Tuesday 17 November 1663

Up, and while I am dressing myself, Mr. Deane of Woolwich came to me, and I did tell him what had happened to him last Saturday in the office, but did encourage him to make no matter of it, for that I did not fear but he would in a little time be master of his enemies as much as they think to master him, and so he did tell me many instances of the abominable dealings of Mr. Pett of Woolwich towards him. So we broke up, and I to the office, where we sat all the forenoon doing several businesses, and at noon I to the ’Change where Mr. Moore came to me, and by and by Tom Trice and my uncle Wight, and so we out to a taverne (the New Exchange taverne over against the ’Change where I never was before, and I found my old playfellow Ben Stanley master of it), and thence to a scrivener to draw up a bond, and to another tavern (the King’s Head) we went, and calling on my cozen Angier at the India House there we eat a bit of pork from a cookes together, and after dinner did seal the bond, and I did take up the old bond of my uncle’s to my aunt, and here T. Trice before them do own all matters in difference between us is clear as to this business, and that he will in six days give me it under the hand of his attorney that there is no judgment against the bond that may give me any future trouble, and also a copy of their letters of his Administration to Godfrey, as much of it as concerns me to have.

All this being done towards night we broke up, and so I home and with Mr. Moore to my office, and there I read to him the letter I have wrote to send to my Lord to give him an account how the world, both city and court, do talk of him and his living as he do there in such a poor and bad house so much to his disgrace. Which Mr. Moore do conclude so well drawn: that he would not have me by any means to neglect sending it, assuring me in the best of his judgment that it cannot but endear me to my Lord instead of what I fear of getting his offence, and did offer to take the same words and send them as from, him with his hand to him, which I am not unwilling should come (if they are at all fit to go) from any body but myself, and so, he being gone, I did take a copy of it to keep by me in shorthand, and sealed them up to send to-morrow by my Will. So home, Mr. Hollyard being come to my wife, and there she being in bed, he and I alone to look again upon her … [parts – L&M], and there he do find that, though it would not be much pain, yet she is so fearful, and the thing will be somewhat painful in the tending, which I shall not be able to look after, but must require a nurse and people about her; so that upon second thoughts he believes that a fomentation will do as well, and though it will be troublesome yet no pain, and what her mayd will be able to do without knowing directly what it is for, but only that it may be for the piles. For though it be nothing but what is fiery honest, yet my wife is loth to give occasion of discourse concerning it. By this my mind and my wife’s is much eased, for I confess I should have been troubled to have had my wife cut before my face, I could not have borne to have seen it. I had great discourse with him about my disease. He tells me again that I must eat in a morning some loosening gruel, and at night roasted apples, that I must drink now and then ale with my wine, and eat bread and butter and honey, and rye bread if I can endure it, it being loosening. I must also take once a week a clyster of his last prescription, only honey now and then instead of butter, which things I am now resolved to apply myself to. He being gone I to my office again to a little business, and then home to supper and to bed, being in, a little pain by drinking of cold small beer to-day and being in a cold room at the Taverne I believe.

32 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

*L&M* provides what Wheatley elides

"So home, Mr. Hollyard being come to my wife. And there, she being in bed, he and I alone to look again upon her parts, and there he do find that though it would not be much pain, yet she is so fearful...." Here Pepys writes in the margin > "so that upon second thoughts he believes that a fomentation will do as well,..."

Methinks Wheatley avoids "her parts" as suggesting her anatomy's anterior.

fo·men·ta·tion
n.
1. A substance or material used as a warm, moist medicinal compress; a poultice.
2. The therapeutic application of warmth and moisture, as to relieve pain.
http://medical-dictionary.thefree…

Terry F  •  Link

Here Pepys writes in the margin - Physique > >

Bradford  •  Link

Mr. Moore "did offer to take the same words and send them as from, him with his hand to him, which I am not unwilling should come (if they are at all fit to go) from any body but myself,"

This seems to mean that Moore thinks so well of Pepys's letter to Sandwich that he is willing to send it as his own, if Pepys shies off; but if it to be sent, Sam would rather own it as his own? So I read it; how about you? The sentence is rather tangled, and that apostrophe between "from, him" doesn't help.

"For though it be nothing but what is fiery honest,"---grand expression.

Gruel, apples, rye bread: get ye some fibre inside ye, man, it'll do you a wonder.

Terry F  •  Link

"I did take a copy of it...in shorthand"

This the first time Pepys uses this term in the Diary. Is this an early use of what was, at that time, normally called "cipher" or "cypher"?

Mary House  •  Link

Although the plan was changed, Hollyard originally planned to perform an invasive medical procedure. Why would he not have done this early in the day when there was more natural light?

