Thursday 17 October 1661

At the office all the morning, at noon my wife being gone to my coz Snow’s with Dr. Thomas Pepys and my brother Tom to a venison pasty (which proved a pasty of salted pork); by appointment I went with Captain David Lambert to the Exchequer, and from thence by appointment he and I were to meet at a cook’s shop to dine. But before I went to him Captain Cock, a merchant I had not long known, took me to the Sun tavern and gave me a glass of sack, and being a man of great observation and repute, did tell me that he was confident that the Parliament, when it comes the next month to sit again, would bring trouble with it, and enquire how the King had disposed of offices and money, before they will raise more; which, I fear, will bring all things to ruin again. Thence to the Cook’s and there dined with Captain Lambert and his father-in-law, and had much talk of Portugall; from whence he is lately come, and he tells me it is a very poor dirty place; I mean the City and Court of Lisbon; that the King is a very rude and simple fellow; and, for reviling of somebody a little while ago, and calling of him cuckold, was run into … [the cods – L&M] with a sword and had been killed, had he not told them that he was their king. That there are there no glass windows, nor will they have any; which makes sport among our merchants there to talk of an English factor that, being newly come thither, writ into England that glass would be a good commodity to send thither, &c. That the King has his meat sent up by a dozen of lazy guards and in pipkins, sometimes, to his own table; and sometimes nothing but fruits, and, now and then, half a hen. And now that the Infanta is become our Queen, she is come to have a whole hen or goose to her table, which is not ordinary. So home and to look over my papers that concern the difference between Mrs. Goldsborough and us; which cost me much pains, but contented me much after it was done. So at home all the evening and to supper and to bed.

29 Annotations

First Reading

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"that the king is a very rude and simple fellow"
acording to my research he is talking about Dom Afonso IV although his mother Dona Luisa de Gusm?o was the regent at the time; he was eventually deposed by his brother because of insanity.

Pedro.  •  Link

The king is a very rude and simple fellow...

Sam is referring to Afonso VI, the brother of Catherine, who had become heir when his father and his elder brother, D.Jo?o IV and Teodosio, died in 1656. At that time he was 13 years old and the country was governed by his mother D Luisa de Gusm?o, as Queen Regent. He claimed the throne in June 1662.

At the time Sam is writing he would be about 16 years old. At the age of 3 he was struck by an unknown illness (maybe hemiplegia?) leaving him with some paralysis and affecting his mind, but the story of running a sword through someone is unlikely to be true, although it is easy to see how it could be believed. He was badly behaved and chose friends much below his class, especially one Ant?nio Conti of Italian origin. It looked as if he nipped out of the palace windows and joined the rabble in the square and played at “throwing stones”. As time went on his friends in the square exerted more influence on him, and many undesirable characters were introduced into the Court. He encouraged the fighting of hares inside and outside the palace, and the gang that he was involved with rampaged at night, throwing stones through windows (with no glass that could be painful!) and attacking pedestrians. It appears that he boasted about this to cover up his physical incapabilities and to keep in with his gang.
(…as to Catherine, four foot nothing, eating a whole hen, well that’s another story)

Bradford  •  Link

"Venison" pasty #27! Deer, dressed as pork (akin to mutton dressed as lamb).

Bradford  •  Link

I MEANT pork dressed as deer.
Moral: Never annotate when you are hungry.

Only two words missing in that ellipsis:
"and calling of him cuckold, was run into the cods with a sword and had been killed,"---"Shorter Pepys"
"cods" = testicle, or a small bag. OK.

vicente  •  Link

"ods" = testicle, or a small bag. OK
‘What a load of Freemasonic cods wallop! ‘
http://www.faem.com/eric/2002/c12…
‘tis the piece that covers very popular when doing a little rugger.
‘tis an expreesion that once was common.

Bullus Hutton  •  Link

"cods" = testicle, or a small bag. OK
Bradford is absolutely correct, cods does = testicles.
The only thing that covers these in rugby is a jock-strap. A hard codpiece (or box) may be worn in cricket, but never in my experience for rugby, or rugger or whatever.
And the relevance of http://www.faem.com/eric/2002/c12… completely escapes me!

