At some point, the tiny, begging, half-human voices of the Undead had been transformed into a game the poor played in order to expropriate the soul-cakes.
Presumably they dressed for the part.
By Shakespeare’s time, not only the poor went begging door-to-door for treats as stand-ins for the Undead.
Whether that transition occurred toward the end of Druidism or the beginning of Christianity is not known. It is not even clear that there was a time-certain at which Druidism ended and Christianity took over as opposed to centuries of blending during which each altered the other.
The stronger argument would seem to be that “puling” had begun to be a tradition during Druidic times. The Greek poet Homer describes the speaking of the dead as a “thin piercing noise”[4] Virgil, in his "Aeneid", does the same: “some raise a shout — faintly; the cry essayed mocks their gaping mouths.”[5]
Shakespeare clearly knows the fact, as he indicates elsewhere: "The sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the streets."[6]
He has read his classics. It will be another couple of centuries before the Indo-European diaspora is discovered so scholars might detect any connection between it and puling.
But the people who went puling were the unlettered members of society. How would they know about how the Undead were supposed to sound? It’s not impossible that the educated members taught them how the dead sounded. How likely is it?
We are not surprised that Homer and Virgil might share a belief as to how the speech of the dead sounded. We see the ancient Greeks and Romans as being culturally quite close. What does not come as easily to mind is that millennia before that relationship, they began their routes of migration as Indo-European peoples. They went south.
The Celts went predominantly west and became the peoples who are our present subject.
To read about All Souls Day in the 16th century is to learn that the definition isn’t everything it needs to be.
The 3 days wich begin with the Eve of the Vigil of All Hallows (our Halloween) and continued through All Souls’ Day (November 2nd) were the Catholic substitute for the Druidic Festival of Samhain. Among other things of the greatest importance, on Samhain the Undead rose from the abyss to spend a night back in the world of the living. The households of the living prepared a fine feast to share with their venerated ancestors returned from the netherworld.
They also made cakes to placate those souls that wandered aimlessly having no welcome waiting from their families. In the 16th century, numerous sources refer to giving out the oaten soul-cakes to the poor that came to the door of a house on All Soul’s Day. This is the custom Shakespeare refers in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona":
Valentine: Why, how know you that I am in love? Speed: Marry, by these special marks: first, you have learned… to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas.[1]
Apparently the practice was so common as to be recognized by a general audience.
This Shakespeare quote has moved the “puling” (which it was really called) back one day to Hallowmas, All Hallows Day[2], rather than All Souls.
More importantly, he has referred to puling as a special kind of speech spoken by beggars on Hallowmas Day. Valentine’s point makes clear that this puling is the most abject kind of begging, so much so it is proverbial.
The author of the "Medii Ævi Kalendarium" adds that a Mr. George Tollet glossed the above quote, in the 1780s, with “It is worth remarking that on All Saints' Day, the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish souling, as they call it, i.e., begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey's Dictionary explains the word puling) for soul-cakes, or any good things to make them merry.”[3]
When Sir Thomas More wrote the pamphlet “The poor seely souls pewling out of purgatory” (1529) — probably the source of the earliest citations of the word — the souls were not the poor standing-in for souls between cycles of rebirth — which may or may not have been the original custom — but rather for the dead crying out to be redeemed from Purgatory into Heaven. Considered precisely, this left intact a cherished tradition of baking soul-cakes on the day but having no Undead to enjoy them.
This all was part of the church’s patient way to turn the Druidic worship of the dead — which was one of the several aspects of the enormously popular festival of Samhain — into a remembrance of those trapped for long ages in God’s penitentiary. The outnumbering Undead of the Celts, awaiting rebirth, were transformed into the inhabitants of Purgatory.
CONT ... As Glyn reminded us above, “My young lord” Edward Montagu Jr. had been educated at Dr. Fuller's since January, so it is curious that Pepys makes it sound as if only Sidney has been released from there for the Lord Mayor's show.
Sidney is the robust second son; Edward is the eldest, who has medical challenges.
"Mr. Sidney, who was sent for from Twickenham to see my Lord Mayor’s show to-morrow."
According to https://www.historyofparliamenton… The Parliamentary bio of The Hon. Sidney [Wortley] Montagu "b. 28 July 1650, 2nd s. of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich; bro. of Edward, Visct. Hinchingbrooke [1648 –1688], Hon. Oliver Montagu. [1655 –1689] and Hon. Charles -- I can't find any dates for him. educ. Twickenham (Dr. Fuller) by 1660; Paris acad. (du Plessis) 1662–4; ..."
That means he started at Dr. Fuller's school before 1660.
Charles II had more on his mind concerning his brothers, dead and alive.
If you're following life from Pepys' point of view, this from here on contains SPOILERS. If you want to know what roughly happened when, Stephane's Venetian report was written on this day, old style.
Charles probably learned the news about 2 months ago; he obtained proof of the Breda ceremony, and decided to support the match, asking for a private CofE ceremony to be held at Worcester House on September 3. So this has been kept secret for a long time in Royal circles -- but now the news has leaked as far as the foreign ambassadors, but it takes even longer to reach Seething Lane and Paris. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Charles II and Parliament are trying to unify the people -- and some of the ejected preachers were clearly extremely free thinkers, to put it mildly. One example:
Francis Bamfyld, third son of John Bamfyld of Poltimore in Devon, Esq. was admitted at Wadham College 1631, mt. 16; M.A. 1638, and took Episcopal orders
1641. He was presented to [Sherbourne?] in Dorset, and collated to a prebend in the church of Exeter. He was then zealous for King Charles, and publicly read the Common Prayer longer than any minister in this county.
After Mr. Baxter brought him over to the Parliament party ; he took the Engagement, and in 1653 succeeded Mr. Lyford here.
