Thursday 20 February 1661/62

This morning came Mr. Child to see me, and set me something to my Theorbo, and by and by come letters from Tangier from my Lord, telling me how, upon a great defete given to the Portuguese there by the Moors, he had put in 300 men into the town, and so he is in possession, of which we are very glad, because now the Spaniard’s designs of hindering our getting the place are frustrated. I went with the letter inclosed to my Lord Chancellor to the House of Lords, and did give it him in the House. And thence to the Wardrobe with my Ladys, and there could not stay dinner, but went by promise to Mr. Savill’s, and there sat the first time for my picture in little, which pleaseth me well. So to the office till night and then home.

21 Annotations

First Reading

john lauer  •  Link

"with my Lady's" what?

john lauer  •  Link

"did give it him...” is another reason we find this reading tedious: current English uses a “to” to identify the indirect object, when/if it does not precede the direct object.

vicenzo  •  Link

I understand it as follows: he to H of Lords with latest news [gossip]of Tangiers then over to Her ladyship to keep her informed of her hubbies latest escapades, she wants to know more by offering him a nice filet mignon, but Sam could keep not the request as he wanted his mug to be on canvas.

vicenzo  •  Link

Sam be a writing notes for his own reasons, not to satisfy his Tutor or to be published in the Times of the day. Thereby he will take the easy way out, and will slip in to minimum gear.

Martin  •  Link

And `give it him' is standard colloquial English in the UK at the present day.

Stolzi  •  Link

My Lady's

Might be his spelling of "My Ladies" - Lady Sandwich and her daughter Lady Jemima.

Stolzi  •  Link

Tangier

Home of those delicious little oranges, Tangerines.

JohnT  •  Link

The Portuguese officer seems to be called an Aidill. Derived from the Roman relatively junior rank of aedile?

On John Lauer's point, I read the reference to " my Lady's" as meaning that Sam took a separate letter from Sandwich to her as well as to the Lord Chancellor.

bardi  •  Link

I agree that "lady's" was possessive, not meant to be plural. Does "my picture in little" refer to a miniature? A second painting so soon?

Stolzi  •  Link

'On John Lauer's point, I read the reference to "my Lady's" as meaning that Sam took a separate letter from Sandwich to her as well as to the Lord Chancellor.’

Ah, that makes more sense. Thank you.

Ruben  •  Link

"picture in little"
we discussed miniatures more than a year ago. Check annotations.

vicenzo  •  Link

" Aidill. Derived from the Roman relatively junior rank of aedile?"
According to a dictionary ;
Aedile is derived from aedilis -is; Roman magistrate charged with the supervision of public buildings, games markets etc. English Dict: Aedile [lat: aedilis fr: aedes temple] ; an official of ancient Rome etc., police and grain.
After 10 years of honorable service a young man could join the Roman Civil service and go through the ranks of Magistrates starting at the age of 28 as a Quaestor then at 30 become a Aedile then progress to Praetor at aged 33 to be a civil judge introducing laws.

Pedro  •  Link

"officer seems to be called an Aidill"

According to Richard Ollard in his biography of Sandwich, "the Aidill of Tangier was presumably the Chief Magistrate."

language hat  •  Link

the Aidill of Tangier

I think this is much more likely to represent the Arabic word adl 'juristic adjunct assigned to a cadi' than the Latin aedile. (And no, before anyone asks, the Arabic word is not borrowed from the Latin.)

Pauline  •  Link

the Aidill of Tangier
Was the Latin word borrowed from Arabic?

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I went with the letters inclosed to my Lord Chancellor to the House of Lords, and did give it him in the House. And thence to the Wardrobe with my Ladys; and there would not stay dinner,...."

So L&M transcribe, -- the plural "letters" favoring JohnT's reading.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

The word Edil, derived from aedile, is still used in Portugal and Spain today to denote a mayor, so I have do doubt that "Aidill" is the same word. The sound of vowels are always difficult to render into another language - especially in an era without standard spellings.

Changing the subject, a harquebuss, or arquebus is an early rifle. The name derives (because of its shape) from Dutch, "hook pipe" or "hook tube"; just as "blunderbuss" derives from "thunder pipe".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arqu…

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Sasha , harquebus was almost certainly a smoothbore weapon which fired a spherical projectile: a ball. A rifle is a grooved bore weapon, the grooves imparting a spin to the aerodynamic projectile. Rifles were known in Pepys day but were very, very, slow fire, fired a ball, and, in the military, would only have been used by snipers. For the last over 100 years most any long gun except a shotgun is rifled and hence a rifle, but not the harquebus, musket, etc.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Thank you Nate - you are quite right - I used the term rifle very loosely - and incorrectly :)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and by and by come letters from Tangier from my Lord, telling me how, upon a great defete given to the Portuguese there by the Moors, he had put in 300 men into the town, and so he is in possession,"

L&M: Sandwich to Pepys, 20/30 January; printed in HMC, Eliot Hodgkin, p. 157 (mistakenly ascribed to 1661). The Portuguese defeat had occurred on 12 January and is described in Sandwich, pp. 114-15. On the 14th Sandwich sent 80 men from his own ship into the lower castle, and stronger parties went ashore on the 17th and the 23rd. See Sandwich, loc. cit.; Routh, pp. 9-10.

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