Friday 23 January 1662/63

Up and hastened him in despatching some business relating to Tangier, and I away homewards, hearing that my Lord had a bad fit to-night, called at my brother’s, and found him sick in bed, of a pain in the sole of one of his feet, without swelling, [Fasciitis?? D.W.] knowing not how it came, but it will not suffer him to stand these two days. So to Mr. Moore, and Mr. Lovell, our proctor, being there, discoursed of my law business. Thence to Mr. Grant, to bid him come for money for Mr. Barlow, and he and I to a coffee-house, where Sir J. Cutler was; and in discourse, among other things, he did fully make it out that the trade of England is as great as ever it was, only in more hands; and that of all trades there is a greater number than ever there was, by reason of men taking more ’prentices, because of their having more money than heretofore. His discourse was well worth hearing.

Coming by Temple Bar I bought “Audley’s Way to be Rich,” —[“How to get rich” schemes of the 17th century D.W.]— a serious pamphlett and some good things worth my minding. Thence homewards, and meeting Sir W. Batten, turned back again to a coffee-house, and there drunk more till I was almost sick, and here much discourse, but little to be learned, but of a design in the north of a rising, which is discovered, among some men of condition, and they sent for up. Thence to the ’Change, and so home with him by coach, and I to see how my wife do, who is pretty well again, and so to dinner to Sir W. Batten’s to a cod’s head, and so to my office, and after stopping to see Sir W. Pen, where was Sir J. Lawson and his lady and daughter, which is pretty enough, I came back to my office, and there set to business pretty late, finishing the margenting my Navy-Manuscript. So home and to bed.

38 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

I "drunk more till I was almost sick" - in a coffee-house, and it's not coffee in question, methinks (Sam, the VOWS!!)

L&M note Audley's advice (p. 26): "Drink not the third glass."

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"Margenting"?

Writing annotations in the margins, perhaps?

And yeah, Terry, I was wondering exactly what it was the Sam almost made himself sick on at the coffeehouse ... actually, given that he has a very full morning and a very empty stomach before sitting down to a fish head (yum) with Billy Batten, he could have made himself "almost sick" on coffee ... especially the coffee of the time.

Bradford  •  Link

Wise heads would audley need Audley's advice on that score. (I never said that.)
But if anyone has scanned this Restoration version of Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" (fp. 1937, and still going strong thanks to his Foundation; just Google and see), it would be a treat to learn the "good things worth my minding."

Terry F  •  Link

“Margenting”?

Writing annotations in the margins, perhaps? Todd, you have it!

Margent \Mar"gent\, v. t.
To enter or note down upon the margin of a page; to margin.
[Obs.] --Mir. for Mag.
[1913 Webster]
http://onlinedictionary.datasegme…

jeannine  •  Link

“Audley’s Way to be Rich,” perhaps they include

1. Stop seeing plays
2. Stop buying wine
3. Stop getting in trouble so you don't have to buy moyre gowns
4. Stop buying books about how to get rich
5. Don't hire a companion

oops, better scratch # 5--as it may buy happiness and there's no price for that...

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"The Way To Be Rich...Without Really Trying..."

Hmmn...

"Chapter One. Making use of a well-connected, wealthy relative. So, you have a well-connected, wealthy relative with you are on excellent terms."

(Check, Sam notes.)

"Congratulations. You have taken a firm first step on the road to riches."

(Excellent...)

"Unless said relative has landed you a publicly responsible post...In the Naval Office."

(Ummn...)

"If said relative has stuck you with said post, skip to Chapter Five."

(Thumbs ahead.)

"Chapter Five. How to Survive Parliamentary Inquiry into How You Amassed Your Fortune on a Clerk's Salary."

(Phew!)

***

John N  •  Link

"Cod's head"?
Was the rest of the cod attached? Not much of a meal otherwise methinks. Perhaps the eyes were a delicacy....

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Hmmn... "See also Chapter Six."

