Saturday 7 March 1662/63
Up betimes, and to the office, where some of us sat all the morning. At noon Sir W. Pen began to talk with me like a counterfeit rogue very kindly about his house and getting bills signed for all our works, but he is a cheating fellow, and so I let him talk and answered nothing. So we parted.
I to dinner, and there met The. Turner, who is come on foot in a frolique to beg me to get a place at sea for John, their man, which is a rogue; but, however, it may be, the sea may do him good in reclaiming him, and therefore I will see what I can do. She dined with me; and after dinner I took coach, and carried her home; in our way, in Cheapside, lighting and giving her a dozen pair of white gloves as my Valentine. Thence to my Lord Sandwich, who is gone to Sir W. Wheeler’s for his more quiet being, where he slept well last night, and I took him very merry, playing at cards, and much company with him. So I left him, and Creed and I to Westminster Hall, and there walked a good while. He told me how for some words of my Lady Gerard’s1 against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day affront her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite.
Thence by water home and to my office, wrote by the post and so home to bed.
28 Annotations
First Reading
Alan Bedford • Link
"...The. Turner, who is come on foot in a frolique to beg me to get a place at sea for John, their man, which is a rogue..."
Looks like young Theophila definitely has cousin Sam wrapped around her finger. And at the age of 11, too!
A. De Araujo • Link
"but,however it may be the sea may do him good in reclaiming him"
Sam wishes him to get lost; not very charitable our Sam.
TerryF. • Link
I wonder how much "a dozen pair of white gloves" Sam's Valentine's size would have cost him. Surely less than 1 pound. Any ideas?
in Aqua Scripto • Link
How much be a pair of white gloves :...two years back Samuell did get:
............."...In the afternoon my wife and I and Mrs. Martha Batten, my Valentine, to the Exchange, and there upon a payre of embroydered and six payre of plain white gloves I laid out 40s. upon her....".....
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…....... ...Batten dothe......
"...Then my wife to Sir W. Batten’s, and there sat a while; he having yesterday sent my wife half-a-dozen pairs of gloves, and a pair of silk stockings and garters, for her Valentine’s gift....".....
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… ...........
more than the 20s he estimated. Stockings were 5s for worsted and those silk ones be 15s. [Eliza Picard again P.146] Ladies gifts must never be cheap, even a pair of silk Stockings 3 centuries later, be worth their weight in romance.
dirk • Link
"however it may be the sea may do him good in reclaiming him"
"The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language", Fourth Edition, Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
http://dictionary.reference.com/s…
reclaim
1. To bring into or return to a suitable condition for use, as cultivation or habitation: reclaim marshlands; reclaim strip-mined land.
2. To procure (usable substances) from refuse or waste products.
3. To bring back, as from error, to a right or proper course; reform. See Synonyms at save1.
4. To tame (a falcon, for example).
I'd go for nr 3 -- I don't think Sam wants the "rogue" dead!
TerryF. • Link
Dirk, I agree -
"John, their man" is a project, and "the sea may do him good" -- a little discipline and unrelenting hard work for one who walks (and talks) about as he pleases, perhaps with his cloak thrown over his shoulder? Oh that's Wayneman....Hmmmm....
JohnT • Link
Interesting word , this " frolique". In previous discussions we have considered whether it was some sort of vehicle, though that is not a usage supported by OED. From this entry it is clear that young Theophilia comes by foot. http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive… .
It seems that it means some sort of celebratory treat such as that expensive trip to the theatre, or as in previous entries a to mark a wedding anniversary, http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive… or , as here, the claiming of a Valentine. But it is also the word Sam used to describe the rather risque charade between Lady Castlemaine and Mrs Stuart pretending to be newlyweds. http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive… .This last could be a distinct sense of the word , a merry jest, a jape , a whimsical frolic. No doubt it was also a treat for some.
Robert Gertz • Link
Actually it was our good Will Hewer with the clock trick.
The is quite in her mother's mold. I suspect she views herself as more or less in ownership of Sam having no doubt to her own mind at least been responsible for saving him in 1658.
"Well I was there..."
Robert Gertz • Link
Cloak...
TerryF • Link
Aye, Robert Gertz, I stand (sit, actually) corrected.
Last 8 June's entry has it: "Home, and observe my man Will to walk with his cloak flung over his shoulder, like a Ruffian, which, whether it was that he might not be seen to walk along with the footboy, I know not, but I was vexed at it"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
(Wayneman's current parlous condition - and its possible remedy - were on my mind.)
Dickens • Link
frolique: The common law, at least here in Virginia, preserves an antique use of the word that serves a serious legal purpose but is inescapably whimsical in application. When a servant or employee totally departs from his duty or the ordinary course of his employment, the servant is said to be "on a frolic of his own," such that the master/ employer is no longer liable for the servant's conduct. Typically, the "frolic" is a deviation from duty that has no particular sportive or merry-making quality, although it can have that quality. This sense of frolic as a departure from duty or the ordinary course of action may shed light on both recent usages.
This old reader/ new participant thanks Phil and the regulars for providing the occasion for many delightful frolics during the pressures of the work day over the past two years.
Mary • Link
Many thanks to Dickens
for a delicious slant on the concept of a frolic.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
adding to Mary's grats, it be such a caper [slang that be].
Pedro • Link
A frolic in Some of Sam’s Inns…
AN ODE FOR BEN JONSON (Herrick)
Ah, Ben!
Say how, or when
Shall we thy guests
Meet at those lyric feasts,
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Ton?
