"I believe that some of the words for bodily functions (and parts) which we now consider "dirty" were more acceptable in Pepys' time."
To clarify words, in the 17th century swearing meant the very serious taking of an oath to be true to the King or be a member of the Church of England. Or Pepys' vows to enforce his more sober behavior.
Cursing someone had over-tones of witchcraft, but is more akin to what you and I say today when we drop a hammer on our toes.
Did they curse like we do today? Yes they did -- but words like "damned" were far worse because they related to God. Words like the F- and S-bombs represented bodily functions, and as such were much more acceptable then than they are today.
This article traces the history of the F-word, from an anonymous monk scrawling this parenthetical into the margins of a "De Officiis" manuscript: “O d fuckin’ Abbot” in 1528. What was shocking then was what was represented by the "d".
The article I'm pulling this from was based on "In Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter", by linguist John McWhorter. He says:
"In the 1500s and before, it was, to be sure, naughty. [However] since the Renaissance, fuck has been the subject of a grand cover-up, the lexical equivalent of the drunken uncle or the pornography collection, under which a word known well and even adored by most is barred from public presentation.”
For instance, the word didn’t appear in an English-language dictionary until 1966 when The Penguin Dictionary broke the taboo. The American Heritage Dictionary wouldn’t offer entry until 1969, and even then not without also printing a “clean” edition to compensate.
A notable exception to this rule was "Queen Anna’s New World of Words", an Italian-English dictionary printed by John Florio in 1611.
One reason for the F-word’s conspicuous absence has to do with the nature of the written word. For most of history, the majority of people could neither read nor write. Those who could were the social elite, and they wrote for other elites. To further separate themselves from the bawdy riffraff, they coded their language to mark their status. One way to do that was to not use the obscene language associated with the lower classes — except maybe in omission, and always from the safe distance of the moral high ground.
As print and literacy became more widespread, these norms remained firmly entrenched. Most historical examples come to us from underground entertainment, such as folk songs, erotic comics, and pulpy literature.
So Pepys reprimanding Elizabeth for referring to the devil during a meal would reflect his efforts to make her fit as an upper class lady, and asserting himself as the arbiter of family values.
✹ vincent on 7 Dec 2003 • Link • Flag ... "Laudanum' is an alcoholic tincture of opium, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium. Laudanum was introduced into Western medicine by Paracelsus (1493-1541) as an analgesic. Some laudanum recipes by Sir Robert Boyle. ..."
The link is dead, so I poked around because I have an affection for Robert Boyle -- all the Boyles really -- and found this extraordinary site which has more on his work than can be imagined -- the 2 recipes for laudanum are buried deep within https://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/workd…
Paul Chapin wrote an excellent annotation about the 1660 list of things Boyle wanted to achieve for the human race: https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Capt. Dowdall and Capt. Barker had a frosty encounter at the adjacent house of William Jones, the mayor of Swansea. Dowdall stated that he sailed with the Duke of York’s commission, and ‘hoped that he [Barker] was not an enemy, saying he was a servant of His Majesty’s’. Capt. Barker replied stiffly ‘that the King had no need of such servants’ and told Capt. Dowdall he was sending the Henrietta Maria to Plymouth as a prize, which is what he duly did.
The affair at Swansea was one of the first things that crossed James' desk during his earliest days in office as Lord High Admiral, following their entry on 29 May, 1660;
On 5 June, 1660 James ordered Capt. Dowdall to ensure the contents of the Henrietta Maria were not embezzled (wishful thinking, as the ship had obviously been cleared out at Swansea) and placed into safe custody.
What ultimately happened to the Henrietta Maria and the money she had been carrying would require further work in the papers of the High Court of Admiralty, but Capt. Barker never held a command in the Restoration navy.
There is no further record of Capt. Dowdall either; he was probably an Irishman (a George Dowdall had been Archbishop of Armagh), and one of the volunteers aboard was ‘Capt. Owen Sullivan’ of Munster, ‘gentleman’.
The engagement between the Lichfield and the Henrietta Maria in Swansea Bay has a claim to be the last ‘battle’ of the British Civil Wars, and certainly deserves a footnote in the naval history of Wales.
Today the new Lord High Admiral, James, Duke of York tackles one of the problems created by the fast (for those days) change in power:
The restoration of the monarch was an astonishingly rapid development, one which could hardly have been foreseen until just before it took place. Inevitably this led to confusion, especially in outlying parts of the country, and left opportunities for the unscrupulous to take advantage of the situation before certainty returned.
An example happened at Swansea in May 1660: On 9 March, 1660, a 30-ton vessel came to an anchor in Mumbles Road. She was the Royalist privateer Henrietta Maria, commanded by Capt. George Dowdall, sailing under a commission issued by James, Duke of York at Brussels in the previous July. Capt. Dowdall was unaware that Charles II had been proclaimed in London on the previous day, and proceeded to capture several ships in Swansea Bay.
Complainants hastened to Cardiff to demand action from Col. Edward Freeman, governor of the castle and one of the commissioners of militia for Glamorgan. Freeman immediately dispatched soldiers to the Mumbles, and followed them the next day.
Gov. Freeman informed Capt. Dowdall of the developments in London, ‘telling him he daily expecteth his Majesty’s arrival, at which the said captain was very glad’; Dowdall immediately agreed to restore the prizes he had taken, and not to attack any more shipping.
Gov. Freeman then proclaimed Charles II the King aboard the Henrietta Maria, at which ‘Captain Dowdall caused divers guns to be fired and he and all his soldiers [sic] uttered many expressions of joy’. Capt. Dowdall and his crew kept their peaceful word.
