Sunday 29 September 1661
(Lord’s day). To church in the morning, and so to dinner, and Sir W. Pen and daughter, and Mrs. Poole, his kinswoman, Captain Poole’s wife, came by appointment to dinner with us, and a good dinner we had for them, and were very merry, and so to church again, and then to Sir W. Pen’s and there supped, where his brother, a traveller, and one that speaks Spanish very well, and a merry man, supped with us, and what at dinner and supper I drink I know not how, of my own accord, so much wine, that I was even almost foxed, and my head aked all night; so home and to bed, without prayers, which I never did yet, since I came to the house, of a Sunday night: I being now so out of order that I durst not read prayers, for fear of being perceived by my servants in what case I was. So to bed.
32 Annotations
First Reading
Bob T • Link
I being now so out of order that I durst not read prayers, for fear of being perceived by my servants in what case I was. So to bed.
I like this guy, because who hasn't been there and done that?
daniel • Link
hah!
Good one, Sam!
pity it is about two hundred years before the developement of aspirin.
Wim van der Meij • Link
So much for good intentions about not drinking...
The flesh is weak, Sam. But then, good food, good company et al...
AlanB • Link
Almost foxed ..... but not quite! Is this a blood sport?
Given the state in which Sam falls into bed he cannot be writing his journal this night either. And neither is Vincent making any postings.
Pedro. • Link
"I drink I know not how, of my own accord"
Wish I'd thought of that excuse!
(Bem Vindo, the nome of Vincente has snuck back in on the 16th!)
Todd Bernhardt • Link
re: "I being now so out of order that I durst not read prayers, for fear of being perceived by my servants in what case I was."
This provides an interesting glimpse into the Sunday night routine at the Pepys household ... Sam, as head of said household, apparently leads everyone, even the servants, in Sunday prayers. I had not realized this. With my more-modern view of religion as a personal matter, I'd assumed that this was something he did alone, or perhaps with Elizabeth.
I wonder what excuse he gave to the staff? Maybe Elizabeth had to "call-in sick" for him?
So, if he was too drunk/buzzed to lead the Sunday prayers, I wonder what the definition of "foxed" is? Passed-out/falling-down drunk?
Bullus Hutton • Link
I was even almost foxed..
Interesting to note that the last time he admitted to being foxed was April 23 (Coronacion Day, when he was foxed to the point of actually hurling, whilst sharing a bed with the hapless Shepley) and is again contrite; he does't seem to mind being merrily kettled most of the time, but draws the line at being totally potted!
David • Link
Webster's uses this very passage to define foxed:
Fox \Fox\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Foxed; p. pr. & vb. n. Foxing.] [See Fox, n., cf. Icel. fox imposture.] 1. To intoxicate; to stupefy with drink.
I drank . . . so much wine that I was almost foxed. --Pepys.
Mary • Link
Household prayers.
This was a practice that continued well into the 20th century in some middle and upper class households in the British Isles. All household staff (no matter how few or how many) would be expected to be present for a formal, usually short, reading of prayers together, proceedings being conducted by the head of the household.
Linda Camidge • Link
Foxed - polite variant of f***ed? Is this possible? Or do we have to wait for the Victorians to invent suchlike nonsense?
Mary • Link
foxed.
Sorry to disappoint you, but no. This is transitive use of the vb. to fox: to intoxicate, befuddle with drink.
This meaning derives from the red face that can result from an excess of alcohol, hence resembling the colour of the fox's coat.
Second Reading
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Not so foxed that he don't know that he's foxed! :D
TMN • Link
I was foxed last night. It is easy to do on vacation
Bill • Link
"I was even almost foxed"
To FOX one, to make him drunk
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.
Louise Hudson • Link
Linda Camidge, I think you're right and "foxed" was an antecedent to today's appellation, even if it did have a specific meaning in Sam's day. Words have a way of morphing and this is too good to deny.
