Thursday 7 August 1662

Up by four o’clock and to my office, and by and by Mr. Cooper comes and to our modell, which pleases me more and more. At this till 8 o’clock, and so we sat in the office and staid all the morning, my interest still growing, for which God be praised. This morning I got unexpectedly the Reserve for Mr. Cooper to be maister of, which was only by taking an opportune time to motion [it], which is one good effect of my being constant at the office, that nothing passes without me; and I have the choice of my own time to propose anything I would have. Dined at home, and to the office again at my business all the afternoon till night, and so to supper and to bed. It being become a pleasure to me now-a-days to follow my business, and the greatest part may be imputed to my drinking no wine, and going to no plays.

33 Annotations

First Reading

Tom  •  Link

So this is how Mr Cooper gets paid for his lessons.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Aye, that's fine, fancy mathematics you've got there, Mr. Cooper. Been countin' your way to Master all this time? (think "Jaws")

Anything, Sam? All right, lets see you appoint yourself head of the Royal Navy.

(heh, heh, sir. No need. In effect, I am head of the Royal Navy. Broad grin.)

Or better yet, open up the service to women...Bess might like that.

(But I would not, sir. Stern frown.)

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"to my drinking no wine"
Well I guess the headaches were not that bad.

Terry F.  •  Link

Mr. Cooper's not Richard-come-lately, as the Background info shows
See Pauline from L&M Companion: "The one-eyed sailing master (iv.133). Pepys had known him in the 'Royal Charles' in 1660, and in July 1662 met him again when paying off the 'Royal James', on which he had served as master's mate. Then unemployed, he was taken on by Pepys to teach him mathematics and other lore of his trade. His payment,it seems, took the form of promotion: in Aug. 1662 he was made, at Pepys's request, master of the 'Reserve' in which Robert Holmes flew his flag on a voyage to the Mediterranean. They quarrelled...Holmes was not invariably an easy man and Cooper was not invariably sober...and their dispute came before the Navy Board. Pepys at first resisted Holmes's demand for Cooper's discharge, but gave way to dark threats of a duel. But almost immediately afterwards...it is easy to guess at whose suggestion'Cooper was made master of Sandwich's flagship the 'Prince'. Sandwich's journal records his observations of two meteors.” http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

His ideas are taking root and are being acted upon as he makes his valid points, feedback [a necessary ingredient to future success] gives one a warm feeling "...my interest still growing, for which God be praised..."

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Nah! Mark, it be toy for one of the cats now, not worth an entry . 'No news of that mouse then'

A. Hamilton  •  Link

The mouse

Personally, I think the tale of the mouse was unconsciously given for literary effect- just so are the unwary plunderers of HM Navy taken. Also the tale of the house (roofless & open to the weather) could be a metaphor for the condition of the Navy.

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Hamilton I doth believe, many entries have a second meaning, in case some nosey parker, reads his entree, he be not the only learned ladd that has used this shorthand, because their be books available on St Paul's book stalls. He has to protect his thoughts [and rump ] in more ways than one, not every one be on the same team, as he be finding out. their be snitches, as he has already be warned at an earlier date.

Alan Bedford  •  Link

"This morning I got unexpectedly the Reserve for Mr. Cooper to be maister of..."

Not a bad first berth for a new master. A fourth-rate ship of 34 guns and 150 total crew plus Marines. Downside: he'll no doubt have to put up with a military commander.

Mary House  •  Link

Thank you Cungranissilis for those references. I'd forgotten about the mouse problem in the Pepys household. Interesting that he mentions buying mouse traps. So we know that there was a 17th century version.

Terry F.  •  Link

mouse traps

A. Hamilton and Cungranissilis, you do us a service to remind us of the common use -- of Pepys' use here (disguised from us by transcription) -- of cipher = disguise ~ a common feature of the Baroque, whose artistic and architectual trompe l'oeil was complemented by the flourishing of cryptography -- hidden meanings.
"Here there be mice: let us get a trap!"
I think I need a wigg (hair thinning, as it is, or no).

Terry F.  •  Link

No plays? As Cungranissilis says, using Shelton's tachygraphy hides nada, wherefore Sam'l, having *apparently* foresworn (lit.) attending the theatre, uses some of what he has learned there to encrypt in his journall dramas that unfold around him, and reserving for himself ever-choicer rolls therein.

Xjy  •  Link

feedback and interest
Cgs writes: "His ideas are taking root and are being acted upon as he makes his valid points, feedback [a necessary ingredient to future success] gives one a warm feeling "...my interest still growing, for which God be praised...”
Now this interest remark is a very astute observation by Sam. He knows you can’t force interest, and he watches a bit in awe how this thing grows spontaneously inside him. The feedback gives him the reward he needs to go for more of this kind of satisfaction.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: hidden meanings

I don't know, fellas, I remain unconvinced. Nothing I've read about the Diary -- or in it, for that matter -- has indicated to me that Sam is speaking metaphorically or allegorically. One of the wonderful things about the Diary, for me, is the absolute straightforwardness of the writing. Its concentration on the mundane, everyday events in Sam's life, and on his feelings and actions, is the foundation of its absolute brilliance, and of its connection with our modern-day lives (because so much of human nature and circumstances are shared).

