Sunday 26 October 1662
(Lord’s day). Up and put on my new Scallop, and is very fine. To church, and there saw the first time Mr. Mills in a surplice; but it seemed absurd for him to pull it over his ears in the reading-pew, after he had done, before all the church, to go up to the pulpitt, to preach without it.
Home and dined, and Mr. Sympson, my joyner that do my diningroom, and my brother Tom with me to a delicate fat pig. Tom takes his disappointment of his mistress to heart; but all will be well again in a little time. Then to church again, and heard a simple Scot preach most tediously. So home, and to see Sir W. Batten, who is pretty well again, and then to my uncle Wight’s to show my fine band and to see Mrs. Margaret Wight, but she was not there. All this day soldiers going up and down the town, there being an alarm and many Quakers and others clapped up; but I believe without any reason: only they say in Dorsetshire there hath been some rising discovered. So after supper home, and then to my study, and making up my monthly account to myself. I find myself, by my expense in bands and clothes this month, abated a little of my last, and that I am worth 679l. still; for which God be praised. So home and to bed with quiett mind, blessed be God, but afeard of my candle’s going out, which makes me write thus slubberingly.
33 Annotations
First Reading
Bradford • Link
"Tom takes his disappointment of his mistress to heart; but all will be well again in a little time."
"We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others."---La Rochefoucauld.
Still, who can resist a man who calls to our attention a word which could with advantage be reintroduced into current usage: "slubberingly." Yea, many public actions nowadays could be piquantly described thus.
Terry F • Link
"All this day soldiers going up and down the town, there being an alarm and many Quakers and others clapped up; but I believe without any reason: only they say in Dorsetshire there hath been some rising discovered."
L&M note: "A company of foot and a troop of horse had been sent into the city at the Lord Mayor's request, and over 300 were arrested (though not all were imprisoned) - Quakers from the Bull and Mouth meeting [congregation] in Aldersgate, and Anabaptists from Glovers' Hall. Arrests continued throughout November, many Quakers not being released until January 1663.... There had been rumors of a plot in Dorset since July....Cf. W. Denton to Sir R. Verney, London, 30 October 1662: 'Here hath long been news of a plot and rioting about Sherborne in Dorsetshire...a hot alarm to King, General and City...'. In London, he continued, Ludlow was to have acted as leader, and the plan was to time the rising for Lord Mayor's day, the 29th, 'about noon, when all were busy, or at night when all were drunk'...."
Nix • Link
Slubbering (OED) --
That slubbers; working in a dirty or slovenly manner; showing haste and carelessness.
a1591 H. SMITH Serm. (1886) I. 314 The Jews abhorred the sacrifice for the slubbering priests. 1594 Zepheria ii, My slubbring pencil casts too grosse a matter. 1642 MILTON Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 325 Who ingrosse many pluralities under a non-resident and slubbring dispatch of soules. 1681 H. MORE Expos. Daniel Pref. 17 His Expositions are..so dilute, shallow and slubbering. 1731 FIELDING Grub St. Op. III. x, Go, and like a slub'ring Bess howl, Whilst at your griefs I'm quaffing. 1818 Sporting Mag. II. 89 A sort of scumming, smearing, slubbering way of sketching. 1854 A. E. BAKER Northampt. Gloss. s.v., A [slovenly] servant is called ‘a slubbering thing’.
Hence {sm}slubberingly adv.
1622 DRAYTON Poly-olb. xxi. 168 Such as..slubberingly patch up some slight and shallow rhime. 1657 J. SERGEANT Schism Dispach't 284 The Verse..which he brings to testify his tenet expressely, but, by omitting it slubberingly, bids it say nothing.
stolzi • Link
I love the way
Sam says quite honestly that he went visiting to show off his fine new clothes.
I've done that(or at least, had the new clothes as the main thing on my mind)and lived in a foreign country where there was a special word for "wearing something the first time," but it's something we tend to be a little shame-faced about!
Robert Gertz • Link
Geesh, Sam you're worth 679L...Buy another candle. Hard to tell if you were home writing in the study or went to the office to write and then went home. Well, in the afterlife you and Bess come for dinner and you can explain it to me then.
***
Ah, Tom. Well, if she wasn't willing to say the heck with it, I love you...Like your sis-in-law and Sam...Probably not worth it, old fellow. I'll assume that in the afterlife you got Castlemaine, to brother Sam's irritation...But only after she promised to amend her wicked ways.
