Sunday 14 December 1662

(Lord’s day). Lay with great content talking with my wife in bed, and so up and to church and then home, and had a neat dinner by ourselves, and after dinner walked to White Hall and my Lord’s, and up and down till chappell time, and then to the King’s chappell, where I heard the service, and so to my Lord’s, and there Mr. Howe and Pagett, the counsellor, an old lover of musique. We sang some Psalms of Mr. Lawes, and played some symphonys between till night, that I was sent for to Mr. Creed’s lodging, and there was Captain Ferrers and his lady and W. Howe and I; we supped very well and good sport in discourse. After supper I was sent for to my Lord, with whom I staid talking about his, and my owne, and the publique affairs, with great content, he advising me as to my owne choosing of Sir R. Bernard for umpire in the businesses between my uncle and us, that I would not trust to him upon his direction, for he did not think him a man to be trusted at all; and so bid him good night, and to Mr. Creed’s again; Mr. Moore, with whom I intended to have lain, lying physically without sheets; and there, after some discourse, to bed, and lay ill, though the bed good, my stomach being sicke all night with my too heavy supper.

33 Annotations

First Reading

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"my stomach being sicke all night with my too heavy supper"
Because of his young age methinks he was having diarrhea instead of gastroesophageal reflux disease(GERD)and that can be a real hassle, the diarrhea I mean.

Bradford  •  Link

For some irreverent reason, the last few lines call to mind a beached seal flopping to and fro. And in that same idle spirit, though we have touched on this matter before, how did Elizabeth fill the rest of her Sabbath after the service she attended, while Sam took in another one, jammed with friends, saw and was seen by the high and low, and pigged out, never going home at all?

Jesse  •  Link

"some Psalms of Mr. Lawes"

Clever. "Mr". is linked to Henry and "Lawes" is linked to William. Psalms links a work by both. Then why "of Mr. Lawes" rather than 'of/by the Lawes brothers'? Perhaps because William had died some time ago (1645) even before the Psalms were published (1648) whereas Henry had died as recently as last October.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"...had a neat dinner by ourselves..."
Neat as in a tidy simple little meal, neat as in raw as in whisky or be this neat as in cow's neat
" ...Dined at home with my wife upon a good dish of neats’ feet and mustard, of which I made a good meal..."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"...my stomach being sicke all night..." leads to a bovine problem? neat eh!

stolzi  •  Link

Do we think it is always just "talking" with his wife in bed in the morning that leaves Pepys so content? I don't, personally.

Why is he sleeping Sunday night at Creed's instead of at home?

I suspect that Moore sleeping "physically without sheets" is some form of medical treatment, and no wonder Pepys doesn't want to sleep with a sick person. (Taking physic = taking medicine; a physical gentleman = a doctor)

Jeannine  •  Link

"my stomach being sicke all night with my too heavy supper".. a general thought about illnesses in Sam's time.. in today's world there would most likely be a myriad of medications to quell most common ailments that Sam and others of his time suffer through and/or live with on a daily basis. So many of the illnesses that he writes about which incapacitate people for long periods of time would merely sideline us for a day or so (at the most).Another thing to remind me how grateful I am to be living today.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Lonely...How can you still be lonely, Bess? I was here for dinner, wasn't I?"

Or was I? Things were pretty busy today.

dirk  •  Link

The Rev. Josselin's diary: it's a cold winter, bu life goes on -- 3 baptisms (one 7 yrs old !)

"God good to me and mine in manifold outward mercies, my wife only much troubled with a cold especially in her head, the lord do us good by everything, make us humble and holy, a clear freezing morning after it began to thaw, and carry away the ice, god good to me in the word, baptised 3 children one 7. years old"

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

Mr. Moore, with whom I intended to have lain, lying physically without sheets

I haven't a clue what this means - anybody else got a notion?

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"...anybody else got a notion..." just sharing a palliasse, nutin more. Just lain on top of the bed , have to be fully attired, that be clothed, it be too cold for any buff attire. to far to walk or even coach it home, the nags would be steaming up the place.