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"rye bread if I can endure it"
Wonder what was so hard to endure about rye bread at that time. Maybe it was like today's Rye-Krisp?

ellen  •  Link

Shorthand...perhaps he means the kind of code writing he uses for the diary

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Mr. Moore and Sam's letter to Sandwich
Bradford, I read the passage pretty much the same way you did, except there is that pesky "I am not unwilling", which would seem to suggest that Sam was willing for Moore to act as author. But then Sam makes himself a file copy, and seals his letter for delivery tomorrow, so he's taking it on himself.

The whole thread about the admonitory letter to Sandwich over the past week or two has reminded me of the old story of "Who will bell the cat?"

Nate  •  Link

Wonder what was so hard to endure about rye bread at that time.

A few years ago I came across a scathing reference to rye bread from a few hundred years ago. Apparently it didn't taste good and caused great flatulence. Isn't modern rye made with both rye and wheat flour?

aqua  •  Link

messenger oh! messenger, whose neck will be hung ? 'Tis an age old delemma of all of whom want to help a friend from making an idiot of himself.
and Sam wants to put a halt to the maliciousness of the fusci nasi.
Virgil doth say in Aeneid,1v,174
"Fama malum quo non aliud velocius ullu."

Patricia  •  Link

In Louisbourg, Isle Royale, in 1745, only the soldiers ate brown bread. It wasn't fit for persons of any status: they ate white bread. Wasn't there some kind of trouble in the American Colonies over the Brits' control of white flour? or taxing it? Perhaps the problem with rye bread is partly its colour and social associations. (Historic Louisbourg is near Sydney, Nova Scotia.)

Terry F  •  Link

Shorthand

Clear what he meant by it; he has not used the *word* before.
He learned how to write it from *A Tutor to Tachygraphy, Or, Short-Writing; Tachygraphy* by Thomas Shelton

According to this source "There were many names for shorthand over the years - brachygraphy, tachygraphy and stenography are just a few. The word shorthand first appeared in an epitaph to be found in Westminster Abbey. It concerns William Laurence who died on December 28, 1661:
'Shorthand he wrote, his flowre in prime did fade,
And hasty death shorthand of him hath made.'"
http://www.ncraonline.org/about/h…

The OED might show it attested earlier.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

"not unwilling"

There's another reading possible, and that is that Sam has agreed with Moore's plan. Sam, "not unwilling" that Moore send the letter as his own, makes a copy for himself, and "sealed them up to send tomorrow by my Will." He doesn't say to whom he is sending "them" (whose meaning is obscure). But the language as readily suggests "to Moore" as "to Sandwich."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Pepys, dear fellow...Now, as to your kind letter."

Arrggh...Sam drops groaning to Sandwich's quick sword thrust.

"I did appreciate your candor, my friend, truly, and I want you to know I shall be guided by your honest concern for my honor and family. Creed?"

Creed moves to remove the remains... "My Lord...Seeing as the position of Clerk of the Acts is now vacant...And knowing...Mind the blood, my lord...You would want a man of your own in such an important post..."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"For though it be nothing but what is fiery honest, yet my wife is loth to give occasion of discourse concerning it."

Hmmn...Wonder what Sam bases that on? Hollier's opinion? Or when the sores first appeared was Bess his sole and only sexual partner?

"Ummn...Mr. Pepys?"

"Miss Crisp? Mrs. Lane?" Sam a bit perturbed to find both his indiscreet amours at his front door.

"Sir...We, uh..." Diana hesistates. Betty a bit more forthright...

"We heard bout Mrs. Pepys, poor lass, sir, from a boy of Mr. Hollier's, sir. Whilst Diana here was in me stall for linen, you know. And we were a mite bothered at it, Mr. Pepys. And me noticing Diana here was troubled as I was...Well, we set to talkin', sir and we realized we both...Well, Mr. Pepys..." coy smile...

"I see..."

"Yes, and we wanted to know, sir." Diana still a bit nervous about hitting the mark.

"Sir, we both got a few sores ourselves...Begging yor pardon at the mention of such things to a gentleman, sir...And we was wondering if Mr. Hollier might have a look, sir."

"Sores? Both?" choking sound from Sam...

"Not meaning to spread any blame round, sir. All knowing what we was doing, eh sir?" Betty kindly notes.

"I don't wants to die of a pox!!" Diana howls.

"Now, lass..." Betty patting...

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Pepys." the newly arrived Dr. Pierce eyes him...And the two ladies, Betty smiling at an old...linen...customer, waiting patiently in the Pepys' parlor.

