Saturday 24 January 1662/63
Lay pretty long, and by lying with my sheet upon my lip, as I have of old observed it, my upper lip was blistered in the morning. To the office all the morning, sat till noon, then to the Exchange to look out for a ship for Tangier, and delivered my manuscript to be bound at the stationer’s. So to dinner at home, and then down to Redriffe, to see a ship hired for Tangier, what readiness she was in, and found her ready to sail. Then home, and so by coach to Mr. Povy’s, where Sir W. Compton, Mr. Bland, Gawden, Sir J. Lawson and myself met to settle the victualling of Tangier for the time past, which with much ado we did, and for a six months’ supply more.
So home in Mr. Gawden’s coach, and to my office till late about business, and find that it is business that must and do every day bring me to something. —[In earlier days Pepys noted for us each few pounds or shillings of graft which he annexed at each transaction in his office.]— So home to supper and to bed.
34 Annotations
First Reading
Bradford • Link
"by lying with my sheet upon my lip, as I have of old observed it, my upper lip was blistered in the morning."
The consequence of lye? (No, no, not another pun.) Fabric allergy? Friction?
"Graft": here we go again. Really, Mr. Wheatley, it's not like there was a sign posted on the wall, "Shave---2 Bits, Haircut---2 Shillings, Bleeding---Inquire About Our Annual Rates."
Clement • Link
"...and by lying with my sheet upon my lip...my upper lip was blistered in the morning."
Sam's not buying 300 thread count Egyption cotton, obviously. We are again reminded of another little element of difference between 17 c. live and ours.
Graft: I agree, Bradford, a bit strong of a word for this time. Lagniappe, we might call it elsewhere, though lagniappe is rarely expressed in coin of the realm.
Todd Bernhardt • Link
Actually, Mr. Wheatley, though I don't deny that Sam took a little extra off the top (to extend Bradford's barbershop analogy), I will say that you could read "bring me to something" in other than monetary terms -- Sam could well be talking (as he already has, multiple times) about how minding his business will bring him status as well as wealth.
Tony Eldridge • Link
No, I'm with D.W. Remember that Sandwich said originally that the salary was incidental in a post like Sam's - it was what you could make on the side that counted. In my own small Somerset (UK) town we still celebrate Hugh Sexey who rose from poverty to become Elizabeth's Auditor to the Treasury, amassing land and founding a school and almshouses - all or mostly from what he made 'under the table'.
Terry F • Link
I think what's involved is something between Wheatley's "graft" and Clement's "lagniappe" (the latter bringing us back to Katrina) --
Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, “the gift,” and ultimately from Quechua yapay, “to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean “an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.” http://www.bartleby.com/61/80/L00…
-- but in this case the gift or benefit is expected -- by the hotel porter, the restaurant valet driver, the....
dirk • Link
"and delivered my manuscript to be bound"
A sidenote:
The Gutenberg site today made available a remarkable book on bookbindings (also some 17th century ones)-- with illustrations:
English Embroidered Bookbindings, by Cyril James Humphries Davenport, 1899
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17…
in Aqua Scripto • Link
Pretty be word of the day,
ending yesterday : "...which is pretty enough, I came back to my office, and there set to business pretty late,..."
then opens with "Lay pretty long, and by lying ..."
Pauline • Link
"...by lying with my sheet upon my lip, as I have of old observed it, my upper lip was blistered in the morning..."
This evokes dear memories of my father, third and last surviving child following several lost possibilities somewhat early 20th C. His minor physical observations were clear and held in some "telling" importance very much like this.
I think Sam, Tom, Pall, and John--as the suvivors of eleven--will each have such evidence of their parents describing "reasons" and showing oddly minute concern for their health.
We have Tom speech problems--a connection? Pall, the only surviving daughter--difficult? spoiled? what?
How little we've heard of John to date.
Sam---a raring example of parental investment of total love, support, expectation of sucess.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
Mr Gauden turns up every 3 months : I wander why? rite around pay day.
Pauline • Link
'Mr Gauden turns up every 3 months '
Well, I looked back to see if he represented Mr. Barlow's interest, but that be Mr. Grant. It must be something similar, a quarterly expectation brings him to the forefront.