In 1662 he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, and lost his preferments, and afterwards kept a conventicle here and at London, for which he was imprisoned the last 10 years of his life at several times.
In 1683 he was found guilty at the Old Bailey of refusing the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance, and died that year in Newgate, and was buried at the Anabaptists burial place near Aldergate Street.
Wood says he was very inconstant in his principles, had been a Church-man, Presbyterian, Independent, Anabaptist, and at last a Jew and Enthusiast. His writings were full of the most unintelligible bombast, and in one piece he seems to have anticipated the Hutchinsonian conceit of deriving all sciences and arts from Scripture.
My understanding of THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF DORSET: COMPILED FROM The beft and moft ancient Historians, Inquisitiones post Mortem, and other valuable Records and MSS. in the Public Offices, and Libraries, and in private Hands.
WITH A COPY OF DOMESDAY BOOK and the INQUISITIO GHELDI for the County: INTERSPERSED WITH Some remarkable Particulars of NATURAL HISTORY; ...
By JOHN HUTCHINS, M. A.
Reftor of the Holy Trinity in Wareham, and of Swyre, in the County of Dorset
Some ejected ministers had principles -- like Richard Baxter. This site has biographies of the leading Puritan/Presbyterian leaders and what happened to them, when known. Some just disappeared from the annals: https://www.apuritansmind.com/pur…
And some, like the Rev. Ralph, reluctantly put on his surplus and picked up his Book of Common Prayer, and made the cut.
"All this day soldiers going up and down the town, there being an alarm and many Quakers and others clapped up; but I believe without any reason: only they say in Dorsetshire there hath been some rising discovered."
The Google librarian suggests this was a cause of unrest:
"Starting in 1662, the English Parliament began passing a series of laws whose sole purpose was to silence the Quakers. The first of these laws was “An Act for preventing mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons called Quakers and others refusing to take lawful oaths,” commonly known as “The Quaker Act of 1662”. This act made it illegal for Quakers to worship together.
"Many members of the Religious Society of Friends reacted to these laws by holding meetings for worship in secret, but others continued to meet openly and faced the ongoing persecution. Quaker meetings organized to support their members who were imprisoned or fined for their beliefs and actions, and they often cared for the children of those who were in jail. The Quaker Act also made it illegal for people to refuse to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Church of England.
"Two years after the Quaker Act was passed, the English Parliament passed the Conventicle Act, ...
"These three Acts resulted in the arrests, punishments, and imprisonments of thousands of Friends in England. ... Parliament was not only targeting Quakers, but also others in the Nonconformist Movement.
"Through it all, Quakers continued to openly practice their religion. They met for worship in their meetinghouses, and they drew attention to themselves by articulating their beliefs during speeches and sermons on the streets. Fox would often stand outside steeplehouses and preach loudly, so that people inside the church could hear. These actions by the Quakers resulted in more imprisonments, but from within and without prison walls, Quakers continued to practice." https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu….
Nothing about Dorset, so maybe this October unrest was something else, purely local? The librarian is silent on the subject otherwise.
The Journals of Sir Thomas Allin, 1660-1678, Volume II, 1660-1678 Vol 80 (1940), by R.C. Anderson
Thomas Allin was a Lowestoft ship owner who subsequently spent both Civil Wars and the Commonwealth period as a successful Royalist privateer and commander, leading a charmed life through to the Restoration.
After 1660, he commanded or flew his flag in 12 different ships and was extensively employed in peace and war, although his only participation in major fleet action was on the fourth day of the Four Days’ Battle.
He was an evident hypochondriac, a stickler for protocol and had his fair share of accidents at sea, including a fire and a major grounding, as well as the wreck of two ships of his group on the eastern side of Gibraltar.
Volume II deals with the period 1667-70, when Allin was mostly serving as an admiral in the Mediterranean, in operations against shipping operating out of Algiers and, on occasions, operating with the Dutch. He records plenty of topographical and weather detail, as well as giving insights into the daily problems of remaining on station and sufficiently supplied so far from home.
The volume also includes a short, incomplete account of daily routine off Portsmouth in 1678 and a useful collection of letters and orders that passed between politicians, officials (including Pepys) and commanders 1644-78.
Besides all these acts and others in preparation the members unanimously resolved to establish a constant and ordinary revenue for his Majesty of 1,200,000/. sterling a year, beyond the customs revenue which parliament has already granted to the king for life. With this and the relief from heavy expenditure by the disbanding of the land and sea forces there is no doubt that this king will be one of the most opulent monarchs in Europe. [MRS. PALMER WILL TAKE CARE OF THAT.]
If this Navigation Act has the effect intended he will be in a position to give the law to foreign princes, this being the way to enlarge dominions throughout the world, the most easy for conquests and the least costly for appropriating the property of others, because so long as the king is master of the sea his merchants will be welcome and respected everywhere and they will be able to turn this to advantage. Such ideas were used by the Speaker in the name of the Commons, when he presented the Act to the king for his signature, to which his Majesty thanked them for their care in establishing his revenue, in disbanding the army and looking after the advantage of the crown and nation in the manner indicated.
He got the chancellor to add to what he had to say. The chancellor in an elaborate discourse gave praise to the army, which their past actions, known to all, have not deserved. He said how gladly the king concurred in approving all that was in the 22 Acts, promising every care to see them carried into effect. He approved especially of the Navigation Act and the increase of trade, and in consideration of its importance his Majesty proposes shortly to set up a council of trade consisting of leading merchants from the East and West India Companies, the Levant or Turkey, the Spanish etc. with some persons of rank and experience and members of his privy council. He contemplates another council of distinguished persons for foreign colonization, to render the colonies more pleasant and more populous and consequently more fruitful and profitable, which this nation holds in the Indies and elsewhere. ... London, 1 October, 1660. [Italian.]