Pauline  •  Link

"...Mr. Moore, with whom I intended to have lain...."
Almost sounds like Moore is stretched out on a divan (in his clothes; no sheets) and Sam comes in and they talk and then Sam gets into the bed by himself. A physically inactive day with large meals leaves his stomach heavy and abother through the night. I like Bradford's image of the beached seal. We all know how this feels--and will be reliving the feeling as we get deeper into the holidays.

celtcahill  •  Link

"...without sheets..." as in: outside of them ? Good, clean, cold air bath ?
Hmmmm...

brian  •  Link

"choosing of Sir R. Bernard for umpire" . . . Batter up!!

language hat  •  Link

“…had a neat dinner by ourselves…”

This is an older sense of "neat"; OED (3d):

Of preparations, esp. in cookery: skilfully or tastefully prepared; choice; elegant. Obs.
1609 T. HEYWOOD Troia Britanica XIV. 369 With all deliscious Cates, costly and neate. a1616 SHAKESPEARE Cymb. IV. ii. 50 Arui.: How Angell-like he sings? Gui.: But his neate Cookerie? 1634 T. HERBERT Relation Trav. 51 A very neat and curious Banquet. 1669 S. PEPYS Diary 24 Feb. IX. 458 Had a mighty neat dish of custards and tarts. a1682 SIR T. BROWNE Misc. Tracts 10 The Camphyre that we use is a neat preparation of the same. [...]

language hat  •  Link

"We sang some Psalms of Mr. Lawes"

I can't resist quoting the first stanza of Ezra Pound's "Envoi" (1919), one of the most beautiful lyrics of the last century:

Go, dumb-born book,
Tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes:
Hadst thou but song
As thou hast subjects known,
Then were there cause in thee that should condone
Even my faults that heavy upon me lie,
And build her glories their longevity.

JonTom Kittredge  •  Link

“…Mr. Moore, with whom I intended to have lain….”
Stolzi's interpretation makes the most sense to me. To paraphrase, "I went back to Mr. Creed's to sleep. I had intended to sleep with Mr. Moore, but, for medical reasons, he is currently sleeping without any sheets on his bed."

stolzi  •  Link

"cold air bath"?

Possibly, but it was winter. I thought perhaps rolled up in wool blankets, omitting the sheets for who knows what "physical" reasons.

Australian Susan  •  Link

We would read the term "physically" these days to mean a material description - "he was actually without sheets". Then it would have had connotations of health - to do with physic - purging medicine. "Without" could also mean at that time "outside of". So I took this to mean that Moore is either lying on top of the bedding in some connection with medical matters or is lying wrapped only in blankets, again for a medical reason. This results in Sam seeking another bed, rather than sharing Mr M's as intended.

"Symphonies"
At that time these were short pieces of music and could be played with a handful of instruments - not the grand 4 movement things with large orchestras they became much later on.

Bradford  •  Link

As Garrison Keillor once put it (on behalf of Yülé Sparkling Christmas Crystals), "When you've eaten like there's no tomorrow, and then tomorrow comes"---what was, in Pepys's time, the home version of Alka Seltzer?

David A. Smith  •  Link

"Lay with great content talking with my wife in bed"
Intercourse physical or merely spiritual?
Like Stolzi, I too have wondered. In a diary where Sam records without shame all sorts of bodily functions, including those both embarrassing and sexual (to say nothing of scatalogical), the total silence around conjugal sex is striking.
Personally, I think these phrases are *not* his personal code for intercourse, because he almost always mentions them of a morning ... but that means he's choosing not to tell his diary of his consummations.
I'd love others to express views on whether Sam is encoding his sexploits, and if he is silent, why that might be.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"the home version of Alka Seltzer"
methinks Baking Soda.

dirk  •  Link

the home version of Alka Seltzer...

From: "The Gentlewoman's Companion: or, A Guide to the Female Sex", 1675.

