jeannine

Articles

jeannine has written 14 articles:

Encyclopedia topics

jeannine has written summaries for eight topics:

Annotations and comments

jeannine has posted 1,236 annotations/comments since 16 June 2004.

Comments

First Reading

About Thursday 15 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

"he’s already got a good system. It involves shoving the boy through the window". Thank you Glyn--you made my day with this one!

About Wednesday 14 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Just wanted to point this out too. In fairness to Sam, Elizabeth and all, in regards to Elizabeth, Ollard does point out in the quote above that "From the evidence of the Diary, INDEED THE ONLY SOURCE ON THIS TOPIC"...so, it appears (unless someone else has other information here to share) that we will only see Elizabeth through Sam's eyes. She will never get her own voice, she will never be given a non-biased perspective as any information about her comes only from Sam.
I recently did a detailed book search looking for a biography about her and just located one book that was categorized as a "biography" instead of fiction. The majority of the information in that book is drawn from the diary. If I find anything in it of value to add to our understanding of Elizabeth, her family, etc. that is either outside of the Diary and/or not a spoiler, I'll post it. Also, there is a letter from Balty to Sam in much later years which is long but gives some insight into their background prior to coming to England. I'll find a spot on the site somewhere for it when I can understand where it fits into the "big picture" and will post it too.

About Wednesday 14 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Elizabeth-additional considerations.
As Tomilin is so often referred to in discussing Elizabeth's character, perhaps this view from Ollard, another biographer of many other contemporaries (Sandwich, Charles I &II) may offer a different perspective. From his biography "Pepys" he notes that "In the early years at the Navy Office Pepys made at least spasmodic efforts to share with his wife the enhancements offered by the great fair of the world. He took her with him to the theatre..[quotes many other diary entries of shared activities]. From the evidence of the Diary, indeed the only source on this topic, it was not the widening of Pepys intellectual interests and artistic horizons that loosened the ties between them. Elizabeth’s formal education, like her antecedents, left, no doubt, much to be desired. Left to herself she would, it seems, have preferred playing blind-man’s-bluff with the maid to hearing about the methods of limiting population practiced in East Prussia or the million other subjects on which Pepys was ready to absorb information. But she consistently shows in the Diary an attractive and unselfish readiness to enter into her husband’s interests and to offer him her untutored natural abilities and tastes to shape and direct. (p. 123)…. As in the spring of 1660 when he went to sea with Mountagu she still had no power, no resources no friends. Her raison d'etre was to please him. She could make herself disagreeable, but that was all. He held all the cards; money, freedom, social opportunity, and played them for himself. Increasingly this meant that the world he lived in grew apart from hers.” (p. 127)

About Tuesday 13 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

"My namesake seems to be OK for ordinary cooking, but not for special occasions." ...According to my extensive research, nowdays the namesake for every aspect of domestic dumping from high end fancy party prep to low end caring for sick pets and all in between seems to be simply "hey mom". How much more efficient we are today when one name has replaced all of those maid names.......

About Wednesday 14 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Robert, one more perspective to add to the mix. It has also occured to me that as Sam rises in stature that it would benefit him to have his wife "aligned" with someone to help her "grow" with his position too. I do know that as Sandwich rose up the ranks that he nicely but firmly encouraged his wife to learn the ways of being a lady, etc. and learn how to "fit" into the court, etc. Now Sam had to see what Sandwich was doing and how his career took off. As perceptive as he was he also had to notice the change in Lady Sandwich's role, attire, manners, etc. over time. Even if he didn't want to pay for a companion for Elizabeth then he could have encouraged other female relationships with appropriate ladies (perhaps someone like Lady Sandwich, who actually liked Elizabeth). He was also close enough with the Lady that he could have asked her advice, which would have reflected admirably on him. In this case, helping to transition his wife up the status chain would have been a "good" reflection on him. Even with the "silent wife is a good wife" attitude at the times (which our site super hero AquaMan describes accurately), having your wife reflect class, status, etc. would be a bonus to any man on the rise.

About Winifred Wells

jeannine  •  Link

Winifred, one of the Queen's maids of honor, came from an ultra-royalist family, and she served Charles on and off as a lesser mistress for many years, causing him little duress (in comparison to any other mistresses), for "as her father had faithfully served Charles I she thought it would be ill become his daughter to decline to be served by Charles II." (Grammont)

About Tuesday 13 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Robert, and to add to the role of "Lucky Bess" it appears that Sam didn't even pick up any juicy gossip from that man of total discretions and well kept secrets himself, Mr. Pierce! She won't even get to share in some good dirt while she's cleaning (or perhaps overseeing the cleaning) up the mess! Life was so tough in those times!

