Tuesday 3 December 1661

To the Paynter’s and sat and had more of my picture done; but it do not please me, for I fear it will not be like me. At noon from thence to the Wardrobe, where dinner not being ready Mr. Moore and I to the Temple about my little business at Mr. Turner’s, and so back again, and dinner being half done I went in to my Lady, where my Lady Wright was at dinner with her, and all our talk about the great happiness that my Lady Wright says there is in being in the fashion and in variety of fashions, in scorn of others that are not so, as citizens’ wives and country gentlewomen, which though it did displease me enough, yet I said nothing to it. Thence by water to the office through bridge, being carried by him in oars that the other day rowed in a scull faster than my oars to the Towre, and I did give him 6d. At the office all the afternoon, and at night home to read in “Mare Clausum” till bedtime, and so to bed, but had a very bad night by dreams of my wife’s riding with me and her horse throwing her and breaking her leg, and then I dreamed that I … [was] [had one of my testicles swelled, and – L&M] in such pain that I waked with it, and had a great deal of pain there a very great while till I fell asleep again, and such apprehension I had of it that when I rose and trussed up myself thinking that it had been no dream. Till in the daytime I found myself very well at ease, and remembered that I did dream so, and that Mr. Creed was with me, and that I did complain to him of it, and he said he had the same pain in his left that I had in my right … [stone – L&M] which pleased me much to remember.

21 Annotations

First Reading

RexLeo  •  Link

"...in scorn of others that are not so, as citizens’ wives and country gentlewomen"

My Lady's gentle nudge to Sam to open up his purse strings to buy some decent apparels for his wife I suppose is precisely to avoid this kind of catty remarks against Liz.
"...my wife’s riding with me and her horse throwing her and breaking her leg"

I wonder what kind of a Freudian interpretation this dream would suggest?
May be it represents Sam's fear of their financial security collapsing (like the horse) and hurting them badly.

Conrad  •  Link

A hernia is a condition in which part of the intestine bulges through a weak area in muscles in the abdomen. An inguinal hernia occurs in the groin (the area between the abdomen and thigh). It is called "inguinal" because the intestines push through a weak spot in the inguinal canal, which is a triangle-shaped opening between layers of abdominal muscle near the groin. Obesity, pregnancy, heavy lifting, and straining to pass stool can cause the intestine to push against the inguinal canal.

Symptoms of inguinal hernia may include a lump in the groin near the thigh; pain in the groin; and, in severe cases, partial or complete blockage of the intestine. The doctor diagnoses hernia by doing a physical exam and by taking x rays and blood tests to check for blockage in the intestine.

Pedro.  •  Link

"by dreams of my wife's riding with me and her horse throwing her and breaking her leg, “

Remembers 18 September?

"the way about Puckridge very bad, and my wife, in the very last dirty place of all, got a fall, but no hurt, though some dirt. At last she begun, poor wretch, to be tired, and I to be angry at it, but I was to blame; for she is a very good companion as long as she is well."

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Jesse  •  Link

"yet I said nothing to it"

Lady Wright, if I gleaned from the background correctly, is young, presumably attractive and of some character. I'm surprised our hero would not rise to the occasion.

Clement  •  Link

It's fun that Sam can subconsciously make his rival into a herniated brother in pain.

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows." --The Tempest 2.ii, W.S.

Conrad  •  Link

D. Savill, the artist, is mentioned in the archive of the National Portrait Gallery only once & then only in association with an engraver. The Gallery says his main body of work was performed between 1652 & 1661. I wonder if Sam had anything to do with the "paynter's" professional demise, due to his concern about the poor likeness being created, bad word of mouth etc. On the other hand he may have simply died as a result of yesterdays illness.

vicente  •  Link

Ita ut cubile.

Ruben  •  Link

Vicente dixit: "and so to bed"
About inguinal hernia: the most important reason for a inguinal hernia is hereditary. All the other are secondary.