FROM Citation: BHO Chicago MLA 'Venice: October 1660', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 32, 1659-1661, ed. Allen B Hinds (London, 1931), pp. 199-211. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… .
@@@
To repeat the bit that should have opened Pepys' ears:
"If this Navigation Act has the effect intended he will be in a position to give the law to foreign princes, this being the true way to enlarge dominions throughout the world, the most easy for conquests and the least costly for appropriating the property of others, because so long as the king is master of the sea his merchants will be welcome and respected everywhere and they will be able to turn this to advantage."
The Italian marts will not feel this act greatly as few ships come thence to these ports all the goods being brought here by English ships. But the Dutch, Danes and other Northerners are the most affected, because they are accustomed to bring a great part of the foreign goods, especially from the Indies. By taking this benefit from foreigners and transferring it to England, they will add to their trade, their wealth will grow and they will become in consequence more proud and powerful.
Among all these acts there is none for incorporating Dunkirk and Mardich and the island of Jamaica with the crown of England, which was talked about. But it is certain that the question was discussed in parliament. Many declared that they must not tie the king's hands in the matter, but in the end incorporation was carried in the Commons.
When the bill came before the Lords they also discussed it, but did not finish owing to disputes. But it was read twice and the third reading was left to November. There seems no doubt that it will then pass as many believe that the king himself wishes parliament to come to this decision and justify him in refusing restitution to the Spaniards. However great may be the advantage to this country to keep Dunkirk there can be no doubt that the retention of Jamaica is correspondingly costly and useless. Its situation and climate do not suit this people, as experience shows, most of the troops sent there at different times and the families sent to colonize it having perished and almost every year the provisions sent there from here come to harm, either by storms at sea or otherwise and that island has been more of a misfortune to this country than anything else.
[SO CONVERSATION ABOUT THE MERITS OF KEEPING DUNKIRK, JAMAICA AND MARDYKE WAS ALREADY HAPPENING]
Of course the Venetian Ambassador had to explain all these new Acts to the Doge and Senate, He clearly saw problems with the Navigation Act, and gave more details of provisions made for the unemployed soldiers and sailors:
218. Francesco Giavarina, Venetian Resident in England, to the Doge and Senate. ... Twenty two acts received the royal assent last week when parliament rose. Some are for naturalizing individual foreigners; some to enable certain persons to alienate property held conditionally; some for restoring gentlemen to the honors etc. they enjoyed before the war and of which the rebels robbed them, and one restores to the House of Seymour the dukedom of Somerset, the claims of the marquis of Hertford having prevailed over those of Worcester.
One is to prevent fraud in the customs and other duties; one to restore ministers to their parishes and churches; one to raise 140,000/. sterling for disbanding all the land forces and part of the naval, in addition to the recent poll tax; one for raising at once a further 70,000/. sterling for his Majesty's present needs; one to settle the manner of disbanding these forces, which will be done as the money comes in to the exchequer, drawing lots for the order of disbanding the regiments. They have begun already, six being dismissed and others will be in a few days. One is to enable disbanded soldiers to practice a trade or open a shop of any kind in any town they please without hindrance from the guilds even if they have not fulfilled the usual formalities prescribed by the rules of the guilds.
The last [ACT] is to encourage and increase navigation; which concerns all trading marts to their hurt, but especially those of Holland and the North who have most trade with this island. It requires that all goods coming to England from Asia, Africa and America shall be brought by English ships only, and by no other nation upon pain of confiscation and other severe penalties. That all goods from the Levant or other parts of Europe must come either in the ships of this nation or those of the country of origin, all foreign ships being strictly forbidden to bring any commodities except those of their own country. Further all French ships bringing goods or passengers to England must pay so much per ton on what they bring, to correspond to a similar tax recently imposed by the Most Christian [LOUIS XIV] upon the merchantmen of this country entering French ports. It is stated that this imposition will only last so long as the French one, with three months added.
"The Duke of York did go to-day by break of day to the Downs."
The Venetian Ambassador provided more details than Pepys when writing to the Doge:
218. Francesco Giavarina, Venetian Resident in England, to the Doge and Senate. … The duke of York went as reported to meet his sister, the princess of Orange. He intended to put to sea, but a fierce gale arose and instead of being taken towards his sister he was driven to the extremities of this kingdom.
Finding it impossible to do as he intended, he landed and returned post to London on Wednesday morning, exceedingly distressed at finding his brother Gloucester dead. He had heard nothing, as they could not send him the news, not knowing where he was.
The princess, who put to sea, was driven back and obliged to return to Holland, so it is not known when she will embark again and arrive in England.
FROM Citation: BHO Chicago MLA 'Venice: October 1660', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 32, 1659-1661, ed. Allen B Hinds (London, 1931), pp. 199-211. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… [accessed 27 October 2023].
Oct. 1. 1660 NS / SEPTEMBER 21, 1660 O.S. Senato, Secreta. Dispacci, Inghilterra. Venetian Archives.
"But with expenses of that sort I guess books is what he meant!"
I suspect he meant both, Gerald, or he would have gone straight to St. Paul's Yard.
I also suspect he's looking for helpful information to help him understand the demands of his office work. He's surrounded by experienced men of the sea, and after six months he's probably embarrassed to keep on saying things like "What's a grommet?"
L&M: A Latin work, compiled by Johann Heinrich Alsted (died 1638), German Protestant divine and pedagog, arranged (as was usual until the early 18th century) by subjects, not alphabetically; a very influential encyclopedia in its day; in Cotton Mather's words "A North-West Passage to all the Sciences".
"Great talk as if the Duke of York do now own the marriage between him and the Chancellor’s daughter."
Pepys' 'as if' indicates he doesn't take this rumor seriously. The idea that Anne Hyde could possibly be the Duchess of York was way too fanciful. James was destined for much more influential brides.