Cara • Link
As an Englishwoman and a Londoner born less than 5 miles from where Sam lived, I read the entry and 'foxed' immediately said to me that Sam was confused and somewhat out of his head. That to me is the meaning of the word today. As Louise says, words have a way of morphing and English is a living language. I'm absolutely certain Elizabeth would have made some excuse for his non-appearance at prayers. I'm also absolutely certain that none of the servants would have believed the excuse!
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Discoloured sheets in books and manuscripts are also described as "foxed". The discolouration, typically brown, is known as "foxing".
Gerald Berg • Link
Do you mean it wasn't for cleverness that I outfoxed my friends last night?
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘foxed, adj. 1. Intoxicated, drunk, stupefied.
1611 L. Barry Ram-Alley iv. i, in W. C. Hazlitt Dodsley's Select Coll. Old Eng. Plays (1875) X. 335 They will bib hard; they will be fine sunburnt, Sufficient fox'd or columber'd, now and then . . ‘
‘fox, v. < fox n.
. . 2. a. trans. To intoxicate, befuddle . .
. . 1660 S. Pepys Diary 26 Oct. (1970) I. 274 The last of whom I did almost fox with Marget ale . . ‘
‘fox-mine-host n. Obs.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue i. iii. ii. 194 They may afterwards play at Foxe mine Host, or some other Drinking Game at Cards or Dice for their recreation.’
San Diego Sarah • Link
Good food and laughter, in safety with friends and family ... Pegg Penn will remember these happy times with dear Elizabeth, who helped her get a pretty dress, and good old Uncle Sam, being carefree and funny, in later days.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today is Michaelmas Day -- which marks the new year in legal, agricultural, educational, and civic affairs in England. It's also a Quarter Day.
About this time almanacs were also becoming popular, and in 1661 one was printed called:
"The twelve moneths, or, A pleasant and profitable discourse of every action, whether of labour or recreation, proper to each particular moneth branched into directions relating to husbandry, as plowing, sowing, gardening, planting, transplanting ... as also, of recreations as hunting, hawking, fishing, fowling, coursing, cockfighting: to which likewise is added a necessary advice touching physick ...: lastly, every moneth is shut up with an epigrame: with the fairs of every month"
This says farmers calculated the number of floods that would occur in the coming year: “They say, so many dayes old the Moon is, on Michaelmas Day, so many Floods after.”
Hopefully this year there aren't many days between the last full moon and September 29.
More about Michaelmas Day at https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
San Diego Sarah • Link
A remedy to end all the discontents on either side
Written from: Lisbon
Date: 29 September 1661
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 73, fol(s). 590
Document type: Original. Placed in the hands of Lord Ambassador the Earl of Sandwich, 4 Oct. 1661
A remedy to end all the discontents on either side [i.e. in relation to matters of litigation upon consulate fees, and charges alleged to be payable thereout, then pending between Thomas Maynard, British* Consul at Lisbon, on the one part; and Edward Bushell, and others, English merchants trading with Portugal, on the other part.
FROM:
Carte Calendar Volume 32, June - December 1661
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Edward Edwards, 2005
Shelfmark: MS. Carte Calendar 32
Extent: 464 pages
https://wayback.archive-it.org/or…
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Thomas Maynard, English* Consul at Lisbon -
we heard about him at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Thomas Maynard, a merchant from Devon, was appointed the first English* Consul to Portugal by Oliver Cromwell in 1656. He held the post until his death in Lisbon in 1692. A Protestant, he was briefly imprisoned during the Inquisition.
https://www.geni.com/people/Thoma…
* There was no "Britain" yet -- knowing how much the Scots loved their Portuguese wines, I suspect they had their own consul.
Edward Bushell -- Edward Bushell, merchant, involved in a dispute about duties due the Portuguese. (L&M Index)
Pepys will learn of Bushell and his dealings with Portugal in 1664. No need to go there yet as it tells us nothing about the man and his life, or this business.