Just as we should shy from judging Sam by our standards, I think we should think twice (or more) before trying to read too much into his entries (unless we have the facts to back it).

My tuppence, FWIW...

Glory, Glory  •  Link

Todd B.I agree with you on the straightforwardness of the diary and that one of the glories of Pepys is his direct and modern approach to his own life and his times. No Riccoco here I think

language hat  •  Link

"my interest still growing"

Xjy, if you're thinking of the normal modern subjective meaning of interest ('feeling of personal concern'), that wouldn't develop for another century. The meaning in the 17th century was an objective concern in something: 'fact or relation of being legally concerned; right or title to a share in something; relation of being concerned or affected; good, benefit, profit, advantage,' and the sense I think is most likely here: 'influence due to personal connexion; power of influencing the action of others; personal influence with a person or body of persons.'

I agree with Todd about "hidden meanings."

Glyn  •  Link

Were there Marines in the 1660s?

By the way, whatever the adjustment for the different calendars, if he is going to work at 4 am then he is going to work in the dark, and working in a deserted office by candlelight or lamplight.

He's probably the first to arrive there even before the clerks, I doubt if many of them needed to start work before the regular weekly Board Meetings at 8 to 9 am.

Nix  •  Link

Were there marines in the 1660s?

Per OED, "marine" was an established usage for "sailor or mariner" -- the first reference for the modern sense of seaborne soldiers is dated 1672. (However, some of the earlier citations for "marine" could also be read in this sense.)

2. a. A sailor or mariner. Obs.

c1575 J. HOOKER Life Sir P. Carew (1857) 33 He had in his ship a hundred marines, the worst of them being able to be a master in the best ship within the realm. 1617 F. MORYSON Itinerary III. III. i. 126 They haue few Marrines, and those vnexperienced and fearefull. 1634 W. BRERETON Trav. (1844) 14 If any soldier, marine, or tradesman die. 1723 H. ROWLANDS Mona Antiqua Restaurata II. 331 Their Marines..told them it was a Hyperborean or Northern Island.

b. Originally: a soldier enlisted and trained to serve on board ship (and, in certain circumstances, on shore, esp. in the dockyards). Now chiefly: a member of the British Royal Marines or the U.S. Marine Corps. Cf. HORSE-MARINE n.2

1672 S. TAYLOR Let. 30 May in L. Edye Hist. Rec. Royal Marines (1893) I. 148 Those marines of whom I soe oft have wrote to you behaved themselves stoutly. 1703 London Gaz. No. 3912/1 A Detachment of 400 Men, and the Regiment of Marines. 1709 R. STEELE Tatler No. 79 {page}2 An honest rough Relation of ours..who is a Lieutenant of Marines. 1740 London Mag. 413 Sir, a Soldier and a Marine are, I may say, quite different creatures. 1804 W. CRUISE Digest Laws Eng. Property III. 164 A commission in the marines. 1855 E. E. STUART Let. 31 Jan. in R. Stuart et al. Stuart Lett. (1961) II. 685 At 9 A.M. all hands were called to witness the punishment. The officers in full uniform with their swords & pistols, marines drawn up with their muskets loaded and bayonets fixed. 1914 F. T. JANE Your Navy as Fighting Machine x. 83 A marine when afloat does bluejacket duty under his own officers, manning guns, etc., while ashore his duties are of a military nature. 1988 D. A. THOMAS Compan. Royal Navy iii. 243/2 The destroyer Anthony landed 50 marines.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Hidden meanings

I confess I was being fanciful. I don't think Sam was being intentionally metaphorical. But the Batten-mouse sequence is almost novelistic -- even if unintended -- don't you think?

Alan Bedford  •  Link

"...the first reference for the modern sense of seaborne soldiers is dated 1672."

Thanks, Nix, for the correction. I hadn't actually researched the history of the Royal Marines before presuming that they would have existed in the mid-17th century. I note that the first regiment of seagoing British soldiers - the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot - won't be formed until October, 1664.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: Bat(ten) and mouse

Yep, Mr. H, I agree! Such "happy accidents" are one of the highlights of the Diary for me. I think they may very well provide us with a tiny glimpse into Sam's unconscious ... but then again, they may not! :-)

Glyn pointed out something that struck me, too -- it's pretty amazing that Sam is able to get "up and at 'em" at 4 a.m. In my younger daze I could make do on much less sleep, but nothing on the scale of Our Man in the Navy Office. I wonder if it's because people could more easily live by their circadian rhythms then ... fewer external time cues than now.

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Nursery rhymes be more than a fanciful kid pacifier or ridelin. There are "those that keep ones tongue 'til they be in charge", those that say wot they be thinking usually end up sidelined at a minimum, sometimes even be minus a head, leaving a trail of loose talk has ended many a career, thus I doth think Samuell being very observing has done the same, using the double entendre to remind himself that times be dangerous still, for example preachers who have no ethics will keep their income while others be collecting at park corner.