"Chapter Six. Surviving Your Patron's Plunge From Power."

"Gentle Reader, Devoted Friendship and Loyalty is Truly one of the Almighty's greatest Gifts, praised be His name...And Noble in Humankind.

However..."

***

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Syrus has your Answer:
Stultum facit fortuna quem vult perdere , Syrus Maxims; another
Pecuniae imperare oportet, non servire
Or in Saxon : If Mistress fortune wants to squander she makes you stupid.
you master money , not be the slave.
or sumat like that.

Terry F  •  Link

Robert, you have a subscription to Early English Books Online!!
Fab!
Sam's many books purchases will make that invaluable to these meager annotations. Let me express the community's gratitude, again, and "going forward," as the current phrase is!

Australian Susan  •  Link

Caffeine

I think Sam (who is not used to imbibing much coffee) could get nauseous on an OD of coffee - a Starbucks grande with an extra shot (or two) can really give you a buzz!
Also - contemporary morality tale of a lad who was the designated driver, but drank 20 Red Bulls to keep himself awake during the night and at the end of his deliveries of drunken friends was himself picked up after erratic driving. One Red Bull is the same as a shot of espresso for caffeine. The young man was very sick too, but his breath test was negative, mystifying the police until he explained. Sam should not allowed near a horse after a lot of coffee.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Once more Samuell makes it into the OED: "...margenting n., the addition of marginal notes to a text.
1663 S. PEPYS Diary 23 Jan. (1971) IV. 23 Finishing the *Margenting my Navy-manuscript ..."
Forms: l ME mariante, 15 margente, mergent, mergente, 15-16 margeant, 15- margent, 16 margant, margint; Sc. pre-17 margent, margiant, mergent. [Variant of MARGIN n. with excrescent final -t: see T, and cf. -ANT3.]
A. n.
1. a. The space on a page, etc., between its extreme edge and the main body of written or printed matter; = MARGIN n. 2a. Obs.
b. A commentary, summary, or annotation in the margin of a text. Also fig. Obs.
[< Middle French, French marge edge, border, margin of a book, also in fig. use (c1225 in Old French) < classical Latin margin-, marg 1. a. An edge or border of something; esp. a river bank, shore; = MARGIN n. 1a, b.

v:trans. To insert (something) as a marginal note.
1610 R. NICCOLS England's Eliza To Rdr., I present it in one whole entire Hymne, distinguishing it only by succession of yeares, which I haue margented through the whole storie

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Chapter Six sounds so modern.

Mary  •  Link

cod's head.

Fish head may not be highly rated in England these days, but in many parts of the world it is relished for the delicacy of the meat, especially the cheeks. Moreover, the head of an even moderately sized cod holds a surprising amount of meat ..... not that we ever see moderately sized cod now, the state of the fishing-grounds being as it is.

Ruben  •  Link

"Sam should not allowed near a horse after a lot of coffee."
A. Susan's annotation is "Best annotation" in my private Rank of the Week and good candidate for the monthly.
Second comes in J A Gioia's on Monday
"allors, montagu - nozing more zan franch for pointee mountaine. zut!"
Thanks to all annotators!

JohnT  •  Link

Wordplay or coincidence ? For the second time in 3 days Sam has used the word "pretty" twice in the same sentence with distinct meanings. On Wednesday 21 January we had " a pretty dinner and she ( Mrs Ackworth ) a pretty modest woman ". And here the daughter is "pretty enough" and the business done "pretty late". This is , of course, a diary and no doubt rushed off. In any work intended for publication this would be a conscious device (or sloppy editing). The received opinion is that Sam writes simply and clearly without looking for literary effect. But sometimes I wonder...

PHE  •  Link

Effects of too much caffeine
A news story from just this week:

"Caffeine in sensible quantities can help drivers stay alert, but if taken to excess, like many other drugs, it can have strange effects on people."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_new…

language hat  •  Link

"Wordplay or coincidence ?"