J A Gioia  •  Link

a very bad night by dreams

i wonder if sam isn't anxious that liz can't 'keep up' with him, or might be holding him back from where he needs to go. considering the reliance people once had on horses and the animals' obvious sexual characteristics, they probably figured promenantly in disturbing dreams, hence 'nightmare'.

Xjy  •  Link

Bad dream
"i wonder if sam isn't anxious that liz can't 'keep up' with him, or might be holding him back from where he needs to go. considering the reliance people once had on horses and the animals' obvious sexual characteristics, they probably figured promenantly in disturbing dreams, hence 'nightmare'.”

J A G is getting there, I think. Sounds to me like a censored bit of wishful thinking… he’d like her out of the way, or at least crippled and pacified. The horse is power and sex, and Sam feels inhibited in both by her. Too bad we don’t learn about *her* dreams of him ;-)

Oh, and the leg/groin pain *he* feels is wished on her in the dream, of course…

gerry  •  Link

Missing above:I dreamt that I had one of my testicles swelled,and I in such pain..

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"dream"
In spite of Joseph and of Freud,dreams have no significance whatsoever.

language hat  •  Link

"dreams have no significance whatsoever"

Not only is this an irrelevant remark, you cannot possibly know whether it is true.

Firenze  •  Link

Dreams: as well say none of Pepys waking reflections are significant either. Dreams are a different mode of thought - allusive, obscure, but sometime illuminating. If this one impressed Pepys enough for him to record it, then it was significant to him, and that is what matters (not how we interpret it).

Glyn  •  Link

According to this table of prices, "oars" were twice as expensive as "sculls":

http://www.londonancestor.com/sto…

In 1722 (the time of the above table of prices) travel from the Wardrobe under London Bridge to the Tower of London would have cost Pepys at the standard set of prices 6d (6 pennies or 6 pence) for oars and 3d (3 pennies) for sculls. I suspect that the prices were slightly lower in Pepys' time 60 years earlier, so he is paying a little bit more than necessary.

I take it that he means that he is going slower today, with oars which should be faster, than he did with sculls yesterday. Perhaps the tide was against them or they had the equivalent of a traffic jam - the river could get very crowded.

For comparison, in 2005 a trip by ferry to and from about the same start and finishing points, i.e. from Blackfriars Pier and then underneath London Bridge to St Katherines Pier near the Tower of London takes 12 minutes and costs about 2 pounds 25 pence (plus a 1/3 discount if you have a Travelcard). 6 old pence in 1722 to the present price is an increase of exactly 90 times.

http://www.transportforlondon.gov…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Would a boat with oars have two boatmen and a boatmen with sculls, one?

Australian Susan  •  Link

Oars and sculls
Thanks, Glyn for your reference to pervious comments on water transportation - wasn't reading this then. It seems oars are the turbo-charged version.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I to the Temple about my little business at Mr. Turner’s"

L&M note this was the legal dispute with Trice and refer us to this entry noting Pepys's receipt of the subpoena for him:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

On 20th November, Pepys wrote of Anne Wright " a witty but very conceited woman and proud." Today's entry sheds a little more light on the reasons therefor.

Although the daughter of a puritan Commonwealth family, the good Lady's attitudes firmly reflect the values of the restored court. Some of Sam's own values were undoubtedly a product of Cromwell's era and, although a supporter of the new regime, he is still uneasy about its stability and "public relations".

Michaela  •  Link

I think that maybe Sam interpreted the catty comment about unfashionably dressed wives as a jibe against his wife, and the unpleasant feeling (after all, we know he cares about her) remained in the back of his mind along with the discomfort of feeling that he might be leaving her unprotected against the scorn of women like Lady Wright. This could have triggered the dream of Liz falling and breaking her leg while at his side.
I don’t believe he saw her as a hindrance to his success, Sam doesn’t strike me as that kind of person.

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