Matt Newton • Link
Re the fox issue; any instances recorded of ladies being foxed?
I only recall SP remarking on gentlemen getting into this state.
I presume ladies did partake?
Tonyel • Link
Surely the ladies' function is to quietly sip their wine and observe their husband until his foxing becomes too obvious? At which point a stiletto heel (or a stiletto) may be employed.
Ricadus • Link
“…and what at dinner and supper I drink I know not how, of my own accord, so much wine, that I was even almost foxed”
It sounds like Sir W Penn’s cunning plan to ambush Sam by way of goodfellowship, as perhaps revenge for last month’s ‘stolen’ tankard escapade, didn’t quite come off.
San Diego Sarah • Link
So Lady Penn was away, and Sir Will. and daughter Peg hold a feast for his brother, George Penn.
Lady Penn is the ruler of the household, and there are several examples of her parsimonious nature. Sir Will. enjoys a more liberal lifestyle; their son follows his mother spiritually and his father materially. Young Peg Penn seems to follow her father; maybe this was one of her first (formative) experiences of being "the lady of the house"?
As for Pepys being forgiven, I suspect Sir Will. realizes there is more to be lost by obviously holding a grudge -- Pepys knows they went too far, and Batten is Batten.
Sam and Elizabeth are invited because they are good company, and the sort of cosmopolitan people brother George will enjoy; no mention of Batten being invited, so it probably wasn't an intentional peace feast.
We shall see ...
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... so home and to bed, without prayers, which I never did yet, since I came to the house, of a Sunday night: ..."
So Pepys always holds family prayers on Sundays. Interesting that he specifies regularly holding them just on Sunday nights. I had assumed it was a nightly duty that he frequently missed. How very progressive of him. Did Elizabeth hold them in his absence, so were the maids, Will and Wayneman trusted to pray nightly on their own?
Or was the nightly duty only for country people? Cosmopolitan city folk were exempt?
RLB • Link
@Sarah: more likely that daily prayer was a personal matter, but on Sunday it was a family affair. Though to be honest, that's speculation, albeit based on a bit of experience.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Oct. 8, 1661 NS – Sept. 29 OS
Senato, Secreta.
Dispacci, Firenze.
Venetian Archives.
65. Domenico Vico, Venetian Resident at Florence, to the Doge and Senate.
News has come from Alicante that Montagu is gone with six ships to Lisbon to join with the fleet from England and fetch the queen.
Vice Admiral Lawson remains off Algiers with sixteen ships, divided into squadrons, hunting for Barbary corsairs. He has already taken some which he has sold to the Spaniards, but putting to death Christian renegades.
Florence, the 8th October, 1661.
[Italian.]
FROM 'Venice: October 1661', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 33, 1661-1664, ed. Allen B Hinds( London, 1932), British History Online
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
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Old news to us, yes. What's new is that Lawson sold captive Barbary pirates into slavery for the Spanish, and executed European Christians who had "turned Turk" (converted to Islam in order to be free and as pirates were obligated to fight their own countrymen).
Both of these events horrify me, but what else was Lawson to do with captives? Ship them back to England - how? And what would Charles II do with them?
A prisoner exchange would seem to be a good alternative, but that would not be a clear deterant to the pirates or to any English sailors taken by the Barbary pirates in the future who might consider abandoning Christianity and fighting for the enemy .
Pragmatism wins.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Oct. 7. 1661 O.S –Sept. 29 N.S.
62. Francesco Giavarina, Venetian Resident in England, to the Doge and Senate.
Letters have been received from the fleet beyond the Strait of the 8th September, from which it appears that the previous reports were all false because the English have not been beaten and there was no adjustment.
Hostilities were falling into the background, but God grant they may increase, to the benefit of Christendom and the republic in particular.
The letters relate that General Montagu, in obedience to the king's orders, left the fleet on the 13th August for Lisbon with some sail, leaving in command of the rest of the fleet Vice Admiral Lawson, a brave soldier, experienced in the military art and in navigation as well.