Since the "wordplay" would be completely pointless, I vote for coincidence/sloppiness.

Martin  •  Link

Sir Cutler's discourse
It sounds like Sir Cutler, a businessman, had his fingers on the pulse of the English economy, speaking of greater trade, in more hands, with more apprentices. Was there any kind of objective measurement available to know whether the economy was growing?

pegg  •  Link

We’ve all had days like this:

“and I away HOMEWARDS:
1. called at my brother’s
2. so to Mr. Moore,
3. thence to Mr. Grant
4. and he and I to a coffeehouse
5. coming by Temple Bar
...thence HOMEWARDS
6. turned back again to a coffee-house
7. Thence to the ‘Change,
and so HOME (just dropped in to check on wifey)
and so to dinner to Sir W. Batthen
and so to my office
after stopping to see Sir W. Pen
back to my office
So HOME and to bed.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

“Wordplay or coincidence ?”
I: Samuell loves discourse . II: has to write screeds for a living, impressing the Powers to be with his thoughts:
III: Thinks outside of the box or reviews standards set by previous deeds and then coming up with new solutions.
Here in the Diary he has an opportunity to put to pen other thoughts that not be in line with Official Thinking. Here he has the freedom to play with words.
The proof would be in the reviewing his letters , of which the there be a set of Books that exposes another facet of Samuell, the Official one.
He may have been exposed to Locke:

Locke: “The ends of language in our discourse with others being chiefly these three:
First, to make known one man’s thoughts or ideas to another.
Secondly, to do it with as much ease and quickness as possible; and,
Thirdly, thereby to convey the knowledge of things
language is either abused or deficient, when it fails of any of these three.… (707-08, 710).

http://www.public.asu.edu/~mdg42/…

Terry F  •  Link

"He may have been exposed to Locke:"

in time, perhap: AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, written in exile during the reign of the current Duke of York, appeared in 1690 with a Preamble dated 24th of May, 1689 http://www.rbjones.com/rbjpub/phi…

Terry F  •  Link

Samuel may have read Hobbes's LEVIATHAN, 1660
(probably not, but this describes the Diary)

"The secret thoughts of a man run over all things holy, prophane, clean, obscene, grave, and light, without shame, or blame; which verbal discourse cannot do, farther than the judgement shall approve of the time, place, and persons. An anatomist or physician may speak or write his judgement of unclean things; because it is not to please, but profit: but for another man to write his extravagant and pleasant fancies of the same is as if a man, from being tumbled into the dirt, should come and present himself before good company. And it is the want of discretion that makes the difference. Again, in professed remissness of mind, and familiar company, a man may play with the sounds and equivocal significations of words, and that many times with encounters of extraordinary fancy; but in a sermon, or in public, or before persons unknown, or whom we ought to reverence, there is no jingling of words that will not be accounted folly: and the difference is only in the want of discretion. So that where wit is wanting, it is not fancy that is wanting, but discretion. Judgement, therefore, without fancy is wit, but fancy without judgement, not." http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/p…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Thank you for the Locke quotation, Terry F. Very apt. And also a wonderful, wonderful example of the superlative prose written in the 17th century - surely one the best centuries for English prose. (think also of the King James Bible of 1611 and that most of Shakespeare is actually Jacobean not Elizabethan)

language hat  •  Link

"Here he has the freedom to play with words."

Sure, but what is the play here?
"After stopping to see Sir W. Pen, where was Sir J. Lawson and his lady and daughter, which is pretty enough, I came back to my office, and there set to business pretty late..."
I just don't see any cleverness, any meaning in the reiteration -- it's as if someone today were to say "I don't mean that he was mean to me..." Is the repetition of "mean" in different senses "wordplay"? Not to me. But your mileage, as they say, may vary.