Ah!! In the end the government's inability to pay him for his victualizing for Tangier and navy in general ruins him. As that destiny looms into view, he might well show up every three months, if not more often.
alanB • Link
Is Mr Wheatley here as another annotator or marginator as you should all now be addressed?
A. Hamilton • Link
my manuscript to be bound at the stationer’s
Any suggestions as to the topic of this tome? From the margenting remark yesterday the subject is the Navy or some aspect of it.
A. Hamilton • Link
The lagniappe was not picayune
if it helped Sam to amass L600 in a couple of years. But the examples of high livers Batten and Povy suggest others took more. Should Sam be commended for the modesty of his charges for doing business?
Terry F • Link
"my manuscript"
This is but one of the names SP calls whatever-it-is about the Navy, but a while back L&M noted it doesn't seem to have survived among his carefully-preserved books, so its content will remain a mystery.
A.Hamilton • Link
Wheatley
as editor is responsible for the remarks appearing in square brackets in the diary text used at this site.
A. Hamilton • Link
Gawden (Gauden)his plight
Not being paid for his goods can make a man attentive to details like pay day. Gauden,victualler to the Navy, went broke trying to collect. Better to be someone who gets paid for facilitating matters,like Sam, than a vendor subject to the royal whim.
celtcahill • Link
"Lagniappe" 'Bringing us to Katrina'
True words; would our beaurocrats were as competent as Sam....
I believe the upper lip problem may be Herpes I the 'cold sore'; he gets something like it off & on with or without the sheet.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
Re: 'preety': Pretty well used word by Samuell to describe his feelings, his long lie ins and those that he dothe meet;
Since 27th of November '62, Samuell has used the word 'pretty' over 30 times. [less than 2 months ]
That pretty well sums up our Sam .
A. De Araujo • Link
"my upper lip was blistered in the morning"
Greetings from Pernambuco, Brazil, where the sugar to pay for Queen Catherine's Dowry came from.
methinks contact dermatitis; herpes very unlikely.
jeannine • Link
Wrong, wrong, wrong, everybody is SO wrong here! You won't find this in the OED, but only here as posted by a marginator/annotator/whatever tater. The unhip lip (oh my!) is clearly the result of Sam's metrosexual lifestyle. As defined a metrosexual is an urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle, sounds like, looks like, must be, our Sam!! OBVIOUSLY the lip is the result of an upper lip waxing gone bad. Any signs of his limping?? I hope the pedicure doesn't yield similar results!
matthew newton • Link
sheet upon my lips?
herpes?
i have never ever heard of this connected to Pepys.
Has anyone else?
language hat • Link
Irrelevant to today's entry but I can't resist...
I just found in the book A Cultural History of the English Language by Gerry Knowles the following bit of trivia:
"Perhaps the first recorded innovation in American English dates from 1663 and is the use of the word ordinary in the sense of 'tavern' rather than 'boarding house' as in England, and the first Americanism to be condemned was the use of bluff in the sense of 'headland', first recorded in 1735."
Since we're now in the year 1663 and have often followed Sam into the ordinary, I thought it was at least somewhat apropos!
You can Search Inside the Book and learn some fascinating stuff:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/…
Robert Gertz • Link
Between the coarse material and the type of soap, (lye?)Bess would've had to use in the washing, I'm surprised we don't hear more complaints from Sam.
celtcahill • Link
Contact dermatitis would show up wherever there is contact and he only complains about his lip....
A. Hamilton • Link
Could it be that the sheet wicks moisture from the lip, causing it to chap?
in Aqua Scripto • Link
He who dothe sail,
and stays up wind,
has the holy grail,
you down wind.
from thy big sail
soon you will find
the air be gone.
The one down wind,
be all of a flutter
will then stutter
and then will utter,
"oh what grief,
I be on the reef"
The wind thief
off with the loot
and with a hoot
he doth sail
having lost thy sail
leaving thee to flail.
the moral be
stay up wind
or How Hornblower
wins V Mayo
dirk • Link
Could it be that the sheet wicks moisture from the lip, causing it to chap?
A. Hamilton -- that's what's been in my mind from the very beginning... (And it seems by far the simplest answer - Occam's Razor!)
