Tuesday 3 November 1663

Up and to the office, where busy all the morning, and at noon to the Coffee-house, and there heard a long and most passionate discourse between two doctors of physique, of which one was Dr. Allen, whom I knew at Cambridge, and a couple of apothecarys; these maintaining chymistry against them Galenicall physique; and the truth is, one of the apothecarys whom they charged most, did speak very prettily, that is, his language and sense good, though perhaps he might not be so knowing a physician as to offer to contest with them. At last they came to some cooler terms, and broke up. I home, and there Mr. Moore coming by my appointment dined with me, and after dinner came Mr. Goldsborough, and we discoursed about the business of his mother, but could come to no agreement in it but parted dissatisfied. By and by comes Chapman, the periwigg-maker, and upon my liking it, without more ado I went up, and there he cut off my haire, which went a little to my heart at present to part with it; but, it being over, and my periwigg on, I paid him 3l. for it; and away went he with my owne haire to make up another of, and I by and by, after I had caused all my mayds to look upon it; and they conclude it do become me; though Jane was mightily troubled for my parting of my own haire, and so was Besse, I went abroad to the Coffeehouse, and coming back went to Sir W. Pen and there sat with him and Captain Cocke till late at night, Cocke talking of some of the Roman history very well, he having a good memory. Sir W. Pen observed mightily, and discoursed much upon my cutting off my haire, as he do of every thing that concerns me, but it is over, and so I perceive after a day or two it will be no great matter.

29 Annotations

First Reading

Eric Walla  •  Link

"Sir W. Pen observed mightily, and discoursed much upon my cutting off my haire..."

I imagine Sam had to suffer through all the Samson and Delilah jokes. That's it Sam, let them exercised their wit, then when they tire themselves out all will go back to normal. The price of being on the cutting edge of fashion.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Fascinating for us to see the growth of modern medical practice here, with Sam witnessingthe debate between the followers of Galen and those who believe in "chymistry". The doctrine of humours could still be argued as a proper medical system.

Maybe seeing Sam without hair made Bess and Jane superstitious - as well as the Samson and strength idea, there were also folk beliefs about getting power oversomeone by haviong a part of them (like hair or nail clippings) which you then use to cast spells. There is also the idea that hair should be cut off in severe illness as the growing of hair was thought to draw strength from you. People also thought hair had a life of its own and grew after death. (and nails too).

"which went a little to my heart to part with it"
I can relate to that! before we moved to Australia, I had my thigh length hair cut off (not having had it cut for over 10 years), which certainly "went a little to my heart".

Miss Ann fr Home  •  Link

Apropos the hair - now that Sam has had a No. 1 there is obviously no going back on the perriwig idea, if it hadn't worked out would he have stayed home until his hair grew back I wonder?

The Coffee-House discussion between the doctors and chemists sounds wonderful, what an experience for Sam with the introduction of new ideas, right up Sam's alley. New ideas, something new to think about and consider, reassessing the old ways, a real treat for our Sam.

Terry F  •  Link

"the debate between the followers of Galen and those who believe in 'chymistry'.

This was also an asymmetrical struggle for prestige between upstart members of The Royal College of Physicians (chartered 1518) and members of a livery Company, The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London (chartered 1617), who followed an older practice.

Terry F  •  Link

"The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Originally, apothecaries, or pharmacists, were members of the Grocers' Company. The apothecaries separated from the Grocers in 1617, when they were granted a Royal Charter, and during the rest of the 17th century its members (including Nicholas Culpeper) challenged the monopoly of the College of Physicians." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soci…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

maintaining chymistry against ... Galenicall physique

Worth noting that Robert Boyle's "The Sceptical Chymist or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes" London: 1661 was a very recent publication and that Boyle, as a foundation member of the Royal Society, moved in similar circles to Pepys. [Spoiler, elected FRS 1665.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Galenicall physique

Galen himself was no slouch as a practicing physician and anatomist; Harvey, for example, wondered how he had missed discovering the circulation of the blood a discovery which Harvey, a surgeon, expressed in Galenesque terms, De Mortu Cordis, 1628. Vesalius, De Humanis Corporis Fabrica, 1543, believed he was resurecting ancient knowledge and continuing the tradition of disection, which had taken place in classical times. What we view as a revolution he saw as a classical revival.

'Tis perhaps almost impossible to comprehend the prestiege that Aristotle and classical civilization posessed in all fields and that the seeming sane and sensible aproach of the day was to recover lost knowledge from the giants of the past rather than thinking presumptuously that better could be achieved in a lesser civilisation.

http://www.healthsystem.virginia.…

Terry F  •  Link

Renaissance (rebirth) was still the watchword

of the early modern era, as Michael says; and Francis Bacon, whose empiricism animated the new medicine, who attacked the detritus of the accumulated distorions of the past, chose to entitle his break with the past as a *Novem Organum* - a fresh Aristotle.

Galenic medicine, specializing in herbal potions, hit upon some quite effective "physique" - attributing purgative effects to the wrong causes (irrelevant qualities).

Terry F  •  Link

Correction - *Novum Organum*

Xjy  •  Link

Galenicall physique
So much happening at the time. This and Gallilean optics and astronomy, and Cartesian maths, and Comenian educational theory (all versus the Papal Counter-Reformation); and the whole gigantic battle between feudalism and centralized nation states (30 Years War) on the one hand, and on the other the absolute (monarchy) versus democratic (republic) conflict in political science and philosophy (Hobbes vs Milton (& Macchiavelli) respectively. All crystallized in the English Revolution and the Great Compromise the Restoration would slither into in 1688.
And Sam studies his maths and globes and Grotius, teaches Bess what he learns, and kibitzes on the coffee-house discussions reflecting all this, as the Greeks in Athens strolled the agora and areopagus, and as we discussed capitalism and socialism, Marx and Popper in our coffee-houses in the mid-60s.

