Wednesday 11 February 1662/63

Took a clyster in the morning and rose in the afternoon. My wife and I dined on a pullet and I eat heartily, having eat nothing since Sunday but water gruel and posset drink, but must needs say that our new maid Mary has played her part very well in her readiness and discretion in attending me, of which I am very glad.

In the afternoon several people came to see me, my uncle Thomas, Mr. Creed, Sir J. Minnes (who has been, God knows to what end, mighty kind to me and careful of me in my sickness). At night my wife read Sir H. Vane’s tryall to me, which she began last night, and I find it a very excellent thing, worth reading, and him to have been a very wise man.

So to supper and to bed.

24 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

"At night my wife read Sir H. Vane’s tryall to me, which she began last night, and I find it a very excellent thing, worth reading, and him to have been a very wise man."

Sam'l's continuing fascination with and admiration of Sir Harry Vane's very Puritan person and end on 14 June 1662 http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… is of considerable interest, methinks.

daniel  •  Link

god bless that Mary and what she had to see today.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Did not checkout the rash "....our new maid Mary has played her part very well in her readiness and discretion in attending me, of which I am very glad..."

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"...My wife and I dined on a pullet and I eat heartily,..."
I wonder if Samuell when eating this delectable meal, did say to Eliza this be fine poule, perfect for a Charles soiree.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

The previous evening...

"And I, Sir Henry Vane, testify that it is my unshaken belief, my brethren, that one day Parliament will shake itself free of the blight of these wretched kings and their worthless hangers-on and once more..." Bess pauses in midsentence, dropping book to floor at a knock. The bedroom door thoughtlessly left ajar.

"Sir...Madam? Will ye be wanting anything more?"

"Uh, nothing else Mary, thank ye." Sam gives cheery smile. Which vanishes with the closing of the door.

"Oh, God...Bess. We are dead, dead! Why did you let me make you read that damned thing?! Throw it into the fire, girl!! Now, now!"

"Sam'l. I'm sure the girl won't mention it even if she remembers the name."

"My brilliant career...Dashed to ruins on the sharp edges of that dratted Vane's manuscript! Oh, God...Oh, God...Oh, God!"

"Darling, you're still ill. Stop it Sam'l, you'll aggrivate your old wound!"

"Oh, God...Oh, God. Why hast Thou forsaken Thy Servant, Sam'l?! Bess, quick...Offer her money, a larger room to herself...Me!"

"She can have you." Frown... "Now stop fretting Sam'l! The girl probably doesn't even know the man's name."

"I think she'd've gotten the 'cast off these wretched kings' bit! Oh, God...Oh, God...Arrrgh...Excuse me."

"Ye be needin' any help in there?..." Mary's voice.

"You better be about to say, no." Bess glares.

Terry F  •  Link

Robert Gertz, you have an unwarranted wiretap across time and space, into a bedroom and to conversants that no longer exist. Do you also have Vane’s manuscript, the complete manuscipt, or did Sam'l secret it away?

stolzi  •  Link

It must have been poor Mary
who had to do the clystering.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

There be great doubt that it be William Wayneman, opportunity for sweet revenge? Susan be the cooke, could be do the brewing up and Elizabeth would rather be reading so it is left to Young Mary to do the honors of having her master over the bed and administering the said klister, as she be so use to emptying the Potty also.
It was usually, the first major test, to see if thy want to be a nurse in the old days. First day for the trainee, be go and give a bed bath or the bed pan to the old coot in bed 7 or if lucky an enema,as he be bed bound.

Terry F  •  Link

"Sir J. Minnes...has been, God knows to what end, mighty kind to me and careful of me in my sickness"

What hath Sir J. Mennes wrought?
- he has visited the always-visiting-gouty Penn Sam'l;
- by insisting Sam'l use his Venice treacle, he has asserted his seniority and superiority -- methinks to THAT end be's been 'mighty kind'.

Mennes's motives seem as transparent as Sir W. Warren's, which Sam seemed not to question as much as did we all. I think Sam has had the impression there has been some bad blood between them.

Am I missing something here?

Miss Ann  •  Link

"our new maid Mary has played her part very well in her readiness and discretion in attending me" - poor Mary, didn't she read the Job Description very carefully, I will now be on the lookout for "clyster" on any new job I apply for! (I would have probably thought of tennis myself previously.)
I hark back to Sam's lack of intake of a variety of vegetables, this would probably assist his well-being enormously, a little bit of roughage to go with all that protein that he devours (and a regular bath would be beneficial too).

jeannine  •  Link

"our new maid Mary"...obviously Wheatley made a massive mistake in his translation, today's entry should have read "Saint" Mary....