This changed on March 15, 1660, when the frigate Lichfield sailed into Mumbles Road. She was a different proposition to the relatively small Henrietta Maria – a Fifth Rate frigate of 24 guns. Her captain, William Barker, gave the order to open fire, and the Henrietta Maria cut her anchor cable and sailed for the mouth of the River Tawe. The Lichfield pursued her, firing all the time. The Henrietta Maria anchored at Swansea Quay, but the Lichfield followed. The Henrietta Maria now cut her other anchor cable and sailed even further upstream, where the Lichfield could not follow. The Henrietta Maria sailed ‘above the town’, but then ‘stuck at the Point’ and could go no further.
Capt. Barker sent some 40 to 60 men ashore, armed with cutlasses and muskets. They boarded the Henrietta Maria, stripped the crew (beating some of them), broke open chests and boxes, and pillaged the money, most of it takings from the prizes the Royalists had taken – perhaps £500, according to one source, £300 of which (another source says £360, yet another £380) was in Capt. Dowdall’s sea chest, together with some £80 worth of other goods plundered from prizes, including canvas, fine linen, tobacco, clothes, arms and ammunition.
The last item of interest from the House of Commons today:
"Exceptions in Act of Grace. ¶Ordered, That the Committee, to whom the Bill of Attainder was referred, do, with all convenient Expedition, prepare and bring in a Bill, as well in relation to those Persons who are named in the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, to have sat upon the late King's Majesty, of blessed Memory, and are since dead; as for the inflicting Penalties on those, who, by the said Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, are reserved to future Pains and Penalties, not extending to Life: And they are to meet in Mr. Speaker's Chamber, at Two of the Clock this Afternoon; and so to sit de die in diem, till this Business be perfected; the Sitting of any Grand Committee in the meantime notwithstanding."
The important bit is "... as for the inflicting Penalties on those, who, by the said Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, are reserved to future Pains and Penalties, not extending to Life: ..."
I.E. Sandwich's cousin, Sir Gilbert Pickering MP, is probably suffering sleepless nights. Yes, he's escaped the hangman's noose (and worse), but prison is still a possibility for many of the remaining lesser regicides. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
"... the humble household of his father, a taylor, ..."
I agree the senior Pepys were not wealthy, but sometimes I think we take the humble and poor story a tad too far. John Pepys lives in a house in Salisbury Court (where some wealthy people also lived) which was big enough for a family of 5. They sent 2 sons to University, on scholarships yes, but nevertheless that was years of schooling when the boys could have been earning and contributing money to the famly. Just a few months ago at least one of Sandwich's servants was living with them -- not enough room for everyone at Whitehall apparently. In a couple of years about three of Sandwich's daughters (presumably with maids) are sent to stay with John for the summer at Brampton -- sorry, a very minor spoiler -- when smallpox breaks out at Hinchingbrooke. So although we do not hear of mum and dad Pepys going to lunch with M'Lord, they were clearly part of the extended Sandwich network in good standing.
John Sr. belongs to the Merchant Tailors Company, which cost money. Annotators have presumed Pepys doesn't always have his clothes made by his father was because John was a mediocre tailor -- maybe he was so good he was too busy to accommodate his son's quick-turn-around demands?
Were they wealthy? No. But John Sr. hasn't asked Sam for any money either, beyond being paid for the work he performed. He sounds like a proud father to me.
And Mrs. Pepys Sr. sounds like she has done some scrimping and saving to educate her boys -- e.g. used daughter Pall instead of hiring a live-in maid -- and was somewhat disappointed in her life, so she turned to Puritanism for answers. She also had rich relatives, and consequently unmet aspirations.
They could afford the coal to make those smoldering ashes. Many could not.
For some reason Pepys never mentions the other great hospital in London at the time, Barts.
Barts hospital was founded 900 in 1123, and generated its income from the monasteries, so their closure by Henry VIII threatened the hospital with financial destitution. Following petitions by the City of London, it was refounded in December 1546, and given to the City to manage, to aleviate “the myserable people lyeng in the streete, offendyng every clene person passyng by the way with theyre fylthye and nastye savors.”
It was also renamed as the “House of the Poore in Farringdon in the suburbs of the City of London of Henry VIII’s Foundation”. But people continued to calling it Barts Hospital, either because it’s easier or because the hospital wouldn’t have been in financial difficulty in the first place if Hdenry hadn’t cut off its monastic funding, so they weren’t entirely grateful for his decision to let the City save it.
Between 1700 and 1702 a new main entrance was built for the hospital, and this, the Henry VIII Gatehouse, is now the oldest surviving entrance into the hospital. It was designed and built in a Baroque style by Edward Strong Jr.
In 1703 a statue was added of Henry VIII, by Francis Bird, one of the leading English sculptors at the time, responsible most famously for his carved panel above the entrance to the new St. Paul’s Cathedral.
At Barts he carved a life-size statue of Henry VIII, which appears to have been based on Hans Holbein’s lost portrait of the King.
As part of the hospital’s 900th anniversary restoration, the gatehouse and statue have been given a deep clean and restoration. Now, Henry VIII is white instead of black, and his pronounced codpiece is more pronounced than it used to be.
His stoney face is still stoney.
Above the King's niche are 2 figures, representing lameness on the right and disease on the left.
Another unusual thing is the Royal Mail postbox: the slot for letters is on the inside of the arch, but the door for the mailbox opens on the outside of the arch. That’s because the gates used to be locked at night, and this layout allowed the post to be retrieved without unlocking the gates.
Today, Henry VIII looks out over the clean(er) streets of London, but for most of the statue’s life, it look out over an open air cattle market — that’s what Smithfield’s was. You can imagine all the smells and muck that entailed, and the King watched over it all.
Today, although there are other entrances into the hospital, this gatehouse is still considered the main entrance, with a clean Henry VIII checking out all who pass below.