Eugene Maurice of Savoy (1635 - 1673). Although he was an Italian prince from the Savoy dynasty, Eugene Maurice was also a high-ranking French aristocrat, as he held the distinguished title of Count of Soissons, which he inherited from his mother, French princess Marie de Bourbon (1606–1692).
Eugene Maurice was born in Chambéry, the former capital of Savoy. The title Count of Soissons was named for the town of Soissons in northern France, located in the territory of Picardy roughly 100 km northeast of Paris.
The importance of the title Count of Soissons is indicated by the fact that its bearer was addressed simply as "Monsieur le Comte" at the French court. (Such abbreviations were reserved only for the highest nobility. For example, the French king’s brother was addressed simply as Monsieur, while the Prince of Condé, Louis XIV’s close relative, was addressed as Monsieur le Prince. The shortest titles were considered the most elegant.)
Monsieur le Comte married the niece of the French Chief Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, on on 21 February 1657. Her name was Olympe Mancini (1638–1708). (Their children included Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), a famous Habsburg general who fought against Louis XIV with Marlborough long after the Diary. Since he was a younger son, Prince Eugene didn’t inherit the title.) https://history.info/on-this-day/…
"Monsieur le Comte" played a role in defeating the Spaniards at the battle of the Dunes in 1658 (alongside James, Duke of York), took part in the campaigns at Flanders (1667), Franche-Comté (1668) and Holland (1672); and was present as Ambassador Extraordinary of France at the coronation of Charles II.
"Monsieur le Comte" died at Unna in Westphalia in 1673, from a deadly fever -- although there were whispers that he had been poisoned -- by Olympe. Accusations of using poison followed her for the rest of her life, and had her ejected from the French and Spanish courts.
"Madame la Comtesse" Olympe Mancini was the sister of Hortense Mancini, one of Charles II's passions when he was young and in exile, and much later in life as the salon-keeping alcoholic Duchess of Mazarin (1646 – 1699). https://partylike1660.com/olympe-… https://partylike1660.com/hortens…
I can imagine Charles innocently asking the Ambassador Monsieur le Comte, "And how's the family?" and standing back waiting for the explosion.
"After that I to Westminster to White Hall, where I saw the Duke de Soissons go from his audience with a very great deal of state: his own coach all red velvet covered with gold lace, and drawn by six barbes, and attended by twenty pages very rich in clothes."
Barbe horses were very expensive, what we might call quarter horses, and until the beginning of the 17th century mostly confined to Spain.
"He also became Lord High Admiral of England, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Master of the Horse."
I doubt Buckingham was qualified to be an Admiral, never mind the Lord High one -- but he was very qualified to be Master of the Horse, and he devoted much time to enriching King James' and British equestrian blood lines with the famous barbe horses from Spain. For the horsey story, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
George Villiers, later the 1st Duke of Buckingham, is largely credited with the introduction of barbe horses into England -- which were then cross bred with local horses and form the original stock from which British racing horses are bred, which have so thrilled later kings and queens.
"FROM 1615 TO 1625, George Villiers was the favorite and “sweet wife” of King James. Villiers parlayed his homosexuality — not to mention his other talents, including a outstanding gift for horsemanship — into vast wealth and political power. An accomplished rider, he was involved in several colorful incidents, notably a struggle for ownership of a famous breed of racehorse, the Sheffield Barb."
This is a story about how Villiers, a country boy, used horses to become the most powerful courtier in England, as told in The Horseman in King James I By PATRICIA NELL WARREN https://glreview.org/article/arti…
Barbe horses were also brought back from Spain by Prince Charles and George Villiers in 1623 when they went a-courting:
"The farewell presents, too numerous to be fully recited, were magnificent. Among them were, given to Prince Charles by King Phillip, 18 Spanish jennets, 6 Barbary horses, 6 mares, and 20 foals. These superb animals were covered with cloths of crimson velvet, guarded with gold lace; one of them being distinguished by a saddle of fine lamb-skin, the other “furniture” being set with rich pearl; among a number of cross-bows which were given, those used by the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and Ossunia, in the wars, were peculiarly valuable to the Prince. "To Buckingham’s share, among others, were several Spanish jennets, and Barbary or Arabian horses, and a splendid diamond girdle, worth 30,000 crowns. "The Queen presented the young Prince with linen, and skins of ambar and of kids, their scent and perfume amounting in value to many thousand crowns."
Fortunately, Prince Charles left the Infanta behind.
from LIFE AND TIMES OF GEORGE VILLIERS. FROM ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES. BY MRS. THOMSON, IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1860. LONDON: PRINTED BY R. BORN, GLOUCESTER STREET, REGENT’S PARK. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5…
"... I trust James has been persuaded to come out of hiding and visit Anne Hyde and meet his daughter."
MY ERROR -- the baby was a son -- another reason for James to fess up. The little fellow is now 3rd in line if dad honorably reveals his marriages and accepts paternity. Or will Charles have to "out" him?
Comments
Third Reading
About All Hallows
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
At some point, the tiny, begging, half-human voices of the Undead had been transformed into a game the poor played in order to expropriate the soul-cakes.
Presumably they dressed for the part.
By Shakespeare’s time, not only the poor went begging door-to-door for treats as stand-ins for the Undead.
Whether that transition occurred toward the end of Druidism or the beginning of Christianity is not known. It is not even clear that there was a time-certain at which Druidism ended and Christianity took over as opposed to centuries of blending during which each altered the other.
The stronger argument would seem to be that “puling” had begun to be a tradition during Druidic times.