"Pierce?"

"I...Ummn...Heard as to Mrs. Pepys, Pepys from the apothecary Hollier and I use. Dreadful thing, eh?"

Does everyone know? Sam blinks.

Wait? Why is he looking at me like that?

"Pepys. First, God knows, I want you to know I'm not a jealous man. But you see the thing is..."

"Exactly where are hers, sir?" Betty asks politely.

Bradford  •  Link

Picard, if I don't mistake myself (a phrase that's much better in French), says something to the point about dark vs. white breads. Who has their copy to hand?

"The Shorter Pepys" punctuates this part of that tortuous sentence thus:

"and send them, as from him with his hand, to him---"

"unwilling" is the trouble word, where "willing" would make all clear.
It is no spoiler to say that tomorrow we will find out about sending the letter, and settle all doubt as to who claimed authorship.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...and there he do find that, though it would not be much pain, yet she is so fearful, and the thing will be somewhat painful in the tending, which I shall not be able to look after, but must require a nurse and people about her; so that upon second thoughts he believes that a fomentation will do as well, and though it will be troublesome yet no pain, and what her mayd will be able to do without knowing directly what it is for, but only that it may be for the piles. For though it be nothing but what is fiery honest, yet my wife is loth to give occasion of discourse concerning it. By this my mind and my wife's is much eased, for I confess I should have been troubled to have had my wife cut before my face, I could not have borne to have seen it."

"Sam? Who are these men?" Bess stares from her bed.

"Nothing to worry yourself about, darling. I've called in the Gresham College team to help with our problem. May I introduce...Dr. Robert Hooke..."

Gnarled little Hooke bows... "Ma'am."

"Mr. John Evelyn."

"Mrs. Pepys. I wish you better health, ma'am."

"Our good friend Greatorex. Greatorex?"

Greatorex pauses in his measurement of the wound's size. "Yes, rest assured Mrs. Pepys...All our skills shall be bent to resolve this difficulty."

"Pepys? So where is our poor patient...Ah..."

"Your Majesty?!" Bess stares.

"I hope you don't mind that I brought my Lady along." Charles leads Castlemaine forward. "I thought as a woman she might bring a unique insight to the case."

aqua  •  Link

Bread be 1d per 10 oz loaf, fresh flower [flour] had to be dried before using, bread be made from wheat or rye.
The purifying of bread or making it white is an interesting Question.
Picard, on Bread, limited to the above.

aqua  •  Link

Breads of the Day, Wheat, Rye and Barly,
White bread be modern. snippets from OED:
OED: f. White bread; a white loaf. colloq.
1960 WENTWORTH & FLEXNER Dict. Amer. Slang 576/1 White, white bread.
1549-62 STERNHOLD & H. Ps. cxxvii. 2 Feeding full hardly with *browne bread.
1863 WATTS Dict. Chem. I. 657 The coarser kinds of bread, such as the..*black bread of Germany.
2. a. A well-known article of food prepared by moistening, kneading, and baking meal or flour, generally with the addition of yeast or leaven.

Bergie  •  Link

Why Sam balks at rye bread--
Because rye flour has less gluten than wheat flour, dough made with a high proportion of rye flour doesn't rise as much as wheat bread. Bread made wholly from rye flour would be dense and unpalatable to one used to light, fluffy breads.

language hat  •  Link

"I am not unwilling"

I suspect this is a simple slip for "not willing" -- an extremely common sort of error. We have a hard time with negatives.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I did take up the old bond of my uncle’s to my aunt"

Robert Pepys's bond; the subject of the Chancery proceedings just ended: see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… The bond has survived: see Mar. Mirr., 19/215. Copy in Whitear, p. 166. (Per L&M footnote)

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Rye bread: it was probably very dense and likely hard in those days. It would have been made with 100% rye flour, which would not rise very much. It could have been something like German Black Bread--certainly an acquired taste. Peasants probably ate it. Very unlikely to be anything like Rye-Krisp.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I make rye bread regularly with sourdough: it can be very nice if it's warm, fresh or toasted, but cold wholemeal rye bread is sour heavy and unpalatable; as Louise says an acquired taste.

I do use 100% rye flour, but that's so called "white" rye: Polish type 720, or German type 815. Anything else needs the addition of some white wheat (or spelt) flour if it's to rise.

"it being loosening" sounds like dark/wholemeal flour to me! :D

James Louder  •  Link

"[Mr. Moore]...did offer to take the same words and send them as from, him with his hand to him, which I am not unwilling should come (if they are at all fit to go) from any body but myself, and so, he being gone, I did take a copy of it to keep by me in shorthand, and sealed them up to send to-morrow by my Will."