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

Cod are sizeable fish, and modern cod are smaller than the ones they used to catch before they became so overfished. An adult cod can easily grow to 1.5m - the record setter in modern times reached 183cm and weighed 95kg. I can imagine that a cod's head with a bit of shoulders attached would provide a good meal for a couple of people.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Today, Pretty be used by a pretty youth, when asked "how are you" ? He dothe reply "pretty good". If by one that be not fetching of face then I dothe think that he be without problem except the looks, but he be conceited then what should I think?

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Samuell be having us on a string I dothe thinke "...and so to dinner to Sir W. Batten’s to a cod’s head..."
another meaning of Cod's head , be a stupid fellow.
OED b. fig. ‘Stupid head.’ Obs.
1566 DRANT Horace, Sat. III. Bivb, This coddes heade..This asse, doth wante his comon sence

Rick  •  Link

@Bradford
There are some editions of Think and Grow Rich on the internet but they all seem to come from one source/ one scanning (The same scan-mistakes occur over and over again)

I would like to get a scan of the original 1937 edition, too. So, if you find one, please let me know.

Thanks.
Rick

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Mr. Grant...did fully make it out that the trade of England is as great as ever it was, only in more hands; and that of all trades there is a greater number than ever there was, by reason of men taking more ‘prentices, because of their having more money than heretofore."

Graunt had recently noted in his 'Natural and political observations made upon the bills of mortality' (1662, pp. 42 +)
[ http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… ] that population was increasing (despite the common view to the contrary), and that the increase was particularly great in the towns. (L&M note)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and here much discourse, but little to be learned, but of a design in the north of a rising, which is discovered, among some men of condition, and they sent for up."

A group of alleged conspirators had just been arrested in Yorkshire, among them Luke Robinson (who had sat for several Yorkshire constituencies since 1640), two members of the Lascelles family, Capt. Matthew Beckwith, Richard Cholmeley and Thomas Dickenson, Alderman of York. (L&M note)

John York  •  Link

The way to be Rich, according to the Practice of the great Audley
Terry Foreman thank you for posting a link to an on line version of the book in the encyclopedia.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
This is published by E. Davis, London 1662.
Is this the same person referred to as Thomas Davies in the diary?
Pepys refers to Davis as "my old schoolfellow at Paul’s, and since a bookseller in Paul’s Church Yard" and also notes that he received a substantial legacy from Audley
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
And later says that "Davis, the little fellow, my schoolfellow, — the bookseller, who was one of Audley’s Executors, and now become Sheriffe".

Tonyel  •  Link

"and they sent for up."

Any ideas what this means? Are the men of condition being sent for (but why up)? Or is this short for "Up North", a common expression by us southerners?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

'"and they sent for up'

'Any ideas what this means? Are the men of condition being sent for (but why up)? Or is this short for "Up North", a common expression by us southerners?'"

Methinks yours a very good reading, Tonyel, but I write from across the pond.

Bill  •  Link

"and they sent for up"

Tonyel and Terry, a very good question! Google Books finds the phrase "sent for up" used frequently through the 19th century and seldom in the 20th. "Send for up" is used much less frequently. Sometimes the meaning is clear but often puzzling. For example:

"His Majesty went to the House of Peers, and the Commons being sent for up, and attending..."

seems to mean the Commons were invited to the House of Peers. The "up" usually seems to indicate movement to somewhere important. I think.

"the condemned Popish Priests, sent for up to London from the several County Goals"

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘send, v.1 < Old English sęndan . . Phrasal verbs
. . 9. send for —— v.
b. With adv. qualifying ‘to come’ or ‘be brought’ understood.
. . 1727 Swift Horace Imitated in Swift Misc. Last Vol. ii. 34 Send for him up, take no Excuse.
1753 J. Collier Art Tormenting i. ii. 62, I shall not send for you back . .

c. Of a sovereign: To command the attendance of . .
1744 T. Birch Life R. Boyle 154 He was then by his Majesty's order sent for to Whitehall . . ‘

‘Up’ = ‘up to London’.

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.