Pepys obviously enjoys clever conversation, but I'm not aware of anything like the 25 joke books written in the Netherlands during the 17th century. The 1677 etiquette book "Hoofsche Welleventheid" emphasized humor as a key way to gain respect from your peers.
The Dutch were in the midst of their "Golden Age" of painting, and one thing I had not considered before was humor in those masterpieces. But the “Golden Age” of Dutch art is full of bawdy comedy.
The development of a booming middle class with disposable income to spend on artwork led to a shift in artistic subject matter. Biblical scenes were overtaken by domestic interiors, still-lifes, and crowd scenes. Follow the link below, and see 5 Dutch artworks with hidden jokes:
Jan Steen’s "Woman at her Toilet" is an example of hidden wordplay. In the painting, the lady puts on her stocking (“kous”) by her nearby chamberpot (“piespot”). Combining the two words reveals that she is a prostitute (“pieskous”). Steen has also added a punny signature, signing his surname — the Dutch word for stone — onto the left stone column.
The "Woman Seated at a Virginal" or "A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman" appears innocent, with two young lovers exchanging coy glances through a mirror above the piano. However, with the large cello laying on its back in the center of the floor, Vermeer has snuck in a hefty phallic symbol that is impossible to unsee once you’ve clocked it.
Rather than laugh-out-loud funny, some “vanitas” paintings draw on dark comedy. Willem Claesz’s "Still Life with Wan Li Plate" feature symbols of wealth like an expensive Chinese plate and silver goblet, but these objects are filled with refuse and seem haphazardly discarded. The canvas is supposed to remind us that we all eventually die, and we can’t take it with us.
In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Netherlandish Proverbs" (1607) the artist has represented more than 126 Netherlandish proverbs. These include: a man “biting a pillar” (representing a religious hypocrite), a roof “tiled with tarts” (meaning to be demonstrate extraordinary wealth), and a man leaning out of a window “to crap on the world” (meaning to despise everything). The painting was so popular that Bruegel’s son, Pieter the Younger, made at least 16 copies of the work."
The English answer seems to have been pictures like these of Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine, posed as Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and Minerva (the Roman goddess of war and wisdom!). (Mary Magdalene is the painting with the large glass jug filled with oil near the end.) https://myartblogcollection.blogs…
For the cartoons of the day, look at the ribald humor in woodcuts used in books and in pamphlets.
Kinko's is a store you go to in the USA for office supplies and assistance, e.g. when you need to xerox a long document many times.
At one time Kinko's was also in London, but sold out to The Color Company in 2009. Also Kinko's formerly operated in Australia, Mexico, and the Netherlands but withdrew from those markets in late 2008 due to low demand.
Amazing what you learn annotating Pepys.
This is a good example of why Phil asks us not to make our comments too local or current.
Vincent, we talked about this yestrday -- at length!
"Falsum etiam est verum quod consuit superior" -- I can't find a direct translation, but: "Falsum etiam est verum quod constituit superior" means "Even false becomes true when one’s master says so" (Publilius Syrus, Maxims, 228).
“Aperte mala cum est mulier, tum demum est bona” means "A woman when she is openly bad, is at least honest." [Sorry, ladies -- chauvinism has been around for a long, long time.]
It might be, Jude, but I think it's more likely that this is his month in the quarter to serve at the the Privy Seal office, and he's altering his schedule so he can give the Navy Office the attention it deserves now that there is some money to be spent, plus spend afternoons enriching himself at Whitehall.
They have been sitting in formal meetings in the afternoon to accommodate the MPs (Parliament only sits in the morning) -- but they are about to be prorogued, so they can sit in the morning again and Pepys can get rich at his other gig.
We shall see -- things usually become clear in retrospect with Pepys; he's not good about telling us why he does things in advance.
It maybe because he wants to make sure Jane is up, or something petty like that.
The English greatly honored the boar, but why is not clear.
In the 1st Century, Iceni frequently featured wild boar on their coins. Rollo, the Norse chieftain who had been exiled from Norway, in the 9th century, spent considerable time in Scotland and Saxon England before he received the French region we now call “Normandy” in exchange for an end to raiding and fealty to the French crown. Other Norse groups also spent much of their time in England. The Saxon infatuation with the wild boar began at least as early as this.
Edward the Confessor is said to have hunted wild boar in the royal forest of Bernwood. William the Conqueror established draconian penalties for the unauthorized killing of a boar.
Perhaps the earliest record of the boar being served as a ceremonial dish is when Henry II personally serving the boar’s head to his son, Henry Fitzhenry, on a platter, in 1170, on the occasion of naming him “co-regent”. It was a traditional act honoring a cherished son and spotless warrior. The 2 remained Normans — Norse men.
By Tudor times, when documents describe the already historical importance of the boar for upper class Christmas dinners and the traditions that went with them, the population was small. Only a few English forests existed in which to hunt it. Wild boar was not readily available. The tusked beast on the Christmas platters of those who could afford it was probably shipped from Scotland or Europe.
The popular English text of the time on hunting the boar — "The Arte of Venerie" (1575), alternately attributed to George Tuberville and George Gascoigne — was really a translation of Jacques du Fouilloux’s 1568 "La Venerie". Even the specialized terms of the boar hunt are translations from Fouilloux’s work suggesting there were no social boar hunts any longer in England. It appears English noblemen who wished to hunt boar, as a rite of passage, generally did so in Europe.
Shakespeare verifies the situation: ‘In olden times the enclosure in which the Boars used to be fattened was termed a "Boar-frank." Shakespeare uses the word in the Second Part of Henry IV: "Doth the old boar feed in the old frank?"
The Bard’s works show he was familiar with all the noble hunting sports of his time — but not boar hunting.
When the boar's domain is not myth or escutcheon, it is mentioned as an animal kept in a fattening-pen.