The Greek poet Homer describes the speaking of the dead as a “thin piercing noise”[4]
Virgil, in his "Aeneid", does the same: “some raise a shout — faintly; the cry essayed mocks their gaping mouths.”[5]
Shakespeare clearly knows the fact, as he indicates elsewhere:
"The sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the streets."[6]
He has read his classics. It will be another couple of centuries before the Indo-European diaspora is discovered so scholars might detect any connection between it and puling.
But the people who went puling were the unlettered members of society. How would they know about how the Undead were supposed to sound? It’s not impossible that the educated members taught them how the dead sounded. How likely is it?
We are not surprised that Homer and Virgil might share a belief as to how the speech of the dead sounded. We see the ancient Greeks and Romans as being culturally quite close. What does not come as easily to mind is that millennia before that relationship, they began their routes of migration as Indo-European peoples. They went south.
The Celts went predominantly west and became the peoples who are our present subject.
About All Hallows
San Diego Sarah • Link
To read about All Souls Day in the 16th century is to learn that the definition isn’t everything it needs to be.
The 3 days wich begin with the Eve of the Vigil of All Hallows (our Halloween) and continued through All Souls’ Day (November 2nd) were the Catholic substitute for the Druidic Festival of Samhain.
Among other things of the greatest importance, on Samhain the Undead rose from the abyss to spend a night back in the world of the living. The households of the living prepared a fine feast to share with their venerated ancestors returned from the netherworld.
They also made cakes to placate those souls that wandered aimlessly having no welcome waiting from their families. In the 16th century, numerous sources refer to giving out the oaten soul-cakes to the poor that came to the door of a house on All Soul’s Day.
This is the custom Shakespeare refers in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona":
Valentine: Why, how know you that I am in love?
Speed: Marry, by these special marks: first, you have
learned… to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas.[1]
Apparently the practice was so common as to be recognized by a general audience.
This Shakespeare quote has moved the “puling” (which it was really called) back one day to Hallowmas, All Hallows Day[2], rather than All Souls.
More importantly, he has referred to puling as a special kind of speech spoken by beggars on Hallowmas Day. Valentine’s point makes clear that this puling is the most abject kind of begging, so much so it is proverbial.
The author of the "Medii Ævi Kalendarium" adds that a Mr. George Tollet glossed the above quote, in the 1780s, with “It is worth remarking that on All Saints' Day, the poor people in Staffordshire, and perhaps in other country places, go from parish to parish souling, as they call it, i.e., begging and puling (or singing small, as Bailey's Dictionary explains the word puling) for soul-cakes, or any good things to make them merry.”[3]
When Sir Thomas More wrote the pamphlet “The poor seely souls pewling out of purgatory” (1529) — probably the source of the earliest citations of the word — the souls were not the poor standing-in for souls between cycles of rebirth — which may or may not have been the original custom — but rather for the dead crying out to be redeemed from Purgatory into Heaven. Considered precisely, this left intact a cherished tradition of baking soul-cakes on the day but having no Undead to enjoy them.
This all was part of the church’s patient way to turn the Druidic worship of the dead — which was one of the several aspects of the enormously popular festival of Samhain — into a remembrance of those trapped for long ages in God’s penitentiary.
The outnumbering Undead of the Celts, awaiting rebirth, were transformed into the inhabitants of Purgatory.
About Sunday 28 October 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONT ...
As Glyn reminded us above, “My young lord” Edward Montagu Jr. had been educated at Dr. Fuller's since January, so it is curious that Pepys makes it sound as if only Sidney has been released from there for the Lord Mayor's show.
Sidney is the robust second son; Edward is the eldest, who has medical challenges.
About Sunday 28 October 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Mr. Sidney, who was sent for from Twickenham to see my Lord Mayor’s show to-morrow."
According to https://www.historyofparliamenton…
The Parliamentary bio of The Hon. Sidney [Wortley] Montagu "b. 28 July 1650, 2nd s. of Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich;
bro. of Edward, Visct. Hinchingbrooke [1648 –1688],
Hon. Oliver Montagu. [1655 –1689]
and Hon. Charles -- I can't find any dates for him.
educ. Twickenham (Dr. Fuller) by 1660; Paris acad. (du Plessis) 1662–4; ..."
That means he started at Dr. Fuller's school before 1660.
Dr. William Fuller's school
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Wednesday 19 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Charles II had more on his mind concerning his brothers, dead and alive.
If you're following life from Pepys' point of view, this from here on contains SPOILERS.
If you want to know what roughly happened when, Stephane's Venetian report was written on this day, old style.
Charles probably learned the news about 2 months ago; he obtained proof of the Breda ceremony, and decided to support the match, asking for a private CofE ceremony to be held at Worcester House on September 3.
So this has been kept secret for a long time in Royal circles -- but now the news has leaked as far as the foreign ambassadors, but it takes even longer to reach Seething Lane and Paris.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Act of Uniformity 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
Charles II and Parliament are trying to unify the people -- and some of the ejected preachers were clearly extremely free thinkers, to put it mildly. One example:
Francis Bamfyld, third son of John Bamfyld of Poltimore in Devon, Esq. was admitted at Wadham College 1631, mt. 16; M.A. 1638, and took Episcopal orders
1641. He was presented to [Sherbourne?] in Dorset, and collated to a prebend in the church of Exeter. He was then zealous for King Charles, and publicly read the Common Prayer longer than any minister in this county.
After Mr. Baxter brought him over to the Parliament party ; he took the Engagement, and in 1653 succeeded Mr. Lyford here.
In 1662 he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, and lost his preferments, and afterwards kept a conventicle here and at London, for which he was imprisoned the last 10 years of his life at several times.
In 1683 he was found guilty at the Old Bailey of refusing the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance, and died that year in Newgate, and was buried at the Anabaptists burial place near Aldergate Street.
