Saturday 22 June 1661
Abroad all the morning about several businesses. At noon went and dined with my Lord Crew, where very much made of by him and his lady. Then to the Theatre, “The Alchymist,” which is a most incomparable play. And that being done I met with little Luellin and Blirton, who took me to a friend’s of theirs in Lincoln’s Inn fields, one Mr. Hodges, where we drank great store of Rhenish wine and were very merry. So I went home, where I found my house now very clean, which was great content to me.
33 Annotations
First Reading
Josh • Link
Does the plot of Jonson's play incorporate one great hope of alchemy, the transmutation of base metals into gold? Would come in handy for Sam, now and always.
daniel • Link
what pleasant entry.
a little theatre, a spot of wine (or two) and keeping up with the Jones' and at end of day the satisfaction of a tidy house.
dirk • Link
"The Alchymist"
Full text at:
http://www.hollowaypages.com/jons…
Reading through the fist act I found the phrase: "The heat of Horse-dung, under Ground, in Cellars"
Does anybody know if this refers to some 17th c. method of central heating previously unknown to me - or just garbage disposal in the cellar?
vicente • Link
Fortune , that favours fools The Alchemist 1610 prolog" or Fortuna favet fatuis
THE ALCHYMISTS; or, Searchers for the Philosopher's Stone
and the Water of Life
for ben jonson output
http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?…
T H E A R G U M E N T.
T_ he Sickness hot, a Master quit, for fear,
H_ is House in Town, and left one Servant there.
E_ ase him corrupted, and gave means to know
A_Cheater, and his Punk; who, now brought low,
L_eaving their narrow Practice, were become
C_os'ners at large; and only wanting some
H_ouse to set up, with him they here contract,
E_ach for a Share, and all begin to act.
I_n casting Figures, telling Fortunes, News,
S_elling of Flies, flat Bawd'ry, with the Stone;
Y_ill it, and they, and all in Fume are gone.
http://www.hollowaypages.com/jons…
to rest of the plays etc by BJ
http://www.hollowaypages.com/Jons…
P R O L O G U E
F Ortune, that favours Fools, these two short Hours
We wish away, both for your sakes, and ours,
Judging Spectators; and desire in place,
To th' Author Justice, to our selves but Grace.
Our Scene is London, 'cause we would make known,
No Countries Mirth is better than our own:
No Clime breeds better Matter for your Whore,
Bawd, Squire, Impostor, many Persons more,
Whose Manners, now call'd Humours, feed the Stage
to rest of the plays etc by BJ
http://www.hollowaypages.com/Jons…
vicente • Link
Dung is Muck. Bacon said money is like Muck, it should spread around or like dung will blow up if heaped up. Remember waste was the sauce of gun powder.
Xjy • Link
"Abroad all the morning about several businesses"
Interesting countable use of the word to mean "pieces of business". Wonder when it became uncountable in this sense. Anyone like to check?
PHE • Link
Horse dung for heating?
Very interesting dirk. A websearch shows: Dried dung has often been used for heating by burning. Using its fermentation heat is far less common, but the following link shows that it was traditionally used in gardening - an idea resurrected at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall.
http://www.citiesofscience.co.uk/…
Relevance to Pepys's? - that the idea leads one to wonder whether the practice of storing 'domestic' waste in the cellar contributed in anyway to home warming.
Frank G • Link
"Horse dung for heating?"
My father, when I was young, used to cultivate mushrooms in our then roomy cellars. One of the most sought-after ingredients for healthy mushrooms appears to horse dung. Could Sam have been in any way involved with mushroom cultivation, or would that be anachronistic?
Bob T • Link
Horse dung for heating?
I don't know what this "was traditionaly used in gardening" stuff is all about. Last week I spread four sack loads of "road chesnuts" as they used to be called, on my Wife's garden. If it is allowed to age there is no smell. Anyway, it came from my Wife's favorite horse Chocolate, so it was perfect in every way. I'm sure that Martha would have approved :-)
Ruben • Link
Horse dung for heating?
It is so natural to use manure for different purposes.
not only Chocolate chips in the fiels and champignon. In South America and in India horse manure is being used (with a gassifier) to produce gas and electricity. In India and some parts of China you let dry the manure, put it in your sack and take it with you as fuel to prepare your tea. In other parts it is used, combined with mud to make huts.
Then they are those beetles that use dung to keep their eggs warm...
vicente • Link
M_ uch Company they draw, and much abuse :---left out sorry!
vicente • Link
Every thing was recyled, dung was spread around. Note: Dung wharf next to Puddle dock Stairs down from St Andrews Wardrobe.