***
Those fiendish Quakers...Plotting to spread brotherly and sisterly love all over England.
***
I take Sir Will P remains laid up.
Australian Susan • Link
So Mr Mills is conforming grudgingly as to dress in Church, but only when he must: not to preach. Sam cannot have been alone in thinking the removal of the surplice an irritating distraction and rather absurd.(slubberly?)
Today, we often have the sight of priests who do not put a chasuble on until the beginning of the liturgy of the eucharist, once they are up at the altar and that often ends up an undignified tussle what with the modern problems of what to do about the clip-on microphone, or the female priest with hair which gets messed up. Sam would have been struck dumb I think, given that the sight of a mere surplice makes him uneasy.
From what Sam reports, it seems as though low-key protests continue against the use of the revived Book of Common Prayer and basic vestments .(surplice only, it seems - Sam does not refer to the black scarf usually worn with the surplice, and has not referred to other articles such as a cassock, cope, stole, chasuble, alb. ).
Australian Susan • Link
Suckling pig sounds much more attractive than boiled cows' feet.
Cumgranissalis • Link
"...many Quakers and others clapped up;..." were the 'others' be from the whitehall insiders, Oh! sorry that be poxed major lot.
Quakers doth take the cap and keep it on. The Quaker have convictions of mind that dothe get them convicted while others go with the flow, 'tis better to eat bread than prison slop
Cumgranissalis • Link
"...first time Mr. Mills in a surplice..." Samuell, he were be upset when just after the first official use of the Prayer book a Parson [vicar, a man in the pulpit] doth wear a white cloth. What was that gown called?
A. De Araujo • Link
"what was that gown called?"
methinks chasuble.
Cumgranissalis • Link
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… was the other comment on that Surplice "...I to church; and this day the parson has got one to read with a surplice on. I suppose himself will take it up hereafter, for a cunning fellow he is as any of his coat...."
????surplus it should be, an extra garment not required??? Surplice originally super + pelliceum made of fur [ermine? where possible]
Cumgranissalis • Link
"...and that I am worth 679l. still;..." at the end of Aug it be "... find myself worth in money about L686 19s. 2 1/2d., for which God be praised; and indeed greatly..."
He be spending agin [7quid 19 bob and tuppence hapeney spent more than income], wot ever happened to his resolve, no wonder he be counting the peas? [those Ascots, lace, scallops, they be expensive to hide ones adams apple or fuzz on 'is chest]
JWB • Link
Ludlow Scare
He was living in Vevey in 1662 with a 300L price on his head. After the Glorious Revolution he came home, but an order for his arrest as a traitor was issued so he again sought Swiss protection and he died there, last of the Regicides.
GrahamT • Link
Ludlow Scare... was living in Vevey in 1662:
Vevey is now better known as the last resting place of Charlie Chaplin (and the headquarters of Nestlé.) It seems it has always been a popular place for British exiles. Having lived there I can understand its popularity.
Australian Susan • Link
Chasubles were not worn by the clergy of the Church of England in the 17th century.
They would have worn ordinary clothes, but of "sober hue" - usually black. What Mr Mills sshould have been wearing was a surplice and a scarf (plain black length of cloth worn round the neck with thends hanging down nearly the same length as the surplice.). Cassocks were not owrn, nor, it seems ,were chasubles, albs, copes or stoles. Or maniples.
For more information try this online guide from the library of the ArchB of Canterbury http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.o…
Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surp…
alanB • Link
What I need to know as I dress my paper cut-out of Our Sam is will the scallop go with his sword which he is sure to put on in the current scare!
Vera • Link
... ... but afeard of my candle’s going out, which makes me write thus slubberingly.
Our Sam doesn't seem to be over 300 years away from us does he? I sometimes feel that he is sat in the next room to me, blogging away. Major thanks to Phil for the site.
Pauline • Link
'I’ll assume that in the afterlife you [Tom] got Castlemaine, to brother Sam’s irritation'
I like this, Robert Gertz.
Ruben • Link
‘I’ll assume that in the afterlife you [Tom] got Castlemaine, to brother Sam’s irritation’
I cannot resist the temptation...
When Marilyn passed away she went straight to Hell(only for the joke, poor woman). There she had every day to have some "sporting" encounters in bed with Mr. Einstein. Same bed. She was in Hell, but he was in Heaven...