By the reign of King Charles I, a population of boar was imported into England in an attempt to reintroduce the royal beast. The population grew rapidly and wild boars were soon considered a dangerous nuisance.
The boar nuisance was ended when the last of the population was killed during the English Civil Wars.
The Worshipful Company of Butchers (one of the 7 oldest London livery companies), has their Hall in St. Bartholomew’s Close, Smithfield. During the first week of Advent, marking the beginning of the Christmas season in London, the Boar’s Head makes its annual appearance.
This tradition has its origin in 1343 when the Lord Mayor, John Hamond, granted the Butchers of the City of London use of a piece of land by the Fleet River, where they could slaughter and clean their beasts, for the token yearly payment of a Boar’s Head at Christmas.
The Company's Beadle hosts the parade, carrying his magnificent staff of office dating from 1716, upon which may be discerned a Boar’s Head. “Years ago, they had a robbery and this was the only thing that wasn’t stolen,” he confided, ” – it had a cover and the thieves mistook it for a mop.”
The parade is led by a posse of members of the Butcher’s Company wearing in blue robes and velvet hats, with a livid red Boar’s Head carried aloft at shoulder height. Behind, drummers of the Royal Logistics Corps in red uniforms and City of London Police motorcyclists in fluorescent garb complete the parade.
These days the Boar is a gloss-painted paper mache creation, sitting upon a base of Covent Garden grass and surrounded by plastic fruit. As recently as 1968, a real Boar’s Head was paraded but these days Health & Safety concerns about hygiene require the use of this colourful replica for ceremonial purposes.
The drummers set a brisk pace as the parade proceeds down Little Britain, then Cheapside, past St. Mary Le Bow, with the sound of drums echoing off the tall buildings as the procession of men in their dark robes, with the Boar’s Head -- paper mache or not -- bobbing above, evoked another ancient drama of the City of London and, as they paraded through the gathering dusk towards the Mansion House on a December afternoon, one has the feeling they are marching through time as well as space.
No Josh, people worked every day. No such thing as a weekend or annual vacations or an 8-hour work day until Unions brought them to us in the last century at great personal cost. But 17th century law did require that everyone went to church on Sunday -- which, from reading the Diary, you will realize was easy to dodge for Londoners -- but even then people could work before and after church.
Along the eastern wall of the dock is the Queenhithe Mosaic, which provides "A timeline displaying the remarkable layers of history from Roman times to Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee":
The mosaic was design by Tessa Hunkin and Southbank Mosaics created the installation in 2014, and next to the river, it starts with the first Roman invasion. Other key London events are included such as when St. Paul's Cathedral was first built in stone, and when London became a Saxon town:
Given the level of 19th century rebuilding of the City, it is surprising Queenhithe survived, but the dock had already given its name to a Ward, so the importance of the place must have long been clear, and removing the place that was the source of the Ward's name was probably too much, even for Victorian commercial redevelopment of the City of London.
The Historic England description of the reason for designating Queenhithe as a Scheduled Ancient Monument explains the importance of the place: "Quays are structures designed to provide sheltered landing places with sufficient depth of water alongside to accommodate vessels over part of the tidal circle. The features and complexity of quays vary enormously depending partly on their date but also on their situation and exposure, the nature of the underlying geology and alluvium, and the volume and types of trade they need to handle. By their nature, quays also tend to occur in proximity to centres of trade and administrative authority, usually in locations already sheltered to some extent by natural features. Basic elements of quays may include platforms built up and out along a part of the coast or riverside that is naturally deep or artificially dredged, or along an artificial cut forming a small dock on a riverside or coast. "Urban waterfront structures and their associated deposits provide important information on the trade and communication links of particular periods and on the constructional techniques and organisation involved in the development of waterfronts. Artefacts recovered through excavation and the deposits behind revetments will retain evidence for the commodities which were traded at such sites. "... Queenhithe Dock is a rare survival of a sequence of waterfront constructions dating from the Roman period. The timber quays, revetments and the occupation levels are well preserved as buried features. It will provide evidence for the riverside development of London including archaeological and environmental remains and deposits. These deposits will provide information about the river and riverside environment and, by extension, about the people who lived alongside and have used it. The site is of particular significance as one of the few early medieval docks recorded in London."
... All that is left of Queenhithe is an indentation in the line of wharves backing onto Upper Thames Street. But this, with Billingsgate, once formed the Port of London.
It was called by its present name in the reign of Henry II, but as a dock it is centuries older, first mentioned in 899 during Alfred's reign. To encourage its prosperity taxes were levied on foreign vessels discharging cargo elsewhere in the city.
By Stow's time it had fallen into disuse.
Queenhythe as a trading dock gradually lost its usefulness as the size of ships increased and the docks grew along the river, both within the City of London, and along the rest of the Thames. ... it did continue to be a place where lighters could be moored, with the relatively flat bottom of the dock allowing a lighter to be settled at low water, rather than being moored in the river.
Comments
Third Reading
About Thursday 25 September 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I believe that some of the words for bodily functions (and parts) which we now consider "dirty" were more acceptable in Pepys' time."
To clarify words, in the 17th century swearing meant the very serious taking of an oath to be true to the King or be a member of the Church of England. Or Pepys' vows to enforce his more sober behavior.
Cursing someone had over-tones of witchcraft, but is more akin to what you and I say today when we drop a hammer on our toes.
Did they curse like we do today? Yes they did -- but words like "damned" were far worse because they related to God. Words like the F- and S-bombs represented bodily functions, and as such were much more acceptable then than they are today.
This article traces the history of the F-word, from an anonymous monk scrawling this parenthetical into the margins of a "De Officiis" manuscript: “O d fuckin’ Abbot” in 1528.
What was shocking then was what was represented by the "d".