Wood says he was very inconstant in his principles, had been a Church-man, Presbyterian, Independent, Anabaptist, and at last a Jew and Enthusiast. His writings were full of the most unintelligible bombast, and in one piece he seems to have anticipated the Hutchinsonian conceit of deriving all sciences and arts from Scripture.
My understanding of
THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF DORSET:
COMPILED FROM
The beft and moft ancient Historians, Inquisitiones post Mortem,
and other valuable Records and MSS. in the Public Offices, and
Libraries, and in private Hands.
WITH A COPY OF
DOMESDAY BOOK and the INQUISITIO GHELDI for the County:
INTERSPERSED WITH
Some remarkable Particulars of NATURAL HISTORY; ...
By JOHN HUTCHINS, M. A.
Reftor of the Holy Trinity in Wareham, and of Swyre, in the County of Dorset
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
Printed by W. BOWYER and J. NICHOLS.
MDCCLXXIV. (I think that's 1774)
https://ia600706.us.archive.org/1…
Some ejected ministers had principles -- like Richard Baxter.
This site has biographies of the leading Puritan/Presbyterian leaders and what happened to them, when known. Some just disappeared from the annals:
https://www.apuritansmind.com/pur…
And some, like the Rev. Ralph, reluctantly put on his surplus and picked up his Book of Common Prayer, and made the cut.
About Sunday 26 October 1662
San Diego Sarah • Link
"All this day soldiers going up and down the town, there being an alarm and many Quakers and others clapped up; but I believe without any reason: only they say in Dorsetshire there hath been some rising discovered."
The Google librarian suggests this was a cause of unrest:
"Starting in 1662, the English Parliament began passing a series of laws whose sole purpose was to silence the Quakers. The first of these laws was “An Act for preventing mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons called Quakers and others refusing to take lawful oaths,” commonly known as “The Quaker Act of 1662”. This act made it illegal for Quakers to worship together.
"Many members of the Religious Society of Friends reacted to these laws by holding meetings for worship in secret, but others continued to meet openly and faced the ongoing persecution. Quaker meetings organized to support their members who were imprisoned or fined for their beliefs and actions, and they often cared for the children of those who were in jail. The Quaker Act also made it illegal for people to refuse to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Church of England.
"Two years after the Quaker Act was passed, the English Parliament passed the Conventicle Act, ...
"These three Acts resulted in the arrests, punishments, and imprisonments of thousands of Friends in England. ... Parliament was not only targeting Quakers, but also others in the Nonconformist Movement.
"Through it all, Quakers continued to openly practice their religion. They met for worship in their meetinghouses, and they drew attention to themselves by articulating their beliefs during speeches and sermons on the streets. Fox would often stand outside steeplehouses and preach loudly, so that people inside the church could hear. These actions by the Quakers resulted in more imprisonments, but from within and without prison walls, Quakers continued to practice."
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu….
Nothing about Dorset, so maybe this October unrest was something else, purely local? The librarian is silent on the subject otherwise.
About Sir Thomas Allin
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Journals of Sir Thomas Allin, 1660-1678,
Volume II, 1660-1678
Vol 80 (1940), by R.C. Anderson
Thomas Allin was a Lowestoft ship owner who subsequently spent both Civil Wars and the Commonwealth period as a successful Royalist privateer and commander, leading a charmed life through to the Restoration.
After 1660, he commanded or flew his flag in 12 different ships and was extensively employed in peace and war, although his only participation in major fleet action was on the fourth day of the Four Days’ Battle.
He was an evident hypochondriac, a stickler for protocol and had his fair share of accidents at sea, including a fire and a major grounding, as well as the wreck of two ships of his group on the eastern side of Gibraltar.
Volume II deals with the period 1667-70, when Allin was mostly serving as an admiral in the Mediterranean, in operations against shipping operating out of Algiers and, on occasions, operating with the Dutch. He records plenty of topographical and weather detail, as well as giving insights into the daily problems of remaining on station and sufficiently supplied so far from home.
The volume also includes a short, incomplete account of daily routine off Portsmouth in 1678 and a useful collection of letters and orders that passed between politicians, officials (including Pepys) and commanders 1644-78.
To read the whole book please become a member of the Navy Records Society.
https://www.navyrecords.org.uk/th…
About Thursday 13 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 3
Besides all these acts and others in preparation the members unanimously resolved to establish a constant and ordinary revenue for his Majesty of 1,200,000/. sterling a year, beyond the customs revenue which parliament has already granted to the king for life.
With this and the relief from heavy expenditure by the disbanding of the land and sea forces there is no doubt that this king will be one of the most opulent monarchs in Europe.
[MRS. PALMER WILL TAKE CARE OF THAT.]
If this Navigation Act has the effect intended he will be in a position to give the law to foreign princes, this being the way to enlarge dominions throughout the world, the most easy for conquests and the least costly for appropriating the property of others, because so long as the king is master of the sea his merchants will be welcome and respected everywhere and they will be able to turn this to advantage.
Such ideas were used by the Speaker in the name of the Commons, when he presented the Act to the king for his signature, to which his Majesty thanked them for their care in establishing his revenue, in disbanding the army and looking after the advantage of the crown and nation in the manner indicated.
He got the chancellor to add to what he had to say.
The chancellor in an elaborate discourse gave praise to the army, which their past actions, known to all, have not deserved. He said how gladly the king concurred in approving all that was in the 22 Acts, promising every care to see them carried into effect.
He approved especially of the Navigation Act and the increase of trade, and in consideration of its importance his Majesty proposes shortly to set up a council of trade consisting of leading merchants from the East and West India Companies, the Levant or Turkey, the Spanish etc. with some persons of rank and experience and members of his privy council.
He contemplates another council of distinguished persons for foreign colonization, to render the colonies more pleasant and more populous and consequently more fruitful and profitable, which this nation holds in the Indies and elsewhere.
...