Ruben • Link
Dung Gate in Jerusalem's Old City
Sjoerd • Link
The "Equi clibanum" that precedes the dung line apparently means something like "horses oven".... ?
Jesse • Link
"to the Theatre, "The Alchymist," which is a most incomparable play”
Almost fifty years old I wonder if it already was considered a ‘classic’ or merely a popular part of the standard repertoire?
Hic Retearius • Link
Chocolate's chips
What a great thread! To further expand everyone's diminished knowledge in this area: the casting of the great bells used in change ringing requires expertise and great care in the preparation of the moulds. For each pour, the structure of the bell mould must be lined inside and then the lining shaped to produce the exact internal and external profile of the bell. The lining must also be able to receive and retain the impressions which will become the embossed decorations and the lettering of mottos, dedications and invocations one sees on the outsides of bells. The coating must be capable of withstanding instant immersion in molten bell metal without flaking off the structure, without crazing and must retain the detail required to make the lettering legible. It is a demanding application.
It sounds like a specification requiring the latest "engineered material" or an aerogel. In fact, the mould lining mixture that meets these requirements was used in Sam's day and still is. It remains a compound of certain clays and sands, chopped straw and, still in 2004, a large measure of horse manure.
Australian Susan • Link
Dung & darkness
In the context of the play, the horse dung comes up when Subtle is berating Face. He reminds Face that had it not been for the "education" (of a dubious nature) which he, Subtle, had given Face, he would be in very dark places. Two examples are given: the "equi clibanum" (clibanum = "oven; earthen/iron vessel w/small holes/broad bottom for baking/serving bread;")
and an "Alehouse darker than deaf John's" Both of these comparisons have lost their allusive value today. Anyone know what they would have referred to? "deaf John's" sounds proverbial.
dirk • Link
Dung etc.
I found at least two 17th/18th c. uses of horse manure for heating.
(1) In alchemy - so that's probably why it comes up in Jonson's play:
"If you would make a heat with horse dung, the manner is this, viz., make a hole in the ground. Then lay one course of horse dung a foot thick, then a course of unslaked lime a foot thick, and then another of dung, as before. Then set in your vessel, and lay around it lime and horse dung mixed together. Press it down very hard. You must sprinkle it every other day with water. When it ceases to be hot, then take it out and put in more."
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/jfr…
From:
John French - "The Art of Distillation. Or, A Treatise of the Choicest Spagyrical Preparations Performed by Way o' Distillation, (etc)”, London, Printed by Richard Cotes and are to sold by Thomas Williams at the Bible in Little-Britain without Aldersgate, 1651.
Full text:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/jfr…
(2) To keep the temperatures “temperate” in cellars used to store ale or Malt Liquors:
“(…) in Winter time, when the Weather is frosty, shut up all the
Lights or Windows into such Cellars, and cover them close with fresh
Horse-Dung, or Horse-Litter; but ‘tis much better to have no Lights or
Windows at all to any Cellar”
Source:
THE LONDON & COUNTRY BREWER (1736), Chapter XVI
http://sailor.gutenberg.org/etext…
vicente • Link
Great work Dirk. In summer time we did keep foods in an eathern cellar cool by using Hay. To keep potatoes and other roots from spoilage, we used an earthern mound [clamp]over said veggies and dug them out when required. Moist hay etc. left unattended had a habit of overheating and bursting into flames. Mucking out is great fun?
vicente • Link
Dirks refs: a must read for all chemist old and young
and as for how to get pickled see the last one it appears to be a his and her bath: http://www.alchemywebsite.com/fre…
vicente • Link
A picture of vegetable storage clamp
http://www.greenchronicle.com/gar…
vicente • Link
PHE: There are many old fuddy duddy methods of heat and cooling that can be investigated and used to save modern dependance of fuels and also recyleable. My father use to use old disguarded clear sheeting to lay on over his seedlings [ be frost free and very warm] so that he could be the first to have early spring veggies.