Where we such clusters had,
As made us nobly wild, not mad;
And yet each verse of thine
Outdid the meat, outdid the frolic wine.
jeannine • Link
A Visit from Theo//
Theo alighted upon a frolique //
Straightforward to me she did speak//
With a most convincing technique//
A sea job for John she did seek//
Spending money brings me a great pique//
Dinner then gloves from a fancy boutique//
A coach ride with wheels that did creak//
All to get rid of that little pip-squeak!!!
jeannine • Link
Sorry for the /// but with the funky annotations there is no way to line things up..
Robert Gertz • Link
"Thence to my Lord Sandwich, who is gone to Sir W. Wheeler’s for his more quiet being, where he slept well last night, and I took him very merry, playing at cards, and much company with him."
>>
"Sam'l? How do you manage to say things like this with a straight face?" Bess eyes the Diary line which a grinning Sam has just kindly translated. Though a bit sad for poor neglected Lady Jem.>>
"Practice, my love. Practice.">>
(My god, it worked)
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"He told me how for some words of my Lady Gerard’s against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day affront her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite."
Whose husband might this be? My Lady Gerard's? http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
or My Lady Castlemain's? http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Bill • Link
"He told me how for some words of my Lady Gerard’s against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day affront her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite."
Smith, in an earlier transcription of the diary, had a different reading, with a note by Baybrooke on the words "affront/apprehend" and "desired":
Creed told me how, for some words of my Lady Gerard's, against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day apprehend her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King; which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite.
[Sic orig.: probably the word should be reprehend, and denied, in the following line, should, perhaps, be substituted for desired.]
Terry Foreman • Link
Motivated by the publication of Evelyn's Diary, Lord Granville deciphered a few pages.[56] The Reverend John Smith (later the Rector of St Mary the Virgin in Baldock) was then engaged to transcribe the diaries into plain English. He laboured at this task for three years, from 1819 to 1822, unaware that a key to the shorthand system was stored in Pepys' library a few shelves above the diary volumes. Others had apparently succeeded in reading the diary earlier, perhaps knowing about the key, because a work of 1812 quotes from a passage of it.[57] Smith's transcription, which is also kept in the Pepys Library, was the basis for the first published edition of the diary, edited by Lord Braybrooke, released in two volumes in 1825. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam…
Robert Latham and William Matthews, who whose transcription efforts began with the "key" well in hand also transcribe "affront" here. (Vol. VII, p. 68).
Bill • Link
“the sea may do him good in reclaiming him”
To RECLAIM, to reduce to amendment of Life, to recall or turn back from ill Courses, to take up, to leave off Vices.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.
Bill • Link
“and there met The. Turner, who is come on foot in a frolique”
FROLICK, Jocund, Gay, Merry, full of Play.
To be FROLICK, to be merrily disposed.
A FROLICK, a merry Prank, a Whim.
FROLICKSOM, full of Frolicks.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.
Sasha Clarkson • Link
'Reprehend', to criticise/blame, has all but disappeared from modern English, although 'reprehensible' has not.
From Puck's last speech in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream':
"... Gentles, do not reprehend
If you pardon, we will mend ..."
San Diego Sarah • Link
The narrative here says "1. Jane, wife of Lord Gerard (see ante, January 1st, 1662-6)." So this 6 is a typo ... should be 3.
The link is correct, and takes you to:
Thursday 1 January 1662/63
...
Then to my wife again, and found Mrs. Sarah with us in the chamber we lay in. Among other discourse, Mrs. Sarah tells us how the King sups at least four or [five] times every week with my Lady Castlemaine; and most often stays till the morning with her, and goes home through the garden all alone privately, and that so as the very centrys take notice of it and speak of it.
She tells me, that about a month ago she [Lady Castlemaine] quickened at my Lord Gerard’s at dinner, and cried out that she was undone; and all the lords and men were fain to quit the room, and women called to help her. ...
Bill • Link
@Terry, I appreciate that Rev. Smith had to labor at transcribing the diary without the key, but there are very few instances where he disagrees with those who had the key.
Rich • Link
Twelve pairs of gloves? Sounds excessive. Do they wear out that quickly?
Bill • Link
@Rich, Perhaps they soil quickly. And with wash days only once a week...
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘frolic, n. < Flemish frolicken . .
. . 1. c. = whim n.1
1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 5 Apr. (1948) I. 235 If the frolick should take you of going to the Bath, I here send you a note on Parvisol.’
‘whim, n.1 < whim-wham n. . .
. . a1625 J. Fletcher Wild-goose Chase (1652) iii. i. 28 Your studied Whim-whams; and your fine set Faces. . .
. . 2. A fantastic notion, odd fancy;
. . 3. a. A capricious notion or fancy; a fantastic or freakish idea; an odd fancy.
1697 J. Vanbrugh Provok'd Wife ii. 24 Walking pretty late in the Park..A whim took me to sing Chivy-Chase . . ‘
and
‘reprehend, v. < Latin reprehendere . .
1. a. trans. To rebuke, reprimand, or reprove (a person).
. . 1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan ii. xxii. 123 Yet was their Assembly judged Unlawfull, and the Magistrate reprehended them for it.
. . 1747 S. Richardson Clarissa II. xxvi. 156, I severely reprehend him on this occasion . . ‘
……...
Bill is correct - remember the air was full of smuts from countless coal fires: going out wearing already soiled gloves would be a major faux pas for a young Lady.