The article I'm pulling this from was based on "In Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter", by linguist John McWhorter. He says:
"In the 1500s and before, it was, to be sure, naughty. [However] since the Renaissance, fuck has been the subject of a grand cover-up, the lexical equivalent of the drunken uncle or the pornography collection, under which a word known well and even adored by most is barred from public presentation.”
For instance, the word didn’t appear in an English-language dictionary until 1966 when The Penguin Dictionary broke the taboo. The American Heritage Dictionary wouldn’t offer entry until 1969, and even then not without also printing a “clean” edition to compensate.
A notable exception to this rule was "Queen Anna’s New World of Words", an Italian-English dictionary printed by John Florio in 1611.
One reason for the F-word’s conspicuous absence has to do with the nature of the written word. For most of history, the majority of people could neither read nor write. Those who could were the social elite, and they wrote for other elites.
To further separate themselves from the bawdy riffraff, they coded their language to mark their status. One way to do that was to not use the obscene language associated with the lower classes — except maybe in omission, and always from the safe distance of the moral high ground.
As print and literacy became more widespread, these norms remained firmly entrenched. Most historical examples come to us from underground entertainment, such as folk songs, erotic comics, and pulpy literature.
For the whole article, see
https://bigthink.com/the-past/his…
So Pepys reprimanding Elizabeth for referring to the devil during a meal would reflect his efforts to make her fit as an upper class lady, and asserting himself as the arbiter of family values.
About Thursday 6 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
✹ vincent on 7 Dec 2003 • Link • Flag
... "Laudanum' is an alcoholic tincture of opium, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium. Laudanum was introduced into Western medicine by Paracelsus (1493-1541) as an analgesic. Some laudanum recipes by Sir Robert Boyle. ..."
The link is dead, so I poked around because I have an affection for Robert Boyle -- all the Boyles really -- and found this extraordinary site which has more on his work than can be imagined -- the 2 recipes for laudanum are buried deep within
https://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/workd…
Paul Chapin wrote an excellent annotation about the 1660 list of things Boyle wanted to achieve for the human race:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Tuesday 5 June 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
Capt. Dowdall and Capt. Barker had a frosty encounter at the adjacent house of William Jones, the mayor of Swansea.
Dowdall stated that he sailed with the Duke of York’s commission, and ‘hoped that he [Barker] was not an enemy, saying he was a servant of His Majesty’s’.
Capt. Barker replied stiffly ‘that the King had no need of such servants’ and told Capt. Dowdall he was sending the Henrietta Maria to Plymouth as a prize, which is what he duly did.
The affair at Swansea was one of the first things that crossed James' desk during his earliest days in office as Lord High Admiral, following their entry on 29 May, 1660;
On 5 June, 1660 James ordered Capt. Dowdall to ensure the contents of the Henrietta Maria were not embezzled (wishful thinking, as the ship had obviously been cleared out at Swansea) and placed into safe custody.
What ultimately happened to the Henrietta Maria and the money she had been carrying would require further work in the papers of the High Court of Admiralty, but Capt. Barker never held a command in the Restoration navy.
There is no further record of Capt. Dowdall either; he was probably an Irishman (a George Dowdall had been Archbishop of Armagh), and one of the volunteers aboard was ‘Capt. Owen Sullivan’ of Munster, ‘gentleman’.
The engagement between the Lichfield and the Henrietta Maria in Swansea Bay has a claim to be the last ‘battle’ of the British Civil Wars, and certainly deserves a footnote in the naval history of Wales.
For the original article by Welsh historian J.D. Davies, see
https://jddavies.com/2016/05/27/h…
About Tuesday 5 June 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today the new Lord High Admiral, James, Duke of York tackles one of the problems created by the fast (for those days) change in power:
The restoration of the monarch was an astonishingly rapid development, one which could hardly have been foreseen until just before it took place. Inevitably this led to confusion, especially in outlying parts of the country, and left opportunities for the unscrupulous to take advantage of the situation before certainty returned.
An example happened at Swansea in May 1660:
On 9 March, 1660, a 30-ton vessel came to an anchor in Mumbles Road. She was the Royalist privateer Henrietta Maria, commanded by Capt. George Dowdall, sailing under a commission issued by James, Duke of York at Brussels in the previous July.
Capt. Dowdall was unaware that Charles II had been proclaimed in London on the previous day, and proceeded to capture several ships in Swansea Bay.
Complainants hastened to Cardiff to demand action from Col. Edward Freeman, governor of the castle and one of the commissioners of militia for Glamorgan. Freeman immediately dispatched soldiers to the Mumbles, and followed them the next day.
Gov. Freeman informed Capt. Dowdall of the developments in London, ‘telling him he daily expecteth his Majesty’s arrival, at which the said captain was very glad’; Dowdall immediately agreed to restore the prizes he had taken, and not to attack any more shipping.
Gov. Freeman then proclaimed Charles II the King aboard the Henrietta Maria, at which ‘Captain Dowdall caused divers guns to be fired and he and all his soldiers [sic] uttered many expressions of joy’.
Capt. Dowdall and his crew kept their peaceful word.
This changed on March 15, 1660, when the frigate Lichfield sailed into Mumbles Road. She was a different proposition to the relatively small Henrietta Maria – a Fifth Rate frigate of 24 guns.
Her captain, William Barker, gave the order to open fire, and the Henrietta Maria cut her anchor cable and sailed for the mouth of the River Tawe. The Lichfield pursued her, firing all the time.
The Henrietta Maria anchored at Swansea Quay, but the Lichfield followed. The Henrietta Maria now cut her other anchor cable and sailed even further upstream, where the Lichfield could not follow.
The Henrietta Maria sailed ‘above the town’, but then ‘stuck at the Point’ and could go no further.
