Saturday 12 May 1660

This morning I inquired for my boy, whether he was come well or no, and it was told me that he was well in bed.

My Lord called me to his chamber, he being in bed, and gave me many orders to make for direction for the ships that are left in the Downs, giving them the greatest charge in the world to bring no passengers with them, when they come after us to Scheveling Bay, excepting Mr. Edward Montagu, Mr. Thomas Crew, and Sir H. Wright.

Sir R. Stayner hath been here early in the morning and told my Lord, that my Lord Winchelsea understands by letters, that the Commissioners are only to come to Dover to attend the coming over of the King. So my Lord did give order for weighing anchor, which we did, and sailed all day.

In our way in the morning, coming in the midway between Dover and Calais, we could see both places very easily, and very pleasant it was to me that the further we went the more we lost sight of both lands.

In the afternoon at cards with Mr. North and the Doctor. There by us, in the Lark frigate, Sir R. Freeman and some others, going from the King to England, come to see my Lord and so onward on their voyage.

In the afternoon upon the quarterdeck the Doctor told Mr. North and me an admirable story called “The Fruitless Precaution,” an exceeding pretty story and worthy my getting without book when I can get the book.[??]

This evening came Mr. Sheply on board, whom we had left at Deal and Dover getting of provision and borrowing of money.

In the evening late, after discoursing with the Doctor, &c., to bed.

31 Annotations

First Reading

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Is Sam making a joke here?

re: "worthy my getting without book when I can get the book." Is he inflicting pun-ishment on his diary (and its gentle readers) by using the first instance of the word "book" as another word for "delay"?

Also, where did the bracketed notations in the entry above come from?

Nix  •  Link

Looks more to me like either a jumbled transcription in the Project Gutenberg version or a jumbled deciphering of the original.

melinda trapelo  •  Link

I'm not sure, but I think "...getting without book" means "learning to tell the story from memory" (instead of reading it from a book).
So in other words, he wants to learn to recite the story, as soon as he can obtain the book it's printed in.
It does look weird, though... does anyone with access to reference books have any answers?
And I'd love to see the actual story! If it can be found, maybe it can go in the background information.

Nix  •  Link

The Fruitless Precaution --

Pepys is probably referring to a story of that title by the French writer Paul Scarron, who coincidentally died in 1660.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

[??]
My copy of the Wheatley lacks the [??] and L&M make no note of any difficulty in this passage. As best I can tell it originates with the Gutenberg edition

Lance  •  Link

Without Book
"Without book.
(a) By memory.
(b) Without authority."

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), found at:

http://dict.die.net/without%20boo…

Paul Brewster  •  Link

“The Fruitless Praecaution,”
L&M footnotes this as "One of the 'novels' of the French writer Paul Scarron(d. 1660). It is clear from the entry at 16 October 1660 that Pepys is referring to an English version: three of the tales had been translated and published separately in 1657 by John Davies of Kidwelly. For the editions, see DNB, 'Davies'; A Esdaile, List of Engl. tales ... pub. before 1740, pp 301-3; ... Pepys did not retain any in the Pepysian Library."

A reference for John Davies can be found at http://www.kidwellyhistory.co.uk/…

A reference for Paul Scarron can be found at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/1…

Paul Brewster  •  Link

"my Lord Winchelsea understands by letters, that the Commissioners are only to come to Dover to attend the coming over of the King."
The L&M footnote states that "This was a misunderstanding. The commissioners had been instructed to make 'Speedy Repair to such Place where His Majesty shall be' ... They took ship on the Hampshire and the Yarmouth and arrived off Scheveningen on the evening of the 14th."

Paul Brewster  •  Link

the Lark frigate
according to Wheatley it "... carried ten guns and forty men. Its captain was Thomas Levidge."

chip  •  Link

Did they not gamble at cards? SP does not mention winning or losing.

andy thomas  •  Link

"and very pleasant it was to me that the further we went the more we lost sight of both lands".

Sam's evocative way of saying how much they were aware that things were now starting to change, soemthing new is happening.

Glyn  •  Link

"that the Commissioners are only to come to Dover to attend the coming over of the King"

See Paul Brewster's annotation above. As I read it, Montagu had delayed the ship by a day to rendevouz with the Commissioners to take them to the King in Europe; but they thought they were to wait for the king in Dover, England, so now Montagu has ordered the Naseby and the fleet to set sail for the Continent.

vk  •  Link

Scarron's "Précaution inutile" will be adapted by Moliere in two years as "School for Wives". I don't know what liberties Moliere takes with the story, but if you read that play or a summary of it, you'll probably get the gist of what amused Pepys so much. (Scarron's story is not on-line, and probably not available at any but university libraries.)

jeannine  •  Link

Sandwich's Journal Entry Today

"Saturday. About eight of the clock in the morning we set sail and turned to windward, and in the afternoon anchored again, the South Foreland bearing W.S.W. about four leagues off."

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Since vk wrote "Scarron's story is not on-line" Google has put a great many Books online, including one containing the text of “The Fruitless Precaution.” -- see the link to the title in the entry above, and then to the annotation.

Bill  •  Link

Without book. by memory; by repetition; without reading.
---A Dictionary of the English Language, Samuel Johnson, 1755

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

For whom and from whom was Shepley "borrowing of money"?

Tonyel  •  Link

"gave me many orders to make for direction for the ships that are left in the Downs, giving them the greatest charge in the world to bring no passengers with them, when they come after us to Scheveling Bay, excepting Mr. Edward Montagu, Mr. Thomas Crew, and Sir H. Wright."

Is this Sandwich making sure that only the "right" people accompany him to the King, or merely that Charles' entourage will require a lot of empty cabins?

Bill  •  Link

Tonyel, probably both reasons, but I think lots of people are crossing the Channel independently. A veritable hoard I would imagine.

