Sunday 6 September 1663
(Lord’s day). My pill I took last night worked very well, and I lay long in bed and sweat to get away the itching all about my body from head to foot, which is beginning again as it did the last winter, and I find after I am up that it is abated. I staid at home all day and my wife also, whom, God forgive me, I staid along with me for fear of her seeing of Pembleton. But she and I entertained one another all day long with great pleasure, contriving about my wife’s closet and the bedchamber, whither we intend to go up she and I to-day.
We dined alone and supped also at night, my brother John with us, and so to prayers and to bed.
15 Annotations
First Reading
dirk • Link
"she and I entertained one another all day long with great pleasure"
L&M transcribe "enjoyed" in stead of "entertained" -- a subtle difference?
Robert Gertz • Link
Twas his fun day...His "I don't have to run" (even to church) day.
Hmmn..."I staid along with me..." Since when has Bess been so anxious to visit church alone that she had to be "staid"?
"Since never." our good lady notes with smile. "Until I realized that with Mr. P hanging about St. Olave's, a sudden expressed desire to tend to my soul was my ticket to a one hell of a good Sunday."
"Bess..." Sam frowns.
"Wasn't so bad for you, either." grin.
"True, true..." judicious nod.
Aqua • Link
"...My pill ..." 1628 T. VENNER Baths of Bathe 15 A *Pil-boasting Surgeon..by his ill-qualified and preposterous Physicke, incurred an incureable and mortall lapse of his stomacke and Liuer.
4 versions of nouns and 3 verbs,1: Pool 2 pill like in peel
3 a lump of matter. etc.,
some extracts.
a : local:A tidal inlet on the coast, a small creek or bay; a pool, spec. one in an inlet or at the confluence of a tributary stream. UK west coast.
c1630 T. RISDON Chorogr. Surv. Devon (1810) §272 282 Whereby the sea shooteth up with many branches, men call them piles, very commodious for mills. for confusion>
pill yawl n. now rare a sprit-rigged, three-masted boat used in the Bristol Channel
Earlier existence of the word is perh. implied by the first element of Old English pills pillula (Florio)).
The Middle English form pillem (which occurs in MS Hunterian 95 (?a1425)) is unexplained.
With sense 1c cf. French pilule (1957; 1934 denoting an abortifacient).
With to gild the pill (see sense 3b) cf. French dorer la pilule (1668).]
1. a. Originally: a small compressed ball or globular mass containing a medicinal substance, intended to be taken by mouth and usually of a size convenient for swallowing whole. Later also: any of various other solid forms of oral medication (tablet, capsule, etc.).
Pills were originally made by mixing the drug with an inert substance and rolling it into a spherical shape.
blue, female, Holloway's, liver-, morning-after pill, etc.: see the first element.
1607 E. TOPSELL Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 375 If it be in winter, purge him with these pilles.
c1696 M. PRIOR Remedy worse than Dis. i, He felt my pulse, prescrib'd his pill
b. slang. In pl.: the testicles; (fig.) nonsense (cf. BALL n.1 15b).
Freq. (in early use) with punning allusion to sense 1a.
1608 T. MIDDLETON Famelie of Loue II. i. sig. B4, Master Doctor should (indeed) minister to her: to whose pills she is so much accustomed, that now her body looks for them as duely, as the Moone shakes off the ould, and borrowes new hornes.
1678-80 My Dog & I in Pepys Ballads IV. 229 If any Maiden troubled be, With overgrown Virginity, I quickly can two Pills apply.
c. slang. A bullet; a shell, cannonball, grenade, or bomb; (in pl. also) ammunition.
Freq. with punning allusion to sense 1a.
c1626 Dick of Devonsh. (1955) 465, I have halfe a score pills yet for my Spanyards better then purging Comfitts
3. a. fig. A remedy or solution, esp. one which is unpleasant but necessary; (more generally) something unpleasant which has to be accepted or endured.
1644 (title) A medicine for malignancy: or Parliament pill serving to purge out the malignant humours of men disaffected to the Republic. 1660 Hist. Charles II 83 Those hard Covenant Pills which the Kirkmen made him swallow.
b. [From the former practice of gilding a bitter pill so that it may be more easily swallowed.] fig. to sugar (also gild, sweeten) the pill and variants: to disguise, or offset with compensatory benefits, the nature of something unpleasant.
[3. a. trans. To remove the hair from (a person or animal); to make bald. Also: to remove (hair). In early use occas. with away. Obs.
tr. Benvenuto Passenger I. iv. §16. 265 Tell him that I will pill his beard, hair by hair. 1648 R. HERRICK Hesperides 33 Doe they first pill thee, next, pluck off thy skin?
II. To rob, extort, pillage; cf. PEEL v.1 I.
MissAnn • Link
On the one hand we have Sam sweating to get rid of his itch and the other hand we have our couple frolicking the day away - wouldn't have thought of a nice hot bath followed my an aromatherapy massage - could have incorporated all the day's activities nicely I would think.
Pity it takes a bit of jealousy to make Sam spend a whole day with Bess - I can't recall the last time he did that.