Capt. Barker sent some 40 to 60 men ashore, armed with cutlasses and muskets. They boarded the Henrietta Maria, stripped the crew (beating some of them), broke open chests and boxes, and pillaged the money, most of it takings from the prizes the Royalists had taken – perhaps £500, according to one source, £300 of which (another source says £360, yet another £380) was in Capt. Dowdall’s sea chest, together with some £80 worth of other goods plundered from prizes, including canvas, fine linen, tobacco, clothes, arms and ammunition.
About Tuesday 4 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
The last item of interest from the House of Commons today:
"Exceptions in Act of Grace.
¶Ordered, That the Committee, to whom the Bill of Attainder was referred, do, with all convenient Expedition, prepare and bring in a Bill, as well in relation to those Persons who are named in the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, to have sat upon the late King's Majesty, of blessed Memory, and are since dead; as for the inflicting Penalties on those, who, by the said Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, are reserved to future Pains and Penalties, not extending to Life: And they are to meet in Mr. Speaker's Chamber, at Two of the Clock this Afternoon; and so to sit de die in diem, till this Business be perfected; the Sitting of any Grand Committee in the meantime notwithstanding."
The important bit is "... as for the inflicting Penalties on those, who, by the said Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, are reserved to future Pains and Penalties, not extending to Life: ..."
I.E. Sandwich's cousin, Sir Gilbert Pickering MP, is probably suffering sleepless nights. Yes, he's escaped the hangman's noose (and worse), but prison is still a possibility for many of the remaining lesser regicides.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Wednesday 5 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... the humble household of his father, a taylor, ..."
I agree the senior Pepys were not wealthy, but sometimes I think we take the humble and poor story a tad too far.
John Pepys lives in a house in Salisbury Court (where some wealthy people also lived) which was big enough for a family of 5.
They sent 2 sons to University, on scholarships yes, but nevertheless that was years of schooling when the boys could have been earning and contributing money to the famly.
Just a few months ago at least one of Sandwich's servants was living with them -- not enough room for everyone at Whitehall apparently.
In a couple of years about three of Sandwich's daughters (presumably with maids) are sent to stay with John for the summer at Brampton -- sorry, a very minor spoiler -- when smallpox breaks out at Hinchingbrooke.
So although we do not hear of mum and dad Pepys going to lunch with M'Lord, they were clearly part of the extended Sandwich network in good standing.
John Sr. belongs to the Merchant Tailors Company, which cost money. Annotators have presumed Pepys doesn't always have his clothes made by his father was because John was a mediocre tailor -- maybe he was so good he was too busy to accommodate his son's quick-turn-around demands?
Were they wealthy? No. But John Sr. hasn't asked Sam for any money either, beyond being paid for the work he performed. He sounds like a proud father to me.
And Mrs. Pepys Sr. sounds like she has done some scrimping and saving to educate her boys -- e.g. used daughter Pall instead of hiring a live-in maid -- and was somewhat disappointed in her life, so she turned to Puritanism for answers. She also had rich relatives, and consequently unmet aspirations.
They could afford the coal to make those smoldering ashes. Many could not.
About Hospitals
San Diego Sarah • Link
For some reason Pepys never mentions the other great hospital in London at the time, Barts.
Barts hospital was founded 900 in 1123, and generated its income from the monasteries, so their closure by Henry VIII threatened the hospital with financial destitution. Following petitions by the City of London, it was refounded in December 1546, and given to the City to manage, to aleviate “the myserable people lyeng in the streete, offendyng every clene person passyng by the way with theyre fylthye and nastye savors.”
It was also renamed as the “House of the Poore in Farringdon in the suburbs of the City of London of Henry VIII’s Foundation”.
But people continued to calling it Barts Hospital, either because it’s easier or because the hospital wouldn’t have been in financial difficulty in the first place if Hdenry hadn’t cut off its monastic funding, so they weren’t entirely grateful for his decision to let the City save it.
Between 1700 and 1702 a new main entrance was built for the hospital, and this, the Henry VIII Gatehouse, is now the oldest surviving entrance into the hospital. It was designed and built in a Baroque style by Edward Strong Jr.
In 1703 a statue was added of Henry VIII, by Francis Bird, one of the leading English sculptors at the time, responsible most famously for his carved panel above the entrance to the new St. Paul’s Cathedral.
At Barts he carved a life-size statue of Henry VIII, which appears to have been based on Hans Holbein’s lost portrait of the King.
As part of the hospital’s 900th anniversary restoration, the gatehouse and statue have been given a deep clean and restoration. Now, Henry VIII is white instead of black, and his pronounced codpiece is more pronounced than it used to be.
His stoney face is still stoney.
Above the King's niche are 2 figures, representing lameness on the right and disease on the left.
Another unusual thing is the Royal Mail postbox: the slot for letters is on the inside of the arch, but the door for the mailbox opens on the outside of the arch. That’s because the gates used to be locked at night, and this layout allowed the post to be retrieved without unlocking the gates.
Today, Henry VIII looks out over the clean(er) streets of London, but for most of the statue’s life, it look out over an open air cattle market — that’s what Smithfield’s was. You can imagine all the smells and muck that entailed, and the King watched over it all.
Today, although there are other entrances into the hospital, this gatehouse is still considered the main entrance, with a clean Henry VIII checking out all who pass below.
A picture of the only statue of Henry VIII in London at
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/artic…
About Art
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys obviously enjoys clever conversation, but I'm not aware of anything like the 25 joke books written in the Netherlands during the 17th century. The 1677 etiquette book "Hoofsche Welleventheid" emphasized humor as a key way to gain respect from your peers.
The Dutch were in the midst of their "Golden Age" of painting, and one thing I had not considered before was humor in those masterpieces. But the “Golden Age” of Dutch art is full of bawdy comedy.