Terry F.  •  Link

"hidden meanings"

Since I dropped the phrase, I'm accountable for it. Todd B., in my intellectual economy (such as it is) your tuppence are worth a lot, and perhaps the case for this phrase will fail entirely or in great part (risk taken). I *was* waxing a bit eloquent, wasn't I; now let me see if I can wane with honor.

While also appreciating greatly Sam's candor and self-discovery as a diarist (aka, "journalist", (1) I imagine him exploiting analogies gladly, am pretty much with A. Hamilton, but would perhaps not say "novelistic" (the notion being a few decades away): methinks Sam's sense of *drama* is alive and well, as the "interest" passage shows (I retract "encrypt"). (2) Sam has already used what Tomalin terms a "coded passage" to obscure a sexual adventure (September 4, 1660: http://www.pepys.info/bits2.html#… (3) (SPOILER) Sam's use of "coded passages" will become more frequent a year from next January, as evidence of the private/public split of the age. (4) The Baroque with its architectual trompe l'oeil is indeed upon us, as "patches" will give way to masks and wigs: cf. John Spurr's aptly subtitled *England in the 1670s: This Masquerading Age* or, Charles II's England goes the way of France (for the Background later). (Rococo is usually dated 1720-60.)

Perhaps "veiled meanings" works? ("masked meanings" later)....

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: Hidden meanings

Well said, Terry, and I think we really all agree on this, for the most part. I also believe that Sam gets dramatic in his writing at times (consciously or not), and has a good sense for puns. Because he's a smart guy and such a good writer, his writing can be read -- rightfully or not -- at several levels. That's one of the things that keeps these annotations interesting ... we all bring something different to the table, and sometimes take something different from it.

His "coded passages" are meant to make his dalliances a bit harder to figure out, but one has to wonder if he really thought they'd be effective. I can read them quite easily with my (very) basic French, and certainly any contemporary codebreakers could have, too (or could have found someone to do it).

But obfuscation about his sexual encounters is much different than writing allegorically or emblematically (i.e., instead of writing details about a sexual act, he describes it as a mundane occurance: "Visited Betty Lane after dinner, and thoroughly examined her books *wink wink nudge nudge* ... Robert Gertz could certainly help me here :-)

Do you see what I mean?

Terry F.  •  Link

"hidden meanings" revisited

Todd Bernhardt, I certainly do see what you mean. I’ve had no trouble reading the sexual “coded passages” either, with limited French and Spanish.

And, of course who could have read these more easily than the polylingual Elizabeth herself?! which has cause me to wonder, from whose eyes were these to be hidden, his “mind’s” — is this his conscience working overtime, diddling itself?

Speaking of Beth, it has seemed to me that were she not in Brampton, would she not miss the plays, the socializing, etc.? Sam is become a less fun man-about-town = even “reform” bring trade-offs.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

from whose eyes were these to be hidden

An interesting question. I'm inclined to think that the foreign phrases are a method for Sam to distance his conscious, book-and-diary keeping mind from his (don't look) not-to-be-spoken-of-in-plain -English indiscretions. As Terry suggests, maybe he's shielding his actions from his conscience.

Pedro  •  Link

My tuppence, your tuppence.

Put another way--our two peneth.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Interest
The idea of interest which is being used here by Sam (as explained by language hat) is the concept which gives rise, soon, to the beginnings of politcal parties - the first being The King's party, aka those in the king's interest. Even though parties were well-established in the 19th century, it is still possible, if voting patterns are analysed (I took part in such research c. 1979, when the computational tools became available)to see that people voted according to their "interest" as much as according to their party.

The disguised bits
I always thought Sam wrote like that because he was describing things he could only just bring himself to verbalise and he could only put them in writing, even secret, private writings if they were further hidden in a foreign language. He is very ambivalent about his sexual urges and stumbles about uncertainly being prodded firmly by his conscience one moment and hustled along by his libido the next. It makes for a good read! Endless descriptions of endless conquests get very boring (Fanny Hill, Casanova, Shirley Conran - fill in your own gaps)

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"my interest still growing, for which God be praised

INTEREST, Advantage, Concernment, Benefit, Credit, Power, Right.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘interest n. < French interest . . 6. Influence due to personal connection; power of influencing the action of others . .
. . 1653 Act Govt. Commw. 45 Several persons of Interest and Fidelity in this Commonwealth.
1676 tr. G. Guillet de Saint-Georges Acct. Voy. Athens 365 Her interest with him is such, that she governs him absolutely.
. . 1761 D. Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxxvi. 293 To raise the people in the counties..where his interest lay.’

Zexufang  •  Link

Chris ... I agree. In this Pepys entry "my interest still growing..."; he is not a using modern-speak as in "this fact is interesting" but instead he is more concerned with pecuniary interest as it relates to money. And money, in turn, begets power and evermore influence.

That is all.

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