Gillian Bagwell  •  Link

Regarding "without book": "On book" and "off book" are still very much in use in theatre. Director to cast: "I want you off book by the end of the second week of rehearsal." "He broke his leg and his understudy wasn't ready and had to go on on book."

To be "on book" also means to follow along in the script during rehearsal, when actors are in the process of getting off book, so they can call for a line ("Line!") and be prompted.

Third Reading

MartinVT  •  Link

"Sir R. Freeman and some others" come to visit from the Lark, which is proceeding in the opposite direction. Do both ships heave to while this confab takes place? If so, my Lord doesn't seem to be in a big hurry to get to Scheveningen. (They've been aboard ship since late March awaiting today's departure, what's another hour or two?) Or, perhaps, is there a quick transfer, the ships sail on, and then, business done, Freeman and company catch another boat heading west to catch up with the Lark or get to the Lark's destination?

One way or another, I've been intrigued by the amount of ferrying of people and stuff between the ships in the squadron as well as back and forth to Deal, Dunkirk or Dover. I imagine a fleet of small boats circulating among the ships, making deliveries and awaiting signals to come alongside to transport people or goods.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

"The Fruitless Precaution" is indeed a pretty story, which Sam shouldn't have too much trouble procuring. However, in the 1661 French edition beautifully digitized at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148…, it runs to 167 pages and over 15,000 words, so unless Sam plans to become an actor (and Parliment just recently reaffirmed that theaters should stay closed), we doubt if he truly meant to memorize all of it.

The story tells of a Spanish gentleman locking up his bride to keep her innocent and faithful until marriage (it don't work, and seems a practice that in the more sophisticated World of, say, the 21st century, will surely have become wholly unheard-of). It did inspire Molière and, over a century from now, a M. de Beaumarchais, in whose play (and later Rossini masterpiece), "The Barber of Sevilla or, the Useless Precaution", the locked-up bride pretends, when asked in Act I by her guardian what it is she wrote on that piece of paper (a treasonous love note to count Almaviva), that it's just "nothing, nothing, sir, the words of the aria from 'L'Inutile Precauzione' (...) the new drama set to music". In this incarnation, does the Precaution mostly survive in the memory of men, until they do reach this page in the Diary.

We phant'sy that Sam would have loved the opera, but presently we wonder what his enthusiastm for that particular book tells us of his feelings toward Marital Infidelity. Surely, being after weekes on a ship, the topic of Cuckoldry and What Our Wives Are Doing Now did come up a few times between the rounds of ninepins.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

And aye, sending a few ships with empty cabins is wise, for the king's court in Breda is now swelled to a noisy multitude, of courtiers converging from continental exiles and on everything that floats from England, both loving and loyal and offering money, repentant and on their knees, or (likely the most common variety) adventurous and noisily petitioning for business. Among the most recent arrivals, the French Gazette informs us (in an interesting dispatch from Breda dated May 27 new style that we'll revisit), were "four Companies of Horse", which Charles has at his disposal and sent to escort the Parliamentary delegation last week. We surmise those are English souldiers, of whom there is galore on the Continent. Now where are we going to put them?

And no, 'tis not prudent to delay. The weather has been difficult and 'tis unwise not to avail of a bit of calm or favorable winds if Providence offers them. Also Charles is being fêted by the Dutch right now, but he's still in forraigne lands, which Kings in this Age do not visit except for conquest. With every passing day, some plot may be further refined to molest H.M., perhaps on the way to Sheveningen, hatched by Phanatiques or the fickly Spanish or the unpredictable French... Who knows? And everybody in England is waiting, of course, but here and there we do detect a bit of nervousness at how exposed the King is out there in Holland.

Ashley Smith  •  Link

I am but a simple man, so please forgive me. After faffing about in the channel for weeks, Sam's ship has finally set sail for the continent, which as he points out isn't far.
'In our way in the morning, coming in the midway between Dover and Calais, we could see both places very easily, and very pleasant it was to me that the further we went the more we lost sight of both lands.'
By the end of the days events there is not talk of arriving anywhere.
I'm sure all will be explained tomorrow, I hope...

Scube  •  Link

I too am a bit confused as to how Sam loses sight of both coasts at the same time, not apparently by weather but by movement. One would think that Calais would grow clearer in sight as Dover faded in the distance. Also a question on cards. What games did they play?
Probably been answered before, but if so I missed it.

GrahamT  •  Link

Scube, I assume they are moving towards Holland, so Eastwards. The coasts of France and England diverge to the east of the Straits of Dover towards the North Sea, so the ships will move out of sight of land on both sides.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Hello Ashley -- The Downs is the name of the sheltered and comparatively safe anchorage which lies between the Goodwin Sands and the coast of England.
The sandbanks are 10 miles long (16 km), at the southern end of the North Sea, lying 6 miles (10 km) off the Deal coast in Kent. You can see some of the Goodwin Sands at low tide, so sailors can easily go aground on them.
This part of the Channel is comparatively shallow, and the sandbanks do move. Sailors have to know what they are doing, and employ local pilots to navigate safely when possible.
https://goodwinsands.org.uk/why-s…

Therefore, when The Naseby and the fleet leaves Deal, it can't sail straight east to the Coast of the Dutch Republic -- they are going to Schevelingen, not Calais.

Montagu tells us "in the afternoon anchored again, the South Foreland bearing W.S.W. about four leagues off."

That means they left Deal and sailed west (to evade the Goodwin Sands), and anchored there for the night. Presumably they will sail out into the Channel (south) and then east to Schevelingen tomorrow.

Croakers Apprentice  •  Link

Well, this website is our Time Machine but I didn’t think Sam would actually bump into the Doctor!
(Doctor who? You may well ask…)

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