The development of a booming middle class with disposable income to spend on artwork led to a shift in artistic subject matter. Biblical scenes were overtaken by domestic interiors, still-lifes, and crowd scenes.
Follow the link below, and see 5 Dutch artworks with hidden jokes:
Jan Steen’s "Woman at her Toilet" is an example of hidden wordplay. In the painting, the lady puts on her stocking (“kous”) by her nearby chamberpot (“piespot”). Combining the two words reveals that she is a prostitute (“pieskous”). Steen has also added a punny signature, signing his surname — the Dutch word for stone — onto the left stone column.
The "Woman Seated at a Virginal" or "A Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman" appears innocent, with two young lovers exchanging coy glances through a mirror above the piano. However, with the large cello laying on its back in the center of the floor, Vermeer has snuck in a hefty phallic symbol that is impossible to unsee once you’ve clocked it.
Rather than laugh-out-loud funny, some “vanitas” paintings draw on dark comedy.
Willem Claesz’s "Still Life with Wan Li Plate" feature symbols of wealth like an expensive Chinese plate and silver goblet, but these objects are filled with refuse and seem haphazardly discarded. The canvas is supposed to remind us that we all eventually die, and we can’t take it with us.
In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's "Netherlandish Proverbs" (1607) the artist has represented more than 126 Netherlandish proverbs. These include: a man “biting a pillar” (representing a religious hypocrite), a roof “tiled with tarts” (meaning to be demonstrate extraordinary wealth), and a man leaning out of a window “to crap on the world” (meaning to despise everything). The painting was so popular that Bruegel’s son, Pieter the Younger, made at least 16 copies of the work."
The pictures in question and the original article can all be seen at
https://news.artnet.com/news/hidd…
The English answer seems to have been pictures like these of Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine, posed as Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and Minerva (the Roman goddess of war and wisdom!). (Mary Magdalene is the painting with the large glass jug filled with oil near the end.)
https://myartblogcollection.blogs…
For the cartoons of the day, look at the ribald humor in woodcuts used in books and in pamphlets.
About Tuesday 4 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"{then Kinkos}."
Kinko's is a store you go to in the USA for office supplies and assistance, e.g. when you need to xerox a long document many times.
At one time Kinko's was also in London, but sold out to The Color Company in 2009. Also Kinko's formerly operated in Australia, Mexico, and the Netherlands but withdrew from those markets in late 2008 due to low demand.
Amazing what you learn annotating Pepys.
This is a good example of why Phil asks us not to make our comments too local or current.
About Tuesday 4 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
A picture of the statue of Oliver Cromwell outside the House of Commons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sta…
A picture of the statue of Richard the Lionheart in Old Palace Yard, Whitehall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ric…
The Palace is big enough for both of them.
About Tuesday 4 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Vincent, we talked about this yestrday -- at length!
"Falsum etiam est verum quod consuit superior" -- I can't find a direct translation, but:
"Falsum etiam est verum quod constituit superior" means "Even false becomes true when one’s master says so" (Publilius Syrus, Maxims, 228).
“Aperte mala cum est mulier, tum demum est bona” means "A woman when she is openly bad, is at least honest."
[Sorry, ladies -- chauvinism has been around for a long, long time.]
About Tuesday 4 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"It's interesting that Cromwell was referred to as "Oliver", but the rest by their surnames."
'Cromwell' might refer to Richard, Oliver's son, depending on the context.
About Monday 3 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
LKvM -- I'm counting on you for translating Vincent's Latin from here on. I'm impressed, by the way.
About Monday 3 December 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
It might be, Jude, but I think it's more likely that this is his month in the quarter to serve at the the Privy Seal office, and he's altering his schedule so he can give the Navy Office the attention it deserves now that there is some money to be spent, plus spend afternoons enriching himself at Whitehall.
They have been sitting in formal meetings in the afternoon to accommodate the MPs (Parliament only sits in the morning) -- but they are about to be prorogued, so they can sit in the morning again and Pepys can get rich at his other gig.
We shall see -- things usually become clear in retrospect with Pepys; he's not good about telling us why he does things in advance.
It maybe because he wants to make sure Jane is up, or something petty like that.
About Smithfield
San Diego Sarah • Link
The significance of the Boar's Head explained at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Wild Boar
San Diego Sarah • Link
The English greatly honored the boar, but why is not clear.
In the 1st Century, Iceni frequently featured wild boar on their coins.
Rollo, the Norse chieftain who had been exiled from Norway, in the 9th century, spent considerable time in Scotland and Saxon England before he received the French region we now call “Normandy” in exchange for an end to raiding and fealty to the French crown.
Other Norse groups also spent much of their time in England. The Saxon infatuation with the wild boar began at least as early as this.
Edward the Confessor is said to have hunted wild boar in the royal forest of Bernwood.
William the Conqueror established draconian penalties for the unauthorized killing of a boar.
Perhaps the earliest record of the boar being served as a ceremonial dish is when Henry II personally serving the boar’s head to his son, Henry Fitzhenry, on a platter, in 1170, on the occasion of naming him “co-regent”. It was a traditional act honoring a cherished son and spotless warrior. The 2 remained Normans — Norse men.
By Tudor times, when documents describe the already historical importance of the boar for upper class Christmas dinners and the traditions that went with them, the population was small.
Only a few English forests existed in which to hunt it.
Wild boar was not readily available. The tusked beast on the Christmas platters of those who could afford it was probably shipped from Scotland or Europe.
The popular English text of the time on hunting the boar — "The Arte of Venerie" (1575), alternately attributed to George Tuberville and George Gascoigne — was really a translation of Jacques du Fouilloux’s 1568 "La Venerie". Even the specialized terms of the boar hunt are translations from Fouilloux’s work suggesting there were no social boar hunts any longer in England.