Peter  •  Link

Bullus, the relevance is absolutely clear. It's codswallop!

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Ah, Captain Cock...er Cocke...The hard-drinking, clever merchant of "great observation and repute...", thus enters one of my favorite Diary characters.

AJ  •  Link

Venison dressed with garlic butter, isn't that what you meant?

AJ

Glyn  •  Link

Robert G: then why don't you be the first to write a biography of him for the rest of us? (by the way, interesting hyperlink via your name).

Thomas  •  Link

That there are there no glass windows,
Sams' house at brampton had no glass in the windows...only translucent mica

Grahamt  •  Link

Cods:
Still widely used in the north of England. The strangest (and most blasphemous) oath I have heard is "Odd's cods" (God's testicles). As Odd's Bodikins is used in Shakespeare, I would assume this has some antiquity.

Nigel Pond  •  Link

Graham -- yes indeed I remember that use of "cods" very well from when I grew up in Manchester in the 60s and 70s.

The references to "codswallop" bring to mind one of my favourite websites that explains some of the differences between British and American slang and the difficulties that can arise therefrom. I know it's off-topic but it is too funny not to post the link: http://www.suslik.org/Humour/Nati…

Pedro.  •  Link

Cods.
"he can easily kick Stephen, knee him in the cods, or sweep Stephen’s right leg and force him to the floor."
From "A late Sixteenth, early Seventeenth Century Duel." Enacted by people who take their history seriously!

http://homepages.tesco.net/%7estu…

David Ross McIrvine  •  Link

Catherine's lack of resources

"And now that the Infanta is become our Queen, she is come to have a whole hen or goose to her table, which is not ordinary"

Lacking the military muscle to protect Tangier, or a sufficiently robust economy to put a chicken in even her pot? Hadn't the Portuguese succeeded in their scheme to rip off the Indians for their New World wealth? Or were they just eccentric and impractical?

Glyn  •  Link

Or perhaps they were, if not vegetarians, at least not so reliant on meat-based meals and we are seeing this through British prejudices? I imagine a lot of Mediterranean cuisine would seem eccentric to the English.

Coincidentally, on November 23, 2004 the National Portrait Gallery, London is holding a 3pm gallery talk (free) entitled "A little woman - no breeder" - Catharine of Braganza, wife to Charles II: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/novemb…

Monique  •  Link

David- Actually, the lack of resources on the part of the Portuguese comes from the fact that the Spanish had ruled Portugal from 1580 to 1640, all the while raping the Portuguese treasury and colonies, and losing some of the Portuguese empire in the process. Then, the Portuguese had to spend more of their money trying to defend themselves from the attempts of the Spanish to take back Portugal after 1656.
Also, in the New World, Portugal stayed only with Brazil, and their native peoples didn't have any kind of wealth like the Aztecs. The gold and diamond rushes would only be found in the 1700s, and were mined by the Portuguese, not the natives of the Amazon.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"not the natives of the Amazon"
Actually the gold from Brazil was mined by African slaves,mostly from the Guinea Coast;they were expert miners and commanded a high price;the British (Saint John d'El Rey Mining Company)until the end of the XIX century also used slave labor in Brazil but to circumvent British law they did not own slaves,they rented somebody elses slaves.

Pedro  •  Link

"That there are there no glass windows, nor will they have any; which makes sport among our merchants"

Lady Fanshawe's view of Lisbon on her return to England in 1663...

