Sunday 8 December 1661
(Lord’s day). In bed all the morning thinking to take physique, but it being a frost my wife would not have me. So to dinner at the Wardrobe, and after a great deal of good discourse with my Lady after dinner, and among other things of the great christening yesterday at Mr. Rumbell’s, and courtiers and pomp that was there, which I wonder at, I went away up and down into all the churches almost between that place and my house, and so home. And then came my brother Tom, and staid and talked with me, and I hope he will do very well and get money. So to supper and to bed.
This morning as I was in bed, one brings me T. Trice’s answer to my bill in chancery from Mr. Smallwood, which I am glad to see, though I am afraid it will do me hurt.
21 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"to take a physique,but it being a frost my wife would not have me"
I can't see the relationship;is it because he woud have to go to the out house and might catch a cold?
vicenzo • Link
Wife would not get out of bed to prepare the mixture, it be so cold[OH! how I dothe remember those cccccold mornings, backslaping, footstamping breathing out white cold smokeless stream of frozen moisture ]
Australian Susan • Link
I think if Mrs P had refused to prepare the "physique", Sam would have told us about this and been cross! I think she is giving advice either about the effect frosty weather will have on the efficacy of the medicine or to do with having copious bowel motions in cold weather. I don't think the Pepys house had what we would call an "outside dunny" - I think they just used chamber pots inside which got emptied into the cess pit. Perhaps Mrs P thought she would get the lovely task of emptying these receptacles in the inclement weather and didn't fancy it....!
vicenzo • Link
whatever reason, he was upset, No 1 english complaint { how be ye bowels ? a question, oft asked} Trice problem, in out of the naves a looking?"...I went away up and down into all the churches almost between that place and my house,..." me thought being, he is too upset even to say Eliza was not helpful.
Pauline • Link
"the great christening yesterday at Mr. Rumbell’s, and courtiers and pomp that was there, which I wonder at"
Any footnote anywhere as to who was christened?
Mary • Link
The Rumbold christening
Charles, son of William Rumbold, Clerk of the Wardrobe, was the child christened. Rumbold was favoured at court because he had acted as a Royalist agent during the years of the Protectorate.
C.J.Darby • Link
Perhaps it simply means physique in the sense of a walk to "physique himself" and his wife Elisabeth was worried that ehe might catch a cold.
Nix • Link
“to take a physique,but it being a frost my wife would not have me” --
Perhaps she didn't want to have to open the windows to air the place out.
Glyn • Link
So have we ruled out Elizabeth throwing him out of their bed because it's cold and he's causing a disturbance and drafts, leaving her to sleep warm and snug after she's pushed him out the door?
Martin • Link
I'm with C.J.Darby. Sam uses taking physique in the sense of exercise elsewhere.
vicenzo • Link
"I am afraid it will do me hurt" expenses, expenses. After yesterdays ruckus,a goary Bloody day, heavey soggy mincepie, a collar of brawn, wine for brecky, spending a years maids salary on a revealing neckline and giving away a crown and his ascot? , his first extra on the side money of the month just gone?. Surely it is enough to choke one up.
Bob T • Link
to take a physique,but it being a frost my wife would not have me”
It makes perfect sense to me. If it was frosty, then the windows would have been closed, and........ Think about it :-)
dirk • Link
Rev. Josselin's diary for today
"God good to me and mine in outward mercies, winter not yet come in a manner, and yet the time worn finally away, god awaken my heart to watchfulness against corruption, my wife very apprehensive she breeds again, let our seed be the blessed of the lord."
Source:
http://linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk/earl…
Interesting from a linguistic point of view:
"my wife very apprehensive she breeds again"
["my wife is pregnant again, and she's not at all happy with it"]
Australian Susan • Link
Apprehensive.
No wonder - one in three women died in child birth then.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"thinking to take physique, but it being a frost my wife would not have me."
L&M conjecture she probably thought his kidney trouble made him sensitive to cold.
Terry Foreman • Link
" T. Trice’s answer to my bill in chancery from Mr. Smallwood, which I am glad to see, though I am afraid it will do me hurt."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘physic, n. I. Medical, curative, and extended uses.
1. A medicinal substance; spec. a cathartic, a purgative . .
. . 1605 Abp. G. Abbot Briefe Descr. Worlde (rev. ed.) sig. T3, The people..do vse it [sc. Tobacco] as phisicke to purge themselues of humors.
a1616 Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) v. iii. 49 Throw Physicke to the Dogs, Ile none of it.
. . 1748 Best Method preserving Uninterrupted Health 182 The Salt in the Air..shrinks up the Fibres of their Guts, and makes them [sc. seamen] generally very costive, insomuch as to require a double quantity of physic to purge them . . ‘
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
From Sandwich's log, at anchor in Tangier Bay:
December 8, Sunday.
Sir John Lawson and the Anne sailed for the bay of Gibraltar.
In the evening came the Yarmouth out of the Straits and brought news that he saw the Dutch fleet, 14 sail of men of war, on Wednesday last off the bay of Targa.
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
@@@
Vice Adm. Sir John Lawson
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Anne -- The Anne -- possibly a royal yacht built in 1661
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS…
The bay of Gibraltar
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Yarmouth -- we last heard of her last August when she accompanied Lawson to Algiers https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Straits
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The bay of Targa -- Google maps tells me Targa is close to Marrakesh in modern Morocco, but that's inland -- ideas anyone of a Targa by the sea?
Rex Gordon • Link
For people confused about what “taking physic” meant, in modern terms it means taking a laxative. So the cold weather had something to do with Elizabeth’s reluctance to share a room with Sam if he took physic. Perhaps those who speculated that it would be too cold to open the windows and freshen the air are onto something.
Cynara • Link
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pepys’ facilities were in the yard out back; it might have been complicated to use a chamber pot for the energetic purging of “physic”.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Cynara -- Pepys had a "house of office" (yes, a very odd name!) on the top floor -- by the maids' room. So he was probably using a chamber pot, or dashing up the stairs.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Either way it was unpleasant, but the Stuarts were less fastidious than we are. They were more in touch with the fact that humans are animals; something we seem to like distancing ourselves from.