About Thomas Butler (6th Earl of Ossory)

jeannine  •  Link

From Grammont's footnotes

Thomas Earl of Ossory, eldest son of the first, and father of the last Duke of Ormond, was born at Kilkenny, 8th July, 1634. At the age of twenty-one years he had so much distinguished himself, that Sir Robert Southwell then drew the following character of him: -- "He is a young man with a very handsome face; a good head of hair; well set; very good-natured; rides the great horse very well; is a very good tennis-player, fencer, and dancer; understands music, and plays on the guitar and lute; speaks French elegantly; reads Italian fluently; is a good historian; and so well versed in romances, that if a gallery be full of pictures and hangings, he will tell the stories of all that are there described. He shuts up his door at eight o'clock in the evening, and studies till midnight: he is temperate, courteous, and excellent in all his behaviour."
[Evelyn, who became acquainted with the Earl of Ossory at Paris in 1649-50, records the following amusing anecdote in his diary: -- "May 7th, 1650. -- I went with Sir Richard Browne's lady and my wife, together with the Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Ossory, and his brother, to Vamber, a place near the City famous for butter; when coming homewards, being on foot, a quarrel arose between Lord Ossory and a man in a garden, who thrust Lord Ossory from the gate with uncivil language, on which our young gallants struck the fellow on the pate, and bid him ask pardon, which he did with much submission, and so we parted; but we were not gone far before we heard a noise behind us, and saw people coming with guns, swords, staves, and forks, and who followed flinging stones; on which we turned and were forced to engage, and with our swords, stones, and the help of our servants (one of whom had a pistol) made our retreat for near a quarter of a mile, when we took shelter in a house, where we were besieged, and at length forced to submit to be prisoners. Lord Hatton with some others were taken prisoners in the flight, and his lordship was confined under three locks, and as many doors, in this rude fellow's master's house, who pretended to be steward to Monsieur St. Germain, one of the Presidents of the Grand Chambre du Parlement, and a Canon of Notre Dame. Several of us were much hurt. One of our lacquies escaping to Paris, caused the bailiff of St. Germain to come with his guard and rescue us. Immediately afterwards came Monsieur St. Germain himself in great wrath on hearing that his housekeeper was assaulted; but when he saw the king's officers, the gentlemen and noblemen, with his Majesty's Resident, and understood the occasion, he was ashamed of the accident, requesting the fellow's pardon, and desiring the ladies to accept their submission and a supper at his house."

And again, May 12th. -- "I have often heard that gallant gentleman, my Lord Ossory, affirm solemnly that in all the conflicts he ever was in, at sea or on land (in the most desperate of which he had often been), he believed he was never in so much danger as when these people rose against us. He used to call it the battaile de Vambre, and remember it with a great deal of mirth as an adventure en cavalier."]

His death was occasioned by a fever, 30th July, 1680, to the grief of his family and the public.

http://www.pseudopodium.org/repre… see note 49

About Richard Butler (1st Earl of Arran)

jeannine  •  Link

From Grammont's notes

Richard Butler, Earl of Arran, fifth son of James Butler, the first Duke of Ormond. He was born 15th July, 1639, and educated with great care, being taught every thing suitable to his birth, and the great affection his parents had for him. As he grew up, he distinguished himself by a brave and excellent disposition, which determined him to a military life. When the duke, his father, was first made lord-lieutenant of Ireland, after the Restoration, his majesty was pleased, by his letter, dated April 23, 1662, to create Lord Richard, Baron Butler of Cloghgrenan, Viscount Tullogh, in the county of Catherlough, and Earl of Arran, with remainder to his brother. In September, 1664, he married Lady Mary Stuart, only surviving daughter of James Duke of Richmond and Lennox, by Mary, the only daughter of the great Duke of Buckingham, who died in July, 1667, at the age of eighteen, and was interred at Kilkenny. He distinguished himself in reducing the mutineers at Carrick-Fergus, and behaved with great courage in the famous sea-fight with the Dutch, in 1673. In August that year, he was created Baron Butler of Weston, in the county of Huntingdon. He married, in the preceding June, Dorothy, daughter of John Ferrars, of Tamworth Castle, in Warwickshire, Esq. In 1682, he was constituted lord-deputy of Ireland, upon his father's going over to England, and held that office until August, 1684, when the duke returned. In the year 1686, he died at London, and was interred in Westminster-abbey, leaving an only daughter, Charlotte, who was married to Charles Lord Cornwallis.

http://www.pseudopodium.org/repre… see note 48

About Friday 9 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

"re-read the Diary in the summer of 1692, which he spent virtually alone in the country" one more thought-perhaps in re-reading the diary somehow it occured to Sam that by destroying it he'd be destroying not only his writings, but in a way, perhaps his wife's memory. He burned his letters expressing his feeling to her to her once already, perhaps that was enough and he couldn't do it again.

About Friday 9 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

"His relationship with Elizabeth is complex', off topic no doubt, but... Celtcahill, I have pondered the same issue. Spoliers long after the diary here, but sometimes in death someone speaks volume about things they may not have said in life. I recently came across an odd little website that had the epitaph of Elizabeth Pepys on it. Stylistically I doubt that Sam actually wrote it, but he had to have approved it. It read

Elizabeth Pepys
(1640-1669)
Wife of Samuel Pepys (who serves the Royal Navy).
She was educated first in a convent, and then in a seminary of France.
She was distinguished by the excellence of both at once,
Gifted with beauty, accomplishments, tongues,
She bore no offspring, for she could not have borne her life.
At length when she had bidden this world a gentle farewell,
(After a journey completed through, we may say, the lovelier sights of Europe) --
A returning pilgrim, she took her departure to wander through a gradner world.