Australian Susan • Link
The Alchemist
Getting back to the play: I think it is clear (pun intended) that Dirk's reference to shutting out all light, thus making it a very dark place is what Subtle is getting at in this simile. He is making out that Face without benefit of Subtle has a mind and intellect as dark as a cellar prepared for heating with horse dung or, and we haven't ferretted out the meaning of this yet people - still more work to be done - "an Alehouse darker than deaf John's" Anyone know what this is?
vicente • Link
"deaf John's" sounds proverbial.” I do believe it is a typical London perverseness like with a moaning voice Mona Lott sayeth “‘tis being so cheerful that keeps me a goin’” or “It’s so dark in here that I cannae think straight.”
vicente • Link
"an Alehouse darker than deaf John's” here is virgils version “Non canimus surdis, respondent omnia sylvae:” preach not the deaf, only the trees will sigh.
poem X [10] Publi Vergili Maronis
Ruben • Link
Dung:
This is a disgression:
Whilst browsing the internet I ran across some of the sayings
of Will Rogers. .. thought I'd share one of them with you
"Never kick a cow chip on a hot day."
upper_left_hand_corner • Link
Hic Retearius --
The connection you make is not as unknown as you might think: "What's brown and sounds like a bell?"
Nigel Pond • Link
The "dung discussion" reminds me of a great expression from the north of England:
"Where there's muck, there's brass"
Second Reading
Gerald Berg • Link
Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev has a spectacular scene sequence involving the casting, raising and ringing of a bell. Been a long time since I had watched the scene -- pre internet -- and here it is on youtube! From around 18:40 mark and runs to around the 40 min. mark. Was great to see it again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ…
Tim • Link
Poor 'Little Luelin'. Can't seem to rid of his nickname...
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sandwich's log:
"22nd. Saturday. At 8 oclock in the morning we were 8 leagues off the Lizard, it bearing from us N.N.E."
Copied from
The Journal of Edward Mountagu,
First Earl of Sandwich
Admiral and General-at-Sea 1659 - 1665
Edited by RC Anderson
Printed for the Navy Records Society
MDCCCCXXIX
Section III - Mediterranean 1661/62
The Lizard -- most southwestern point of Cornwall)
San Diego Sarah • Link
The King wants to go on his vacation:
This Day Mr. Secretary Morrice delivered to Mr. Speaker a Letter from his Majesty: Which Mr. Speaker [OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS] opened, and read; the Tenor whereof is as followeth:
Superscribed, "To Our Trusty and Well-beloved Sir Edward Turner, Knight, Speaker of Our House of Commons: To be communicated to the House."
Charly R [THAT'S HOW IT IS IN THE TRANSCRIPT - SDS]
TRUSTY and Well-beloved, We greet you well.
At the Opening Our Parliament, you were told, that We had a great Desire this Summer to make a Progress through some Parts of Our Kingdom; which We resolve to begin, in Devotion, to Our City of Worcester, that we may pour out our Thanks to God for Our Deliverance there; and the Season of the Year quickens Us in that Inclination, as We presume it disposes you to a Desire to withdraw from this City, and to visit your Countries:
But you may remember, We told you then, that We had caused some Bills to be prepared for you, for Confirmation of what We enacted at Our last Meeting: And We said all We could to you, of the Value We set upon the Act of Indemnity, as We have great Reason to do; and if We could have used stronger Expressions to have conjured you speedily to have dispatched it, We assure you We would have done it.
And We did think, what We said would have made an Impression in all, who profess a Desire to serve Us; and therefore We expected every Day, that the same Bill would have been presented to Us, for another Assent.
We must confess, We hear, you have shewed great Affection to Us, since your coming together; and that you have already prepared and passed some very good Bills (for which We heartily thank you) that are ready for the Royal Assent:
Yet We cannot but tell you, that though We are enough concerned to expedite those Bills, We have no mind to pass them, till the Act of Indemnity be likewise presented to Us; upon which (if you take Our Word) most of Our Quiet and Good depends; and in which, We are sure, Our Honour is concerned: Therefore We must again, and as earnestly as is possible, conjure you, to use all possible Expedition, in the Passing that Act, in the same Terms We already passed it; to which We take Ourselves obliged; and that you will, for the present, lay aside all private Business, that so, betaking yourselves only to the Publick, you may be ready to adjourn by the Middle of the next Month, which will best suit with all Our Occasions.
And so, not doubting of your Readiness to comply with Us, in these Our just and necessary Desires, We bid you heartily Farewell.
Given at Our Court at Whitehall, the 21th Day of June 1661, in the Thirteenth Year of our Reign.
Will. Morice.
@@@
I have searched for a 1661 Indemnity Act, but it must have another name in the final passage. So I can't fill in the details of what this is about.
I have broken the copy down into paragraphs for ease of reading.
San Diego Sarah • Link
I found an explanation of the 1661 Indemnity Act: it's posted in a week from now, but contains no spoilers, so if you absolutely must have an explanation, go to:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…