So, they dined "alone" but supped later than night with "John the Gooseberry" - what an education that boy is getting, bet he can't wait to get back to school.
Robert Gertz • Link
Well, today John's certainly had a lesson in why Sam will always back Bess in the family quarrels.
"'Pon me soul, Bess. This left-over leg's tender as..." shrewd look at Bess' leg.
"Hmmn..Ha..Giggle."
John blinking at brother and sis-in-law who both for some reason can't seem to stop.
"So, Johnny. Were you at church today?" Sam tries a little more solemn subject.
"We weren't..." Bess cuts in. "To our...ummn...Shame." Hee...Giggle.
"Yes, after today Hell definitely looms before us, milady." roguish leer.
"Worth it..." Bess grins.
"Indeed, yes." Ha-ha-ha...hee.
I think I like them better when they're angry at each other, John sighs.
"You should be getting to bed, John. Young scholar like you needs his rest." Bess gives solicitous glance.
"Indeed, brother. Early to bed, a good vow for any worthy young fellow."
"You never go to bed before midnight." Bess eyes Sam...
"Well, tonight, Mrs. Pepys, I shall profit by my own advice. Are we all finished?" "Oh, yeah!" Bess hops up.
"Good night, brother."
John staring at his half-finished plate.
"Can we read the next chapter in my new novel together? If it's good as the last one it'll blow your stockings off..." He hears Bess as she and Sam head up stairs.
"Required reading, Mrs. Pepys." Giggle from Bess.
"Sam. Carry me. Oh, stone cut. Piggy-back then."
"Just a beast of burden is one Samuel Pepys." groan from Sam, heavy clumping on stairs...Giggling.
I could probably get lots done for the next semester if I headed in early tomorrow, John thinks.
dirk • Link
The Rev. Josselin's diary today:
"God good to us in manifold mercies, in the season, sabbath, my heart warmed in the sense of gods mercy wherein my soul delights. fears of famine ride in plenty(,) corn falling much again. being Monday I ploughed myself Sprigs marsh , god in mercy bless the plough."
dirk • Link
John Evelyn's diary today:
"Our Doctor preached on 2. King: 18. 9. against a new sect, that cal’d them selves Perfectionists: I received the B: Sacrament."
"And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and
besieged it."
[I think Evelyn got his verse wrong here: I can't see any relevant subject matter for a sermon in this verse?!]
dirk • Link
A letter from Daniel O'Neill to the Duke of Ormond
Whitehall [?], 6 September 1663
"Reports of incidents at Court; relating chiefly to Lady Castlemaine; to the Duke of York; and to "an unhappy dispute between the Queen's dressers and the Duchess [of York]'s maids for precedency, ... which breeds a very ill understanding between the Queen & his Highness". The writer prays God that the breach may not do the like "between their husbands".
Source:
The Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Aqua • Link
Thanks Dirk:"...fears of famine ride in plenty(,) corn falling much again...:
Samuell can afford the freightage [not be fright].
Pedro • Link
A letter from Daniel O’Neill to the Duke of Ormond.
Dirk’s letter above shows Daniel O’Neill giving information to Ormond. It gives one example of the way the Post office was used to gather information. In 1663 O’Neill had been appointed Postmaster-General, being a more acceptable Royalist, after a purge of the Republican elements of the Post Office.
For a way of opening letters see background to Morland…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Aqua • Link
Nobody discovers the code that O'Neill used to complain that there be no monies left to run the system, as Palmer has purloined all the loose change."...A letter from Daniel O’Neill to the Duke of Ormond..."
jeannine • Link
"Nobody discovers the code that O’Neill used to complain that there be no monies left to run the system, as Palmer has purloined all the loose change." In addition to O'Neill's code Clarendon and Ormonde wrote in code about similar issues. It seems Lady Castlemaine was a hot topic in the land of coded letters.
Second Reading
Marquess • Link
Sounds like they had a pyjama Sunday.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... no monies left to run the system, as Palmer has purloined all the loose change." O'Neil keeps Ormond informed about Court affairs.
Around this time Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine used her house as a rendezvous for those at court who disliked Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (think of the recent Earl of Bristol entries). Her annual income consisted of 4,700 pounds a year from the Post Office, and amounts taken from customs and excise. She also took money from people seeking to advance at court and in offices. Even the French and Italian ambassadors sought her influence with Charles II. Notes from: http://scandalouswoman.blogspot.c…
Does anyone have information about O'Neil's codes? I've poked around and found nothing enlightening. From the above I don't know if we have samples but are unable to decipher them, or if the documents were destroyed so we are left to guess they communicated with codes.
Also the link above on Moreland does not say how they unsealed and resealed letters ... just how he forged a key to get into the safe to see the secret correspondence within. Fascinating.
Tonyel • Link
"God good to us in manifold mercies, ........ fears of famine ride in plenty(,) corn falling much again.
Rev. Josselin reminds me of my childhood vicar who would gabble through the service at high speed, making the words meaningless. He obviously sees nothing odd about two wildly contrasting statements in the same sentence.