Bradford  •  Link

As my little town was under a Boil Order for a week, and in order merely to wash the dishes once a day I had to start heating water on the stovetop an hour in advance, I have gained new respect for a household where all hot water required a great deal of effort. If it takes 4 gallons just to worsh dishes, Lord knows how long it would take St. Mary to fill up the hipbath for Mr. Pepys.

Pauline  •  Link

'worsh dishes'
Dear Bradford, your small town in Missouri speaks like my small town in Worshington. This very day I was (again) made jest of here in the metropolis (Seattle) for saying 'worsh".

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: Mennes' motives

Terry, I think that Sam's beliefs about "bad blood between them" go back to the time when Sam was "improving" his house, and there were disagreements between them about who would get which room, who was blocking whose light, etc...

Sam has always seemed suspicious of Mennes, but it's been hard for me (with the Diary as my only view) to see exactly why. But he sure doesn't like him. Perhaps he fears his influence, and feels he has little control over him?

Second Reading

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

In later years, as a surrogate for attacking James, Sam was accused in Parliament of Papist sympathies. The diaries regularly show how false these accusations were. Sam disliked puritan sanctimony, and rejoiced in such formerly banned pleasures as church music, and the return of the theatre. But he never lost his private sympathies for some aspects and persons of the Commonwealth/Protectorate.

Like so many, his allegiance to the Restoration regime was based on a desire for good and stable government, and fear of the alternative. Hence, although he regularly baulked at the extravagant excesses of the new regime, he continued to serve it faithfully to the best of his ability and, it proved, at some risk to himself.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Rumour has it that Mary won't last long. Was Sam's end the beginning?

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘ . . Assessment: Contemporaries of all persuasions acknowledged Sir Henry Vane's importance. Charles II believed him ‘too dangerous … to let live’; Algernon Sidney thought his death ‘intollerable grievous’ to England, whose ‘greatest ornament’ he was. Anthony Wood pronounced Vane ‘the Proteus of the times … an inventor … of whimseys in religion’ and ‘crotchets in the state’; George Sikes portrayed him as a ‘faithful watchman and able Patriot’, with ‘remarkable insight [into] the Politie of the true Commonwealth’ . .

Machiavellian or martyr? Historiography has since oscillated between these interpretations of his character . . Most politicians are not thinkers; most theorists are not actors. Vane was both. After over a decade of intense activity he began, in the 1650s, to publish his vision of the righteous republic . . Unswerving in his dedication to the cause of God and the principles befitting its adherents he remained a political pragmatist . . pursuing the reconciliation of all those formerly united under the banner of civil and Christian liberty.

This understudied ideological legacy survived the débâcle of 1659 to influence the subsequent development of republicanism on both sides of the Atlantic.’ [DNB]

Kyle in San Diego  •  Link

"At night my wife read Sir H. Vane’s tryall to me" I would think the government would ban such a book. Didn't you need a license to publish back in those days?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, Kt. at the Kings Bench, Westminster, June the 2d. and 6th, 1662 together with what he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence (June 11) for arrest of judgment (had he not been interrupted and over-ruled by the court) and his bill of exceptions : with other occasional speeches, &c. : also his speech and prayer, &c. on the scaffold.
Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662, defendant., England and Wales. Court of King's Bench. [London: s.n.], 1662.
Early English Books Online [total text]
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…

Kyle in San Diego  •  Link

Looks like it's just a transcription of the trial, so nothing for the government to be ashamed of there. But thanks for digging that up for me. I really appreciate that.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

""At night my wife read Sir H. Vane’s tryall to me" I would think the government would ban such a book. Didn't you need a license to publish back in those days?" / "Looks like it's just a transcription of the trial, so nothing for the government to be ashamed of there."

The publication of anything could be banned by the censor or by law:

The Ordinance for the Regulating of Printing also known as the Licensing Order of 1643 instituted pre-publication censorship upon Parliamentary England. Milton's Areopagitica was written specifically against this Act.

-----Censorship during the Restoration

After the Restoration of the monarchy in the 1660s, even tighter controls were imposed on the press. A single individual was given the authority to publish an official newspaper along with the responsibility of serving as censor for all other publications. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lic…

Kyle in San Diego  •  Link

Great information. Thank you for informing me of this.

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