Joe • Link
"...with my sheet upon my lip...."
This wouldn't have anything to do with that "spitting sheet" from Friday 21 November, 1662--the one he found "very convenient"?
A. Hamilton • Link
Joe
By George, I think you've got it.
Second Reading
Bill • Link
"[In earlier days Pepys noted for us each few pounds or shillings of graft which he annexed at each transaction in his office.]"
The earlier annotators were a little rough on Henry Wheatley for this "annotation," surprisingly so to me since I remember no other case of Wheatley offering censure of Pepys.
The sentence appearing in square brackets does NOT appear in the 1893 edition digitized by Project Gutenberg, or in any other Wheatley edition of the Diary that I could discover on Google Books. It does appear in the Project Gutenberg digitization and may have been added by D.W., who, as Phil notes, "is David Widger, who produced the electronic text," and who added a few footnotes of his own. In this case quite gratuitously.
Here is Phil's information about the text used on this site: http://www.pepysdiary.com/about/t…
San Diego Sarah • Link
GRAFT: a Pepys historian posted this today: I edited 1/3 to fit this format:
"Samuel Pepys
Posted by J D Davies
It is a truth universally acknowledged that those who get outraged by things on Twitter are in need of a life.
Occasionally one sees something on Twitter which is so crass any pretence at possessing a life must be laid aside. So it was with the normally uncontentious Twitter feed of the National Maritime Museum, referring to Samuel Pepys. I quote: ‘How did a a tailor’s son turn a corrupt & inefficient Navy into a powerful fighting force?‘
The person who runs the NMM Twitter feed quotes from the museum’s website, linked to the current exhibition on Pepys and his times, reviewed generally positively in this blog. I’m not shooting the messenger. But whoever came up with the original message needs to go to the exhibition shop and look at the book called Pepys’s Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare 1649-89. It contains the author's 30 years of research, and the writings of others who independently came to the same conclusion, that ‘He didn’t, and it wasn’t corrupt and inefficient to begin with’.
It would take too long to prove those points here. I’ve written books to prove it (a paperback edition of Pepys’s Navy will be out this summer) and am working on a third, Kings of the Sea: Charles II, James II and the Navy, due out from Seaforth Publishing in 2017, which will produce more evidence. Besides, criticising Samuel Pepys is like shooting Bambi’s mother: people brought up on Sir Arthur Bryant, or the various books and websites that essentially maintain the same tired line, can't be converted by one blog post or three books, and umpteen articles, but one has to try…
My point is: The idea Pepys ‘saved the navy’ is based on books published between 40 and 120 years ago, drawing on a narrow range of sources, shaped by schools of historical interpretation long fallen by the wayside.
To describe Pepys' navy as ‘corrupt and inefficient’ is wrong, an attempting to measure an earlier age by modern standards. These days I argue organisations, media outlets, etc., with wide reach – like the BBC, newspapers, national museums, and schools – have a responsibility to present historical stories that either reflect the best possible consensus of modern scholarship, or, at least, don’t recycle dated and discredited myths and theories. Wikipedia has a policy of not allowing articles to be based on original, primary research – and one can see why failsafes must be in place to prevent abuse, the alternative, and the current policy, as Wikipedia makes clear, is articles can only refer to published works, the implication being even if they are known to be wrong, and to other unimpeachably reliable sources such as ‘mainstream newspapers’.
That’s right, ‘mainstream newspapers’. Like the Daily Mail and The Sun.
Sorry, my shirt seems to be starting to stretch a bit…"
http://jddavies.com/2016/01/25/sa…
Weavethe hawk • Link
The lad has a cold sore!!!!!
San Diego Sarah • Link
"If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead." -- Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
Terry Foreman • Link
"...so by coach to Mr. Povy’s, where Sir W. Compton, Mr. Bland, Gawden, Sir J. Lawson and myself met to settle the victualling of Tangier for the time past, which with much ado we did, and for a six months’ supply more."
L&M: This was a meeting of the Tangier Committee, of which Thomas Povey was Treasurer. 3500 men were to be supplied at 8d. per day; victuals for six months would cost c. £19,660, and transportation c. £8500. Estimates, etc. in BL, Sloane 1956, f.75v.