London, 1 October, 1660.
[Italian.]
FROM Citation: BHO Chicago MLA
'Venice: October 1660', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 32, 1659-1661, ed. Allen B Hinds (London, 1931), pp. 199-211. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… .
@@@
To repeat the bit that should have opened Pepys' ears:
"If this Navigation Act has the effect intended he will be in a position to give the law to foreign princes, this being the true way to enlarge dominions throughout the world, the most easy for conquests and the least costly for appropriating the property of others, because so long as the king is master of the sea his merchants will be welcome and respected everywhere and they will be able to turn this to advantage."
About Thursday 13 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
The Italian marts will not feel this act greatly as few ships come thence to these ports all the goods being brought here by English ships.
But the Dutch, Danes and other Northerners are the most affected, because they are accustomed to bring a great part of the foreign goods, especially from the Indies. By taking this benefit from foreigners and transferring it to England, they will add to their trade, their wealth will grow and they will become in consequence more proud and powerful.
Among all these acts there is none for incorporating Dunkirk and Mardich and the island of Jamaica with the crown of England, which was talked about. But it is certain that the question was discussed in parliament. Many declared that they must not tie the king's hands in the matter, but in the end incorporation was carried in the Commons.
When the bill came before the Lords they also discussed it, but did not finish owing to disputes. But it was read twice and the third reading was left to November.
There seems no doubt that it will then pass as many believe that the king himself wishes parliament to come to this decision and justify him in refusing restitution to the Spaniards.
However great may be the advantage to this country to keep Dunkirk there can be no doubt that the retention of Jamaica is correspondingly costly and useless. Its situation and climate do not suit this people, as experience shows, most of the troops sent there at different times and the families sent to colonize it having perished and almost every year the provisions sent there from here come to harm, either by storms at sea or otherwise and that island has been more of a misfortune to this country than anything else.
[SO CONVERSATION ABOUT THE MERITS OF KEEPING DUNKIRK, JAMAICA AND MARDYKE WAS ALREADY HAPPENING]
About Thursday 13 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
Of course the Venetian Ambassador had to explain all these new Acts to the Doge and Senate,
He clearly saw problems with the Navigation Act, and gave more details of provisions made for the unemployed soldiers and sailors:
Oct. 1. 1660 -- that's Sep. 21, 1660 O.S.
Senato, Secreta.
Dispacci, Inghilterra.
Venetian Archives.
218. Francesco Giavarina, Venetian Resident in England, to the Doge and Senate.
...
Twenty two acts received the royal assent last week when parliament rose.
Some are for naturalizing individual foreigners; some to enable certain persons to alienate property held conditionally; some for restoring gentlemen to the honors etc. they enjoyed before the war and of which the rebels robbed them, and one restores to the House of Seymour the dukedom of Somerset, the claims of the marquis of Hertford having prevailed over those of Worcester.
One is to prevent fraud in the customs and other duties;
one to restore ministers to their parishes and churches;
one to raise 140,000/. sterling for disbanding all the land forces and part of the naval, in addition to the recent poll tax;
one for raising at once a further 70,000/. sterling for his Majesty's present needs;
one to settle the manner of disbanding these forces, which will be done as the money comes in to the exchequer, drawing lots for the order of disbanding the regiments. They have begun already, six being dismissed and others will be in a few days.
One is to enable disbanded soldiers to practice a trade or open a shop of any kind in any town they please without hindrance from the guilds even if they have not fulfilled the usual formalities prescribed by the rules of the guilds.
The last [ACT] is to encourage and increase navigation; which concerns all trading marts to their hurt, but especially those of Holland and the North who have most trade with this island. It requires that all goods coming to England from Asia, Africa and America shall be brought by English ships only, and by no other nation upon pain of confiscation and other severe penalties.
That all goods from the Levant or other parts of Europe must come either in the ships of this nation or those of the country of origin, all foreign ships being strictly forbidden to bring any commodities except those of their own country.
Further all French ships bringing goods or passengers to England must pay so much per ton on what they bring, to correspond to a similar tax recently imposed by the Most Christian [LOUIS XIV] upon the merchantmen of this country entering French ports.
It is stated that this imposition will only last so long as the French one, with three months added.
About Tuesday 11 September 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"The Duke of York did go to-day by break of day to the Downs."
The Venetian Ambassador provided more details than Pepys when writing to the Doge:
218. Francesco Giavarina, Venetian Resident in England, to the Doge and Senate.
…
The duke of York went as reported to meet his sister, the princess of Orange. He intended to put to sea, but a fierce gale arose and instead of being taken towards his sister he was driven to the extremities of this kingdom.
Finding it impossible to do as he intended, he landed and returned post to London on Wednesday morning, exceedingly distressed at finding his brother Gloucester dead.
He had heard nothing, as they could not send him the news, not knowing where he was.
The princess, who put to sea, was driven back and obliged to return to Holland, so it is not known when she will embark again and arrive in England.
FROM Citation: BHO Chicago MLA
'Venice: October 1660', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 32, 1659-1661, ed. Allen B Hinds (London, 1931), pp. 199-211. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… [accessed 27 October 2023].
Oct. 1. 1660 NS / SEPTEMBER 21, 1660 O.S.
Senato, Secreta.
Dispacci, Inghilterra.
Venetian Archives.
About Saturday 27 October 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"But with expenses of that sort I guess books is what he meant!"
I suspect he meant both, Gerald, or he would have gone straight to St. Paul's Yard.
I also suspect he's looking for helpful information to help him understand the demands of his office work. He's surrounded by experienced men of the sea, and after six months he's probably embarrassed to keep on saying things like "What's a grommet?"
