Thursday 7 March 1660/61

This morning Sir Williams both went to Woolwich to sell some old provisions there.

I to Whitehall, and up and down about many businesses. Dined at my Lord’s, then to Mr. Crew to Mr. Moore, and he and I to London to Guildhall to see the seamen paid off, but could not without trouble, and so I took him to the Fleece tavern, where the pretty woman that Luellin lately told me the story of dwells, but I could not see her.

Then towards home and met Spicer, D. Vines, Ruddiard, and a company more of my old acquaintance, and went into a place to drink some ale, and there we staid playing the fool till late, and so I home.

At home met with ill news that my hopes of getting some money for the Charles were spoiled through Mr. Waith’s perverseness, which did so vex me that I could not sleep at night. But I wrote a letter to him to send to-morrow morning for him to take my money for me, and so with good words I thought to coy with him. To bed.

32 Annotations

First Reading

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"that Luellin lately told me the story"
this Luellin is a bad influence on SP;he reminds me of Tom in The Rake's Progress!

adam w  •  Link

'to coy with him'
I've never seen 'coy' used as a verb. Or is it a misprint for 'toy'?

language hat  •  Link

"to coy with him"
It was used as a verb, but apparently this is the only occurrence of the phrase “to coy with.” Here’s the OED’s entry (eliminating most of the quotes); Sam’s use is 3c:

coy (kOI), v. Also 4 koy, 7 quoy. [f. coy a.: or perh. originally an aphetic form of acoy, accoy, OFr. acoier vb.]
†1 trans. To render quiet; to calm, appease.
†2 To stroke or touch soothingly, pat, caress.
1590 Shaks. Mids. N. iv. i. 2 While I thy amiable cheekes doe coy.
†3 a To blandish, coax, court, gain over by caresses or coaxing. Obs.
†b To coax, entice, allure into, from, etc. Obs. (Here, app. associated with coy sb.1, decoy v.)
†c intr. to coy with: to coax, blandish.
1660-1 Pepys Diary 7 Mar., With good words I thought to coy with him.

4 a intr. To act or behave coyly; to affect shyness or reserve. Chiefly in to coy it. arch.
1691 Dryden K. Arthur iii. ii, What, coying it again! 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xi, What! you coy it, my nymph of the high-way?
†b To disdain. Obs. rare.
1607 Shaks. Cor. v. i. 6 If he.. coy’d To heare Cominius speake, Ile keepe at home.
5 fig. To withdraw itself, recede into the background.
6 trans. To disguise or slight in a demure manner. rare.
1873 Trollope Eustace Diamonds I. xv. 198 She throws from her.. all idea of coying her love. She would leap at his neck if he were there. 1874 Trollope Way we Live Now I. xix. 124 Do not coy your love for me if you can feel it.

Bradford  •  Link

Where's the fun in a tale with no bad influences? And if Luellin's Tom, who's playing Nick Shadow?
"Coy" sounds worth reviving, with a hint of "decoy" in it.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"who's playing Nick Shadow" That friend of his who was playing doctor

Jesse  •  Link

"a hint of 'decoy' in it"

Johnson's Dictionary (1756) has an entry:
To COY. v.a. [for decoy] To allure; to flatter. Shakespeare

Of course this was (yet another century) before Trollope who's usage is always definitive for me.

vincent  •  Link

So much for the The Sunday Serman, 'tis forgot. back to basics.

vincent  •  Link

"...which did so vex me that I could not sleep at night. But I wrote a letter to him to send to-morrow morning for him to take my money for me, and so with good words I thought to coy with him. To bed...." he doth have 22/20 vision. So when was this entry entered?

Xjy  •  Link

To London to Guildhall
London only used of the City itself, not the rest including Whitehall. Anyone know anything about this usage and how long it lasted?

Rich Merne  •  Link

He wrote the letter that night (to send tomorrow morning) and then to bed where he couldn't sleep for vexation (notwithstanding of his coying letter). When he entered this to his diary becomes irrelevant.

Alan Brisbourne  •  Link

re. knees-up in London.

I am one of those (many?) enjoying looking over the shoulders of you major contributors whilst you lot read over Sam's shoulder. Here in the back row (please cease spitting on us) I laugh and cower at the breadth of knowledge out there and the links provided. (I did once have trouble obtaining a beaver for the construction of a lanthorn recommended in a link). Just bear in mind, in a couple of years time,you might need the Royal Albert Hall to accommodate the numbers interested in attending. (So it's down to Phil's place afterwards?)