Xjy  •  Link

Moving in higher circles
Yesterday I noticed how Sam was shifting from a distant observer of the royals, getting to report to the Duke occasionally but mainly interfacing with the nobs via his patron Lord Sandwich, to becoming one of the fixtures in royal company. The Duke is seen and spoken to many times a week, and Sam is acknowledged. Speaking to the Duke, Sam and his colleagues wander the same corridors as the king, and Sam becomes familiar enough to note the greying locks of the same without making a huge occasion of it.

Nate  •  Link

xjv
My American education is sadly lacking, what happened in England in 1688? That is, does it have a name I can use as a reference with Google or in my library?

Mary  •  Link

The Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Nate, 1688 saw James II (Pepys's Duke of York) deposed, largely though not entirely because of his religious policies and pro-Catholic leanings. He was replaced on the English throne in 1689 by his protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange.

Any account of the life and reign of James will give the details.

jeannine  •  Link

"what happened in England in 1688?"
William of Orange arrived in the later part of the year and James (Duke of York, who had succeeded Charles II after his death) fled the country. From that point on it was Protestant rule in England and the Royal family always worked (perhaps not always very well) with Parliament.

Nate  •  Link

Thanks,
I found some links that detailed what happened. I thought that it concerned Protestant vs. Catholic rule but didn't realize that it also resulted in the subordination of the monarchy to parliament.

Bradford  •  Link

How intriguing, that to accommodate the proper fitting of a wig of human hair, Pepys's own hair is cut off, from which to make another wig, whose wearer's hair will be cut off to make another . . . hirsute repeating decimal. He probably had a length which today could be donated to Locks of Love, which manufactures and furnishes "vaccum-fitted prostheses" (hairpieces) to children with medical hair loss. ---And to think that this custom will go on for well over another hundred years: one can't help recalling another Sam, the magisterial Dr. Johnson, and his ill-fitting wigs.

jeannine  •  Link

"that it also resulted in the subordination of the monarchy to parliament."
Nate, There was an A&E movie about Charles II a few years ago called "The Last King" and this is what it referred to as he was the last king to rule without Parliament. (In the UK the move was called Charles II: the Power and the Passion).

Terry F  •  Link

Mr. Goldsborough's mother's debt to Robert Pepys

Will the matter of Uncle Robert's Will ever be over?

Australian Susan  •  Link

Attitudes towards hair
The women amongst us will all remember the horrified reaction in Little Women by her family when Jo sells her hair - in the mid-nineteenth century, a woman without long hair was an object of shock and pity.
In the 1980's one of my cousins lost her hair because of her chemotherapy: her workplace raised money to buy her the best wig they could buy as a morale booster. However, I know (unfortunately) many women today who lose hair this way, but none of them (maybe it's the climate)now choose to wear wigs - they invest in colourful scarves instead or shave all the wispy bits off and go bald. And then there is the Islamic and Jewish attitudes towards hair: Islamic women cover it all up - a cleric in Australia recently notoriously referred to uncovered hair as being an incitement to men to comitt adultery. Orthodox Jewish women cover their own hair with wigs when outside. So now in the diary we see the beginnings of an (expensive) male hair fashion for covering natural hair up which will last until the start of the 19th century!

Terry F  •  Link

"an (expensive) male hair fashion for covering natural hair up which will last until the start of the 19th century!"

Didn't Ben Franklin charm Paris with his natural thinning hair? http://www.consultsos.com/pandora…

cum salis grano  •  Link

RE: Hair pieces: La Belle Pierce showed Sams Elizabeth a sample of Peruques:
By and by comes La Belle Pierce to see my wife, and to bring her a pair of peruques of hair, as the fashion now is for ladies to wear; which are pretty, and are of my wife's own hair, or else I should not endure them.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive… also in The OED:
May these were little add ons?

Glyn  •  Link

Is the famous painting of Pepys, showing him wearing a wig made from his own hair?

pepf  •  Link

Judging by the German translation based on L&M a rather large paragraph (approx. 100 words)is missing in the end (presumably "So home... ... and so to bed", in between high words, Bess beating Susan, peace again, viall and arithmetics).
Perhaps one of the bibliophiles could amend the text, please?

Mary  •  Link

missing text.

Indeed, there is a paragraph missing here from the scanned text. I can see a possible reason for one line of it to have been suppressed, but not the whole paragraph, which follows.

"Home, and there I find my wife and her girl Susan fallen out, and she had struck her and the girl run to Griffen's; but they not receiving nor encouraging of her, I sent for her home and there she fell on her knees and begged pardon; and so I made peace between her mistress and her and so all well again; and a pretty girl she will be, if she doth not get too much head.

To supper and then a little to my viall, and afterward with my wife to her Arithmetique , and so to bed."

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I'm guessing young Susan ran to William Griffith (the Navy's doorkeeper/ housekeeper) who would be close by. She had probably been told he was the "go to" person if anything went horribly wrong at home and she needed help. There are no eligible Griffens in the Encyclopedia.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Thanks Mary! An interesting detail.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Here’s the official story:

‘How the Glorious Revolution and its aftermath have fundamentally shaped the British state as we know it today:

Catholics and Protestants
Whigs and Tories
The reign of James II
Invasion and desertion
The Convention and Bill of Rights
The Financial Revolution
The Act of Settlement’

http://www.parliament.uk/about/li…

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