"Lisbon with the river is the goodliest situation that ever I saw; the city old and decayed; but they are making new walls of stone, which will contain six times their city. Their churches and chapels are the best built, the finest adorned, and the cleanliest kept, of any churches in the world. The people delight much in quintas, which are a sort of country houses, of which there are abundance within a few leagues of the city, and those that belong to the nobility are very fine, both houses and gardens. The nation is generally very civil and obliging. In religion divided, between Papists and Jews. The people generally not handsome. They have many religious houses, and bishopricks of great revenue; and the religious of both sexes are for the most part very strict. "

Dulce Rodrigues  •  Link

It is very funny to talk about "lack of resources on the part of the Portuguese" when Catarina's (that's the correct name) dowry was the largest ever registered in world history. Besides the two million golden “crusades” (Portuguese currency at the time), she brought the port cities of Tangier in North African and Bombay in India to British control, as well as permission for England to use all the ports in the Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Thanks to Catarina, the "so British" custom of drinking tea was also introduced to England, as well as the use of... the fork!
As the Portuguese missionary Antonio Vieira used to say "A Verdade pinta-se nua" (Truth is depicted naked).

Pedro  •  Link

It is very funny to talk about “lack of resources on the part of the Portuguese” when Catarina’s (that’s the correct name) dowry was the largest ever registered in world history.

Although this is true one must also bear in mind that the Dowry was never paid in full, and was always behind in payment. Luisa had difficulties in raising the funds, and kept secret the parts concerning Tangier and Bombay as long as possible.

The English King kept his promise to supply forces to the Portuguese cause and they performed heroically under Schomberg at the Battle of Ameixial.

For a Portuguese viewpoint see the excellent biography of Catarina…

Casimiro, Augusto. Dona Catarina de Braganca : rainha de Inglaterra, filha de Portugal / Augusto Casimiro [Lisboa] : Portugalia Editora, [1956]. ..

Second Reading

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

DNB has:

‘ . . Despite Catherine's appeasement of the king she did not gain much influence at court, mainly due to her failure (in marked contrast to Charles's mistresses) to have children. She apparently suffered from dysfunctional uterine bleeding; a visitor to the court in 1668 heard that ‘the extraordinary frequency and abundance of her menses’ made it unlikely that she would have children . .

Catherine had not been unwilling to fulfil her role as the British queen consort but circumstances conspired to make her success unlikely. Her ‘ordinary mind’ and lack of beauty and sophistication disappointed her court, and while she came to love her husband, who for his part welcomed her non-interference in politics and praised her goodness, his mistresses were the bane of her life, and her childlessness the cause of great misery . . ‘

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"with Captain Lambert...had much talk of Portugall; from whence he is lately come, and he tells me it is a very poor dirty place; I mean the City and Court of Lisbon"

David Lambert was Captain of the Norwich, a frigate just home from Sandwich's Mediterranean fleet. He had been in Lisbon during August. Thomas Fisher's account of Lisbon at the same time is more complementary than Lambert's. He thought the palace (rebuilt in the previous reign but never finished) rather simple, with its whitewashed walls. [The Mediterranean had not adopted the Baroque architectural styles of Northern Europe .) English travelers usually found Portugal inferior to the worst parts of Spain. The court was not frequented by the nobility except on festivals, and the King ate alone, without ceremony [unlike France and, aping it, England]. (Per L&M note)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"That there are there no glass windows, nor will they have any"

A common feature in Mediterranean countries. In Italy oiled paper was sometimes used. Pepys later found that at Tangier the windows had only shutters: Tangier Papers, p. 55. (L&M note)

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Thanks, SDS, I had forgotten about that location. I have posted elsewhere about the conditions endured by the coal miners in Scotland -- and now I find the salt "makers" (i.e. the people laboring in the salt flats) were similarly enslaved.
(Regular salt -- and pepper -- notations can otherwise be found in our Encyclopedia at https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… -- "Other" under Food - Spices.)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

No glass in the windows makes sense in the Mediterranean climate, so long as you have waterproof/stormproof shutters. You need shade and a breeze, not glass for 90 percent of the year. But Pepys doesn't know that yet!

@@@

"From Sandwich's log, in the bay of Tangier:

October 17. Thursday.
The Colchester with Mr. Nash, Mr. Rolt and my Lieutenant etc., returned from Cadiz.

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 Colchester was last heard of
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Don't know about Mr. Nash, but
Capt. Edward Rolt is a good Brampton boy
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
And I suspect we know who Sandwich's Lieutenant is ... nominations?
Tangier
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Cadiz
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.