I find myself interested in you contributors nearly as much as Sam's jottings. If Vinny and others have reached their three score years and ten have you got it in writing that you will be with (some of us)to the end of this journey? The prospect of your not being in the company would be too much to bear.The earlier the 'union' the better! Many thanks to Phil.

Dick B  •  Link

Here for the backseaters/back-rowers/kibitzers! I read an abridged version of the diary a few years back and it completely changed my taste for points of view in reading history. This site has been my daily respite since I found it in November.

Siobhan  •  Link

Regional meetings for those of us with time &/or money constraints for a London trip? Probably a substantial number of us in the back rows enjoying the show...

But this place is for annotations directly relating to SP text, no?

Probably best to take this potential meeting discussion to the list: http://www.smartgroups.com/groups…

Muchas gracias/merci beaucoup/arigato gozaimasu/Gratia/Spasibo/Thank you so much...
Siobhan

vincent  •  Link

Starbucking
For those that want to gather in a rookery, enjoy
I rather use my imagination. I see each of thee in SP's diary. For each of those who think they are sitting in the last row of the gods SP will seek thee out and work on your concience with a nice sermon.
moi
Veni, vedi, ego cum muso ludo,
[ i came, i saw, i play with my mouse, thanks to Kaiser and one third of his gallic friends]

as the THE bard did say " tis best to be heard than seen"
or it might be a case of "Postquam docti prodierun, boni desunt."
Seneca the Younger , Epistulae Morales ,XCV,13
other wise it goes like this
':when the prof. shows up, the smart ones leave."

Pedro.  •  Link

Sitting in the back row.... I agree with Alan and hope that all contributors can stay the distance! And to add to Siobhan, "obrigado" for the fortcomming contributor Catherine of Braganza from Portugal.

Glyn  •  Link

Especially for the back row people.

Can anyone help me test a couple of Pepys walks I'm just finishing compiling? One is in the City and the other is in Westminster. Basically, you go on the walks and then fill in a questionaire telling me if you got lost or not, how long it took, any improvements you can think of. And perhaps take a few photographs along the way to download on to this site.

If people live in London and would like to help on this then please do send me an email.

Best people for this would be those who don't really know too much about Pepys, so they would be coming to this with a fresh viewpoint.

Kevin Sheerstone  •  Link

Xjy: "...to London to Guildhall..."

This struck me as a rather pedantic distinction, even for 1661. Sam has recently made a few none-too-subtle references to his rising status, and I suspect this is another. He is now a true Londoner, living east of Temple Bar, with a more "respectable" Postcode. Axe Yard, Westminster, is now perhaps "beyond the pale"?

Emilio  •  Link

"to co[g] with him"

This is intensely interesting - L&M have here "I thought to cog with him" instead of "coy". 'Cog' is another unusual verb from our point of view, but the OED does attest it elsewhere during Sam's period. As a verb it has various meanings in different contexts, but Sam no doubt is using a sense of the third verb 'cog' the OED describes:

5. To employ feigned flattery; to fawn, wheedle.
1583 Babington Commandm. ix. Wks. (1637) 92 To lie, to flatter, to fawne, to halt, to cogge, to glose . . whatsoever may be profitable to us. 1598 Shaks. Merry W. III. iii. 76 Come, I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that. a 1661 Holyday Juvenal 206 He would almost endure anything, cogging with the rich and childless, in hope of an estate.

This sense derived from a dicing term for dishonest play, and seems to have had a short shelf life: the Babington sentence above is the first example, and the last comes from a song of 1728. Sam could well be using the most current, fashionable slang here, particularly with all the 'cogging' going on at court right now.

Xjy  •  Link

to Woolwich to sell some old provisions
Sorry my note's a bit late, but this remark indicates that the demobilization and decommissioning is large scale. Army and Navy Surplus -- I wonder who got the money? Perhaps it was just recycled directly to the newly unemployed sailors?
And I wonder who bought the wormy sea-biscuits? and for who? Bit far to freight over to the slave plantations in the American colonies??

vincent  •  Link

Re: selling of government extras. Many have made fortunes by getting hold of goverment surplus. XJY you are too kind. Rule one: always follow the money trail. SP has not figured out the profit from hard tack.
P.S. The extra nutrients, one pays extra for. The hoi polloi {man in the street} did not benefit, be assured.