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Castlemaine in the afterlife,
as told by
almost any of her lovers (although written, of course,many years before her birth)
When thou must home to shades of underground,
And there arriv'd, a new admired guest,
The beauteous spirits do engirt thee round,
White Iope, blithe Helen, and the rest,
To hear the stories of thy finish'd love
From that smooth tongue whose music hell can move;
Then wilt thou speak of banqueting delights,
Of masques and revels which sweet youth did make,
Of tourneys and great challenges of knights,
And all these triumphs for thy beauty's sake:
When thou hast told these honours done to thee,
Then tell, O tell, how thou didst murder me.
Thomas Campion
Jeannine • Link
Castlemaine in the afterlife vs. this life...
Andrew --What a great poem! Now I suppose I could add a few poems written by Lord Rochester about Lady Castlemaine during her life. Now let's see.... if I edited out the obscene vulgarity from what he wrote about her in an effort to keep this a "family friendly" site, there wouldn't be anything left to say!
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Rochester & Castlemaine
Looked up John Wilmot.
My first acquaintance with his "poetry." Not much imagination or wit, but bluntly graphic. Says he of Charles II (in "A Satire on the King"),
His scepter and [censored] are of a length
And she may sway the one who plays with th' other,
And make him little wiser than his brother.
Robert Gertz • Link
I don't know Ruben, I've heard Albert was quite the ladies' man...And Marilyn did hook up with Miller for a while.
Ruben • Link
I’ve heard Albert was quite the ladies’ man
The joke is one about the relativity of situations.
Remember that in the 50' they were many jokes about this disparate "pair", not in place here.
andy • Link
slubberingly
what a wonderful onomatopaeic word - you can see the candle flickering sparking and dripping.
Second Reading
Timo • Link
Not quite what i had in mind for my first comment this far into the diary, but reading "heard a simple Scot preach most tediously" in the final 3 days before the Independence Referendum made me LOL. Thanks Sam.
Bill • Link
“which makes me write thus slubberingly”
This passage, as well as one written on August 5th, 1662, for which he makes an excuse, is written quite plainly, and the manuscript is as neat as usual.
---Wheatley, 1899.
Bill • Link
To SLUBBER OVER, to do carelessly or without Application.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.
Bridget Davis • Link
Thanks, Bill, for the insight that Sam had, in fact, kept a neat dairy today. Many of us have not seen the manuscript to know.
Tonyel • Link
Poor Mr Sympson - Sam looking over his shoulder all week and then obliged to come to dinner on Sunday.
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘slubber, v. < Probably of Dutch or Low German origin: compare Middle Dutch overslubberen to wade through mud, Low German slubbern . . to gobble, to scamp in working, etc. . .
Third Reading
Ruslan • Link
It seems that the Ludlow mentioned above is Edmund Ludlow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edm…
San Diego Sarah • Link
"All this day soldiers going up and down the town, there being an alarm and many Quakers and others clapped up; but I believe without any reason: only they say in Dorsetshire there hath been some rising discovered."
The Google librarian suggests this was a cause of unrest:
"Starting in 1662, the English Parliament began passing a series of laws whose sole purpose was to silence the Quakers. The first of these laws was “An Act for preventing mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons called Quakers and others refusing to take lawful oaths,” commonly known as “The Quaker Act of 1662”. This act made it illegal for Quakers to worship together.
"Many members of the Religious Society of Friends reacted to these laws by holding meetings for worship in secret, but others continued to meet openly and faced the ongoing persecution. Quaker meetings organized to support their members who were imprisoned or fined for their beliefs and actions, and they often cared for the children of those who were in jail. The Quaker Act also made it illegal for people to refuse to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Church of England.
"Two years after the Quaker Act was passed, the English Parliament passed the Conventicle Act, ...
"These three Acts resulted in the arrests, punishments, and imprisonments of thousands of Friends in England. ... Parliament was not only targeting Quakers, but also others in the Nonconformist Movement.
"Through it all, Quakers continued to openly practice their religion. They met for worship in their meetinghouses, and they drew attention to themselves by articulating their beliefs during speeches and sermons on the streets. Fox would often stand outside steeplehouses and preach loudly, so that people inside the church could hear. These actions by the Quakers resulted in more imprisonments, but from within and without prison walls, Quakers continued to practice."
https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu….
Nothing about Dorset, so maybe this October unrest was something else, purely local? The librarian is silent on the subject otherwise.