It appears English noblemen who wished to hunt boar, as a rite of passage, generally did so in Europe.
Shakespeare verifies the situation: ‘In olden times the enclosure in which the Boars used to be fattened was termed a "Boar-frank." Shakespeare uses the word in the Second Part of Henry IV:
"Doth the old boar feed in the old frank?"
The Bard’s works show he was familiar with all the noble hunting sports of his time — but not boar hunting.
When the boar's domain is not myth or escutcheon, it is mentioned as an animal kept in a fattening-pen.
By the reign of King Charles I, a population of boar was imported into England in an attempt to reintroduce the royal beast. The population grew rapidly and wild boars were soon considered a dangerous nuisance.
The boar nuisance was ended when the last of the population was killed during the English Civil Wars.
Excerpted from https://gilbertwesleypurdy.blogsp…
About Smithfield
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Worshipful Company of Butchers (one of the 7 oldest London livery companies), has their Hall in St. Bartholomew’s Close, Smithfield. During the first week of Advent, marking the beginning of the Christmas season in London, the Boar’s Head makes its annual appearance.
This tradition has its origin in 1343 when the Lord Mayor, John Hamond, granted the Butchers of the City of London use of a piece of land by the Fleet River, where they could slaughter and clean their beasts, for the token yearly payment of a Boar’s Head at Christmas.
The Company's Beadle hosts the parade, carrying his magnificent staff of office dating from 1716, upon which may be discerned a Boar’s Head. “Years ago, they had a robbery and this was the only thing that wasn’t stolen,” he confided, ” – it had a cover and the thieves mistook it for a mop.”
The parade is led by a posse of members of the Butcher’s Company wearing in blue robes and velvet hats, with a livid red Boar’s Head carried aloft at shoulder height. Behind, drummers of the Royal Logistics Corps in red uniforms and City of London Police motorcyclists in fluorescent garb complete the parade.
These days the Boar is a gloss-painted paper mache creation, sitting upon a base of Covent Garden grass and surrounded by plastic fruit. As recently as 1968, a real Boar’s Head was paraded but these days Health & Safety concerns about hygiene require the use of this colourful replica for ceremonial purposes.
The drummers set a brisk pace as the parade proceeds down Little Britain, then Cheapside, past St. Mary Le Bow, with the sound of drums echoing off the tall buildings as the procession of men in their dark robes, with the Boar’s Head -- paper mache or not -- bobbing above, evoked another ancient drama of the City of London and, as they paraded through the gathering dusk towards the Mansion House on a December afternoon, one has the feeling they are marching through time as well as space.
For pictures and the whole article, see
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2023…
About Sunday 2 June 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
No Josh, people worked every day. No such thing as a weekend or annual vacations or an 8-hour work day until Unions brought them to us in the last century at great personal cost.
But 17th century law did require that everyone went to church on Sunday -- which, from reading the Diary, you will realize was easy to dodge for Londoners -- but even then people could work before and after church.
About Queenhithe
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
Along the eastern wall of the dock is the Queenhithe Mosaic, which provides "A timeline displaying the remarkable layers of history from Roman times to Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee":
The mosaic was design by Tessa Hunkin and Southbank Mosaics created the installation in 2014, and next to the river, it starts with the first Roman invasion. Other key London events are included such as when St. Paul's Cathedral was first built in stone, and when London became a Saxon town:
Given the level of 19th century rebuilding of the City, it is surprising Queenhithe survived, but the dock had already given its name to a Ward, so the importance of the place must have long been clear, and removing the place that was the source of the Ward's name was probably too much, even for Victorian commercial redevelopment of the City of London.
Pictures and even more info at
https://alondoninheritance.com/th…
About Queenhithe
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
The Historic England description of the reason for designating Queenhithe as a Scheduled Ancient Monument explains the importance of the place:
"Quays are structures designed to provide sheltered landing places with sufficient depth of water alongside to accommodate vessels over part of the tidal circle. The features and complexity of quays vary enormously depending partly on their date but also on their situation and exposure, the nature of the underlying geology and alluvium, and the volume and types of trade they need to handle. By their nature, quays also tend to occur in proximity to centres of trade and administrative authority, usually in locations already sheltered to some extent by natural features. Basic elements of quays may include platforms built up and out along a part of the coast or riverside that is naturally deep or artificially dredged, or along an artificial cut forming a small dock on a riverside or coast.
"Urban waterfront structures and their associated deposits provide important information on the trade and communication links of particular periods and on the constructional techniques and organisation involved in the development of waterfronts. Artefacts recovered through excavation and the deposits behind revetments will retain evidence for the commodities which were traded at such sites.
"... Queenhithe Dock is a rare survival of a sequence of waterfront constructions dating from the Roman period. The timber quays, revetments and the occupation levels are well preserved as buried features. It will provide evidence for the riverside development of London including archaeological and environmental remains and deposits. These deposits will provide information about the river and riverside environment and, by extension, about the people who lived alongside and have used it. The site is of particular significance as one of the few early medieval docks recorded in London."
...
All that is left of Queenhithe is an indentation in the line of wharves backing onto Upper Thames Street. But this, with Billingsgate, once formed the Port of London.
It was called by its present name in the reign of Henry II, but as a dock it is centuries older, first mentioned in 899 during Alfred's reign. To encourage its prosperity taxes were levied on foreign vessels discharging cargo elsewhere in the city.
By Stow's time it had fallen into disuse.
Queenhythe as a trading dock gradually lost its usefulness as the size of ships increased and the docks grew along the river, both within the City of London, and along the rest of the Thames. ... it did continue to be a place where lighters could be moored, with the relatively flat bottom of the dock allowing a lighter to be settled at low water, rather than being moored in the river.