyalmiracle.blogspot.c…
I also wrote short articles on "The Royal Miracle," as Charles's escape came to be known. Here's the link to the piece on History in an Hour:
http://www.historyinanhour.com/20…
If you want to read more about Charles’s escape (it was an enormously formative event for him and he told the story over and over for the rest of his life), I can recommend Charles II’s Escape from Worcester, edited by William Matthews, which presents Pepys’s transcription of Charles’s account and his edited version side by side, as well as other contemporary accounts; The Escape of Charles II After the Battle of Worcester by Richard Ollard; A. M. Broadley’s 1912 The Royal Miracle: A Collection of Rare Tracts, Broadsides, Letters, Prints, & Ballads Concerning the Wanderings of Charles II After the Battle of Worcester, which also chronicles the delightfully daffy 1911 reenactment of the events; both the 1897 and 1908 editions of The Flight of the King by Allan Fea, as well as his After Worcester Fight; The Boscobel Tracts, a collection of contemporary accounts edited by J. Hughes and published in 1857; The Wanderings of Charles II in Staffordshire and Shropshire by H.P. Kingston; and Jean Gordon Hughes’s A King in the Oak Tree.
About Saturday 12 May 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Regarding "without book": "On book" and "off book" are still very much in use in theatre. Director to cast: "I want you off book by the end of the second week of rehearsal." "He broke his leg and his understudy wasn't ready and had to go on on book."
To be "on book" also means to follow along in the script during rehearsal, when actors are in the process of getting off book, so they can call for a line ("Line!") and be prompted.
About Monday 7 May 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Ah, I should have remembered that, Bill! I was thinking of "The Indian Queen."
About Monday 7 May 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Sorry, Bill - it wasn't "The Maiden Queen" but "Secret Love" in which Nell played Florimel. It was by Dryden - he wrote the part just for her, and the play established her and her lover and mentor Charles Hart as the William Powell and Myrna Loy of the 1660s, playing in a series of "gay couple" comedies (the old kind of gay couple!).
Nell's career on and off stage is a big part of my novel about her, "The Darling Strumpet."
About Wednesday 2 May 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Dick - A delegation from Parliament went to Charles at The Hague, bringing him a portmanteau with 4000L in gold as "earnest" (down payment of) the rest. Can't cite you a source at the moment (maybe even Pepys later?) but it's documented and I wrote that scene in my novel "The September Queen" (UK title "The King's Mistress"), about Jane Lane, who helped Charles escape after the Battle of Worcester.
About Wednesday 18 April 1660
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Hi, friends of Sam,
This note doesn’t particularly related to today’s entry, but I hope will be of interest to those following the diary.
I recently came across the excellent article by John Phillips on William Bagwell, the shipyard carpenter of Deptford, posted here on July 18, 2012. (Those reading the diary for the first time will have to wait to learn why Bagwell is significant to Sam!)
http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…
Using the information from Phillips’s article, I set up a family tree for William Bagwell on Ancestry.com, and also immediately found there christening records for two siblings of William not mentioned in the article. I haven’t added Mrs. Bagwell to the tree yet.
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/55…
About The Bagwells
Gillian Bagwell • Link
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/55…
About The Bagwells
Gillian Bagwell • Link
This is great, John. Using your information (and listing you as the source), I've just set up a family tree for William Bagwell and family on Ancestry.com. Have actually found baptism records for William (b. 1637) and Margaret (b. 1638) and found another sister Alice, baptized 16 April 1651 and brother Owen, baptized 12 March 1658. No doubt more info will turn up!
About Monday 5 March 1659/60
Gillian Bagwell • Link
Is there a way to post pictures? I think I have a photo somewhere of just such a lion and unicorn andiron, in the Crown Inn in Cirencester.