An excellent Conforter of the Stomach, and helper of Digestion

Take two ounces of good old Conserve of Redroses, of chosen Mithridate two drams, mingle them together, and when you are going to bed eat thereof the quantity of an Haselnut. This will expel all flatulency or windiness off the Stomach, drives away raw humours, and venemous vapours, helpeth Digestion, drieth the Rheum, and strengthneth the Sight and Memory.

http://chaucer.library.emory.edu/…

Terry F  •  Link

"We sang...Psalms...and played...symphonys"

A religio-political balanced evening:
Psalm singing was permitted in the time of the Cromwells "and became the dominant form of Christian music from the Puritan Period through the early 19th century in England and the United States." http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchrist…
The symphonys were a speciality of the Restoration.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I was sent for to my Lord.., he advising me as to my owne choosing of Sir R. Bernard for umpire in the businesses between my uncle and us, that I would not trust to him upon his direction, for he did not think him a man to be trusted at all"

The Mountagus and the Bernards were political rivals in Huntingdon. Sandwich had opposed the Bernard interest in the parliamentary elections of 1660, and he had Sir Robert removed from the recorder's place in 1663. (L&M note)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

My guess why Pepys didn't go home: according to the good Rev. " ... a clear freezing morning after it began to thaw, and carry away the ice, ..." Pepys stays in bed until he has to go to Church, giving the downstairs servants a break after a busy week cleaning up. The weather is fine, and after lunch he walks many miles to Whitehall to see the King in church, and to meet with Montagu. He lingers playing music and gossiping with his friends. By 4 p.m. it is dark, cold, wet and there are no carriages available, and going by water is unthinkable. Then Montagu calls him back, so he decides to camp with friends. Let's hope he dispatched The Boy to tell Elizabeth he wouldn't be home; Pepys usually omits mention of Wayneman's services, and I doubt he would have set out that afternoon to see Montagu without a servant in tow. Besides Elizabeth knew where he was going.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘physically, adv.
1. Medically; medicinally; according to medical rules. Obs.
. . 1674 R. Godfrey Var. Injuries in Physick 208 To make it a Proverb, Qui Medicè vivit, miserè vivit, (i.e.) He that lives Physically, lives miserably.
1712 M. Henry Sober-mindedness in Wks. (1853) I. 70 Then it [sc. mirth] must be used like a medicine,—must be taken physically . . ‘

i.e. = ‘under doctor’s orders’

Liz  •  Link

Garrison Keillor:a modern day diarist during the current COVID-19 lockdown.

meech  •  Link

I am a bit disturbed by today’s entry. So soon after the problems of Elizabeth’s loneliness, the coming of Gosnell, followed shortly by the going of Gosnell, makes me wonder at him, not only leaving her alone all day, but not even coming home that night. Hopefully she was aware that would happen and wasn’t up walking the floor picturing him run over by a wayward coach, or sinking through the cracked ice of the Thames. Someone said he took her to church in the morning, but I see no evidence of that. After lolling in bed would she have had time to get ready, what with Jane being a novice ladies maid. And, on those times she did go to church, didn’t she usually go to the afternoon service anyway? He did at least come home for dinner (lunch to me). He said the other day he had ‘contented’ her regarding all this. Hmm!? And if it was too nasty for him to try and make it home, wouldn’t it be too nasty for Wayneman? Although I guess servants were not allowed to be persnickety about such things. Perhaps this was all planned and known to her ahead of time and he has simply not informed us of that piece of information. I hope…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Hopefully she was aware that would happen and wasn’t up walking the floor picturing him run over by a wayward coach, or sinking through the cracked ice of the Thames."

Meech, my reading is that he had told Elizabeth not to expect him home; if she needed him he'd be at Mr. Moore's "... with whom I intended to have lain, ...".

Who's to say she didn't have had some other activity in mind, like doing the laundry which takes days and takes up the entire house for drying purposes. Sunday may be a day for church and reduced business activities, but the life of the maid was probably not much different from weekdays.

meech  •  Link

To San Diego Sara, who’s to say, indeed. It is often not all that clear to me. But obviously no problem, as I’ve now read the entry for the 15th and the two had a lovely chat at supper the following evening. So all is well and your reading is correct. I just remember a year or so ago when she followed him that day out of the frustration of being left alone, so after the Gosnell affair I assumed the worst. But he obviously informed her of his plans. Good for him!

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