About Johann Heinrich Alsted
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M: A Latin work, compiled by Johann Heinrich Alsted (died 1638), German Protestant divine and pedagog, arranged (as was usual until the early 18th century) by subjects, not alphabetically; a very influential encyclopedia in its day; in Cotton Mather's words "A North-West Passage to all the Sciences".
About Friday 26 October 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Great talk as if the Duke of York do now own the marriage between him and the Chancellor’s daughter."
Pepys' 'as if' indicates he doesn't take this rumor seriously. The idea that Anne Hyde could possibly be the Duchess of York was way too fanciful.
James was destined for much more influential brides.
About Maurice Eugène de Savoie Soissons
San Diego Sarah • Link
Eugene Maurice of Savoy (1635 - 1673). Although he was an Italian prince from the Savoy dynasty, Eugene Maurice was also a high-ranking French aristocrat, as he held the distinguished title of Count of Soissons, which he inherited from his mother, French princess Marie de Bourbon (1606–1692).
Eugene Maurice was born in Chambéry, the former capital of Savoy. The title Count of Soissons was named for the town of Soissons in northern France, located in the territory of Picardy roughly 100 km northeast of Paris.
The importance of the title Count of Soissons is indicated by the fact that its bearer was addressed simply as "Monsieur le Comte" at the French court. (Such abbreviations were reserved only for the highest nobility. For example, the French king’s brother was addressed simply as Monsieur, while the Prince of Condé, Louis XIV’s close relative, was addressed as Monsieur le Prince. The shortest titles were considered the most elegant.)
Monsieur le Comte married the niece of the French Chief Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, on on 21 February 1657. Her name was Olympe Mancini (1638–1708).
(Their children included Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), a famous Habsburg general who fought against Louis XIV with Marlborough long after the Diary. Since he was a younger son, Prince Eugene didn’t inherit the title.)
https://history.info/on-this-day/…
"Monsieur le Comte" played a role in defeating the Spaniards at the battle of the Dunes in 1658 (alongside James, Duke of York), took part in the campaigns at Flanders (1667), Franche-Comté (1668) and Holland (1672); and was present as Ambassador Extraordinary of France at the coronation of Charles II.
"Monsieur le Comte" died at Unna in Westphalia in 1673, from a deadly fever -- although there were whispers that he had been poisoned -- by Olympe. Accusations of using poison followed her for the rest of her life, and had her ejected from the French and Spanish courts.
"Madame la Comtesse" Olympe Mancini was the sister of Hortense Mancini, one of Charles II's passions when he was young and in exile, and much later in life as the salon-keeping alcoholic Duchess of Mazarin (1646 – 1699).
https://partylike1660.com/olympe-…
https://partylike1660.com/hortens…
I can imagine Charles innocently asking the Ambassador Monsieur le Comte, "And how's the family?" and standing back waiting for the explosion.
About Horses
San Diego Sarah • Link
Friday 26 October 1660
"After that I to Westminster to White Hall, where I saw the Duke de Soissons go from his audience with a very great deal of state: his own coach all red velvet covered with gold lace, and drawn by six barbes, and attended by twenty pages very rich in clothes."
Barbe horses were very expensive, what we might call quarter horses, and until the beginning of the 17th century mostly confined to Spain.
We had a discussion about them and their place in English history, starting at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About George Villiers (1st Duke of Buckingham)
San Diego Sarah • Link
"He also became Lord High Admiral of England, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Master of the Horse."
I doubt Buckingham was qualified to be an Admiral, never mind the Lord High one -- but he was very qualified to be Master of the Horse, and he devoted much time to enriching King James' and British equestrian blood lines with the famous barbe horses from Spain.
For the horsey story, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Friday 26 October 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
George Villiers, later the 1st Duke of Buckingham, is largely credited with the introduction of barbe horses into England -- which were then cross bred with local horses and form the original stock from which British racing horses are bred, which have so thrilled later kings and queens.
"FROM 1615 TO 1625, George Villiers was the favorite and “sweet wife” of King James. Villiers parlayed his homosexuality — not to mention his other talents, including a outstanding gift for horsemanship — into vast wealth and political power. An accomplished rider, he was involved in several colorful incidents, notably a struggle for ownership of a famous breed of racehorse, the Sheffield Barb."
This is a story about how Villiers, a country boy, used horses to become the most powerful courtier in England, as told in
The Horseman in King James I
By PATRICIA NELL WARREN
https://glreview.org/article/arti…
Barbe horses were also brought back from Spain by Prince Charles and George Villiers in 1623 when they went a-courting:
"The farewell presents, too numerous to be fully recited, were magnificent. Among them were, given to Prince Charles by King Phillip, 18 Spanish jennets, 6 Barbary horses, 6 mares, and 20 foals. These superb animals were covered with cloths of crimson velvet, guarded with gold lace; one of them being distinguished by a saddle of fine lamb-skin, the other “furniture” being set with rich pearl; among a number of cross-bows which were given, those used by the Dukes of Medina Sidonia and Ossunia, in the wars, were peculiarly valuable to the Prince.
"To Buckingham’s share, among others, were several Spanish jennets, and Barbary or Arabian horses, and a splendid diamond girdle, worth 30,000 crowns.
"The Queen presented the young Prince with linen, and skins of ambar and of kids, their scent and perfume amounting in value to many thousand crowns."
Fortunately, Prince Charles left the Infanta behind.
from LIFE AND TIMES OF GEORGE VILLIERS.
FROM ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC SOURCES.
BY MRS. THOMSON,
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1860.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY R. BORN, GLOUCESTER STREET,
REGENT’S PARK.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5…
About Thursday 25 October 1660
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... I trust James has been persuaded to come out of hiding and visit Anne Hyde and meet his daughter."
MY ERROR -- the baby was a son -- another reason for James to fess up. The little fellow is now 3rd in line if dad honorably reveals his marriages and accepts paternity. Or will Charles have to "out" him?