@ Bradford, Paul Chapin-- If one lets the double negative do its work then no confusion arises. The two negatives cancel out : not unwilling = willing. Willing, in the sense of glad. To paraphrase...

"Moore offered to send my words over his own signature, which I would be glad [if he did]--anybody's signature, but mine!"

Moore doesn't depart with the letter because Sam wants to copy it for his own records, which he quickly does in shorthand. Will is to take Sam's original draft to Moore the next day.

john  •  Link

No incision, no infection. A poultice (by another name) is far preferable.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: "I did take a copy of it...in shorthand"

‘shorthand, n. and adj. . .
1. A method of speedy writing by means of the substitution of contractions or arbitrary signs or symbols for letters, words, etc.; brachygraphy, stenography.
1636 Jeffrey Hudson's New Yeeres Gift (title-page), With a Letter as it was penned in short-hand.
1639 J. Mayne Citye Match i. iii, Shall I not learn Arithmetic too, sir, and Short~hand . . ‘
(OED)

The Diary was not in code, except for the sexual bits: it was in shorthand:

‘ . . The seemingly impenetrable shorthand of the six volumes marked ‘journal’ discouraged examination until, it seems, the successful publication of Evelyn's diary (1818) prompted Magdalene to have Pepys's manuscript deciphered.

An impecunious undergraduate of neighbouring St John's College, John Smith, was hired, and learned the characters by comparing Pepys's shorthand of Charles II's escape story with the longhand version. He did not know that the manual for the system, Thomas Shelton's Tutor to Tachygraphy* (1642), was in the library . . ‘
(DNB)

* ‘tachygraphy, n. < Greek ταχύς swift + -graphy
‘The art or practice of quick writing’ (Johnson); variously applied to shorthand, and (in palæography) to cursive as distinguished from angular letters, to the Egyptian hieratic, and to the Greek and Latin writing of the Middle Ages with its many abbreviations and compendia.
1641 Shelton (title) Tachygraphy. The most exact and compendious methode of short and swift writing . .
1778 Biographia Britannica (ed. 2) I. 538 (note) , Thomas Shelton became famous..for his Tachygraphy . . ‘

Not famous enough for Smith to think Pepys might have used it, evidently.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Apparently Elizabeth's problem is more common than I knew. In 1685 Louis XIV had similar, but better documented, problems. For the complete story, and the origins of the British national anthem, see:
https://omgfacts.com/when-anal-fi…

Briefly (because these links often get disconnected):

Louis XIV, who ruled France from 1638–1718 brought haute couture fashion to France  —  and was responsible for making anal fistulas "stylish."

In 1685 Louis XIV's butthole started to hurt. Within a year, the pain had become so great Louis was unable to sit down comfortably. Pooping became agonizing; no amount of profusely-slathered apothecary lotions provided relief.

There were things that probably didn’t help: Louis’ aversion to bathing (reportedly he bathed twice in his life) and “constant treatments [to his leaky butthole] with a red-hot iron.”

After months of tortuous attempts to make his sphincter feel better, Louis XIV was diagnosed with an anal fistula (an infected cavity between the anus and the skin). Google Image page if you are brave.

Charles-Francois Felix was a French barber-surgeon: in those days in Paris physicians didn’t cut people — that was always done by barbers. M. Felix agreed to operate, and was given 6 months to custom-build the proper instruments and to find some poor people to practice on (up to 75, by some accounts).

The operation lasted about 3 hours — and was a success: On Nov. 18, 1686, His Majesty emerged from the operating room, fistula-free. Louis XIV was walking well within days, and a few months later he was back in the saddle, literally.

All of France celebrated! 1686 was declared L’anne de la Fistule (“The Year of the Fistula”) as courtiers at Versailles walked around with their butts in a swaddle — fistula-afflicted or not.

Charles-Francois Felix successfully convinced Louis XIV to elevate surgical medicine to a recognized skill. France soon became known for having outstanding surgeons; people traveled from all over the world to have operations in Paris.

So when you shave your head in support of someone undergoing chemo, it's not an original idea!

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and here T. Trice before them do own all matters in difference between us is clear as to this business, and that he will in six days give me it under the hand of his attorney that there is no judgment against the bond that may give me any future trouble, and also a copy of their letters of his Administration to Godfrey"

L&M: For this copy, see Sotheby's Cat., 30 November 1970, No. 223 (2). Thomas Trice was administrator of the estate of Richard Godfrey of Broughton with whom arobert Pepys had made the bond 2hich had occasioned the dispute: Whitear, p. 154.

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.