When passing the Strait Montagu had encountered four Barbary ships, which he engaged, sinking two, and one was forced to run itself aground on the coast of Tituan.
Lawson, putting out to sea with some ships, leaving the others to pursue hostilities against Algiers, had captured two enemy ships with a Genoese laden with oil, which the Barbary pirates had taken a few days before.
One of these carried 24 bronze pieces and was commanded by a renegade. They made 125 slaves on this occasion and released more than 30 Christians of various nations.
He returned later to Algiers to attend to the enterprise there.
The differences would not be settled very soon as the pirates showed steadfastness in their resistance and courage and would not yield as easily as was expected.
They do not hear that anything of moment has happened under Algiers. The Court is greatly delighted at the news and expects better at any moment, especially as they have the co-operation of Vice Admiral Ruiter, who is there with a powerful Dutch squadron with the intention of remaining in those parts for the destruction of the pirates, having for this purpose established a magazine at Malaga where he has provisions for more than a year.
The ten ships making ready here to go to Algiers to replace those now there, have not yet sailed, and it seems they are waiting for further letters from Montagu. They have decided here to keep some ships at the Strait and to have others cruising in the Mediterranean to hunt pirates so these, being also pursued by the Dutch may the more easily be driven off and extirpated.
It is believed that the English will remove from Algiers where they cannot do the hurt they would like, owing to the precautions taken by the Barbary pirates, and are merely exposed to attack and great inconvenience, whereas by keeping the sea they are bound to win advantages and harass the enemy considerably.
San Diego Sarah • Link
CONCLUSION:
The message so eagerly awaited from Portugal has also arrived at last. Russel, interpreter of the Ambassador Mello has come. He is a priest of English nationality, who has lived a long time at Lisbon. He has conducted all the negotiations so far, and as a reward has been nominated by the duke of Braganza to a bishopric in the Indies, (fn. 2) for which they are asking the Pope's confirmation, and God knows if they will ever get it.
Fn. 2. Dr. Richard Russel was made bishop of Cape Verde. Evelyn: Diary, page 280. Gams: Series Episcoporum.
He brings satisfaction upon all the points of the treaty, fair words and great promises, but for money, which is the most important, nothing definite is heard. They speak of some bill payable by Jews of Amsterdam but it does not seem to be to the amount promised and expected or to be met with the promptness that is desired seeing the scarcity of cash.
A few days will bring more light to this affair, which I will keep in view.
London, the 7th October, 1661.
[Italian.]
FROM 'Venice: October 1661', in Calendar of State Papers Relating To English Affairs in the Archives of Venice, Volume 33, 1661-1664, ed. Allen B Hinds (London, 1932), British History Online
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
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"... and was commanded by a renegade"
I believe that means the ship had a Christian-turned-Turk captain. Lawson would have shown him no mercy. A firing squad was used, I believe.
A short bio about Dr. Richard Russell
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Duke of Braganza is Alfonso VI, King of Portugal -- our Portuguese annotator Pedro always calls him "Afonso" --
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
I wonder why the Venetians consistently refer to him as the Duke of Braganza, and not the King of Portugal?
San Diego Sarah • Link
In the same dispatch, Francesco Giavarina, Venetian Resident in England, reports to the Doge and Senate that the
"Presbyterians and Calvinists, who have always been fatal to this country, as the past miseries clearly showed, of which the scars remain, are still studying how to rekindle the fire, working in conjunction with fanatics and other turbulent spirits whose object is to overthrow the Episcopalians and destroy the Anglican Church, although they dissimulate and play the hypocrite.
"These designs being discovered by his Majesty, to prevent the disorder which might ensue, they have taken suitable measures, arresting some of the leaders in this city and the country and laying hands on a number of horses which belonged to them. In this way they hope to preserve the peace of this sorely tried country."
Come on Pepys -- we crave details. Are they blaming the Quakers again?