Zeneca  •  Link

Sam visited the Guildhall in London 'today'. This building still stands as Sam saw it & open most days to the public - that is when it is not used for meetings & occasions. Little did Pepys know that 300 plus years later a stain glass window showing a picture of him in front of a ship would be encorporated into the East Wing. I think he more have been more than a little proud & pleased. See the Guildhall hyperlink http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… and follow the instructions in the second annotation to see his stain glass picture.

vincent  •  Link

coy vs cog: interesting coy [coi]seems not to appear in Latin but cog does, and Samuel was immersed daily[ when he was student] in the Lingua. Cog appears as a nown from the norse and does not seem to exist as a nown[except as part of a word, cognomen translated to day as sur name.] In the Latin? however as a verb, there many derivatives.
I do like cog used in one old english version.
cog v. to cheat deceive, to use venal flattery, to wheedle [obsolete of course, nobody wheedles any more]
It is time to cogitate and remain incognito:
But the real question? is the letter "g" does it appear in or near the letter "y" and is the "y" in this code appear as a vovvel or as a consonant , could there be confusion with the translations?: obrigadoo

Emilio  •  Link

Cog/coy

Remember that the original transcriber was working without a key to the shorthand, and about a century after 'cog' in this sense had died out. There was also no OED to refer to, so the old slang was possibly more obscure to him than it is to us. I think 'coy' got in there because it was a familiar, short c-word, and was his best guess based on the information he had.

As best I can tell from the reproduction in Tomalin's book, you might also be right that the symbol for 'g' looked like the letter 'y' . . .

vincent  •  Link

Thanks to Dirk and his detective work, I can see the possibility of coy (CoY) for cog [Co7], sloppy penmanship/ interpretation and/ or touch of both [7 vs Y which could be made in to a 7] or fading ink.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Cog/Coy
Wheatley does seem to know the verb "to cog" in the sense noted above. In looking ahead in the Gutenberg text, I found: "will be contented to cog, and lie, and flatter every man and woman" on June 24, 1663.
To confuse things even more the only other reference to "coy, v" that I could find in the text comes in the following: "But I coying with her made her leave crying" on December 19, 1664 which Wheatley annotates as "Coying - stroking or caressing with hand".

By the way in the shorthand a trailing "y" is apparently often elided as a single dot representing the preceding vowel as in "say" or treated as if an "i" were present in the words, "my" or "cry". I'm not sure how SP would have handled "coy". If fully spelled out, I suspect one could confuse the symbols, the "g" is a lower-case, sans serif, "h" rotated 180 degrees while the "y" is simply a lower-case, sans serif, "y".

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"I thought to coy with him"

to COYE, quiet
to COYEN, to quiet or flatter
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... Mr. Waith’s perverseness, which did so vex me that I could not sleep at night. But I wrote a letter to him to send to-morrow morning for him to take my money for me, and so with good words I thought to coy with him."

An old trick. When upset, write a letter. DO NOT seal the envelope or put a postage stamp on it. This helps your brain rest as the issues have been clearly expressed; now it doesn't have to remember the details and so you can sleep. In the morning, refreshed, things will probably seem different.

The new trick is NOT to press "send" on the email. Unfortunatley, that discipline is harder than the envelope discipline.

徽柔  •  Link

“This morning Sir Williams both went to Woolwich to sell some old provisions there.”
Who would buy them? In my imagination the old provisions were like the worn out ships and rotten food...

Tonyel  •  Link

Slightly off-topic but interesting:
Watching a past episode of QI (BBC TV) last night I learned that, while the army had uniforms much earlier, the navy did not get them until 1748. Presumably officers only. Sam missed a chance there - he being the Management and his father in the trade.
Also, in World War 1, the airforce got their blue/grey uniforms because a chief supplier had a warehouse full of material in that colour bought for Russia but cancelled by the revolution.
I like to think of Sam looking down on that and chuckling quietly.

john  •  Link

@SDS -- Indeed. My safeguard is to delete all the response recipients and place them at the start of the body of the reply, so that accidental sending will fail.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"In my imagination the old provisions were like the worn out ships and rotten food..."

Provisions are food only, 徽柔 .

Butter and cheese in barrels and sea biscuits should be OK. Maybe the beef in brine -- better smell it. If they were still eating pasta, it probably would be fine.
For what the Sir Williams are probably selling, see
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

For the selling of surplus ships, see Candle Auctions:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

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