Sam never remarried but had a long term relationship with Mary Skinner which as I recall (but could be off here) lasted longer than his marriage. Yet when he died, many years after Elizabeth, he chose to be buried beside her. Perhaps some mysteries aren't meant to be solved just accepted.

About Saturday 10 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

And on another totally different note...
"though a cunning knave in his heart" and "like a doting coxcomb " --gotta love his writing -almost melodramatic. Sometimes I get so caught in his phrases that I have to re-read the entry several times to see what he is writing about as opposed to how he is expressing it. Something like

"Where Creed is a cunning knave at heart
Doting coxcomb signs himself as if it were art".....

About Saturday 10 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Brillaint observations Xjy! Sam is a careerist and I've been pondering, and will throw open to all to discuss, diss at or whatever a few thoughts. Clearly yesterday hurt both parties, and we do NOT know the actual letter contents, but what we do know is that Sam chose to RESPOND as an "aggressor" and Elizabeth, through default and lack of physical stregnth (couldn't get the letters back) was the "victim" of his outburst. It's alot easier for an aggressor to forget their wrongs than the party who received the blows. How that may play out or not remains to be seen.

Today, we are seeing Sam doing what will make him "famous", moving into the office, focusing on his work, being that type "A" driven man who intends to leave the unneccessary ashes behind in the flames and move on. He is choosing (or perhaps driven by nature) to keep his eyes on the ball. Yesterday, in his mind Elizabeth's letter could have caused injury to his good name and career so albeit in an ugly way he took care of it, today that's history so he's "buried himself in his work" and is getting back on the path.

Metaphorically I can't help but "feeling" (as opposed to being "factual" here, which we never can be when we discuss character vs. fact) that Sam put Elizabeth and her feelings where he felt they belong --below his career needs. My guess is that he will continue to categorize people, opportunities, etc. and how they will help him (or not) and add them to the hierarchy as he moves along. This in NO WAY is meant to call him cruel, bad or to pass a character judgement on him, but rather just a reflection of how some people process things, rationalize them and focus on what is important to them. Comments and "bullets" in my direction are as always most welcome.

About Friday 9 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Following the letter trail. When looking back to the entries when the letter first came up, Sam's initial entry (Nov 13, 1662)said that "I am in a quandary what to do, whether to read it or not, but I purpose not, but to burn it before her face, that I may put a stop to more of this nature." He then comes home and gives her the silent treatment that evening. The next day Elizabeth wakes and starts talking to him under the assumption that he HAS read the letter, and he plays along with this assumption. Perhaps there was a smugness on Sam's behalf thinking that he got away with something??? I can't help but wonder how much of his reaction and anger was becasue of the the actual contents of the letter itself and how much of it could have been getting "caught".
Elizabeth has a lot of painful truths revealed here, Sam talking to Sarah about her (which is presented to her as if Sam is spying on her in this entry) and the realization that he has ignored her feelings for about 2 months. Also, missing, among other things, is how she felt when he had his temper tantrum--was she angry, afraid of him, or what, which we'll never know. In any case a level of mistrust has been introduced into their relationship and she is now seeing something that he has kept hidden from her. Perhaps a dress isn't going to make all of the underlying feelings and realizations disappear. It will be interesting to see how the dynamics of the two play out over time.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Friday 9 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Sarah's role-- did anyone catch "making her sit down by me while she told me stories of my wife" -this phrase gives the impression that the version that Elizabeth heard was Sam approached Sarah to pry out details on his wife--this must have added to Elizabeth's turmoil as she would be left with the impression that Sam was spying on her.

About Wednesday 7 January 1662/63

jeannine  •  Link

Sarah

"Awaiting dialogue from some of our novelistic contributors" --Martin--it'll most likely take Mr. Gertz to do that scenario true justice... so in the meantime I offer this to you...

Now Sarah she was quite a gabber
Oft times she was really a blabber
When Sam turned her out
She let his stories about
Now she’s a gabber, blabber and backstabber!

About Peter Lely

jeannine  •  Link

Summarized from Grammont

Lely was the principal painter of Charles II's reign and was born at Soest in Holland, and studied under Grebber at Haerlem. His real name was Van der Faes, his father being a captain in the infantry. He came to England in 1643 and was well received at the court. He became well known in Charles' court for the collection of "beauties" at Hampton Court.
In comparing Lely's painting with Vandyke's, Walpole contrasts the formal drapery of the latter with the fantastic night-gown raiments of the former. 'Whether the age was improved by beauty or in flattery, Lely's women are certainly mre handsomer than those of Vandyke. They please as much more as they evidently meaned to please." The commentary goes on to note the "sameness" of all of the women that Lely painted in their sleepy eyes and some facial expressions.

About Prince Rupert

jeannine  •  Link

Prince Rupert had a daughter Ruperta by Margaret Hughes (actress) and a son, Dudley Rupert by Francesca, daughter of Henry Brad, Viscount Bellomont, both illegitimate, but both provided for in his will. He also provided well for Margaret Hughes after his death. (Footnote from Grammont 1910 version, not online)