Thursday 4 August 1664
Up betimes and to the office, fitting myself against a great dispute about the East India Company, which spent afterwards with us all the morning. At noon dined with Sir W. Pen, a piece of beef only, and I counterfeited a friendship and mirth which I cannot have with him, yet out with him by his coach, and he did carry me to a play and pay for me at the King’s house, which is “The Rivall Ladys,” a very innocent and most pretty witty play. I was much pleased with it, and it being given me, I look upon it as no breach to my oathe.
Here we hear that Clun, one of their best actors, was, the last night, going out of towne (after he had acted the Alchymist, wherein was one of his best parts that he acts) to his country-house, set upon and murdered; one of the rogues taken, an Irish fellow. It seems most cruelly butchered and bound. The house will have a great miss of him. Thence visited my Lady Sandwich, who tells me my Lord FitzHarding is to be made a Marquis.
Thence home to my office late, and so to supper and to bed.
15 Annotations
First Reading
Terry F • Link
"it being given me, I look upon it as no breach to my oathe"
as it would have been, had Sir W. Penn not paid for the ducats. Elegant casuistry!
jeannine • Link
"Journal of the Earl of Sandwich" edited by R.C. Anderson
4th. Thursday. Between 8 and 9 in the morning we had in sight a most remarkable spout. The night before was wet and rainy, but about 7 oclock it held up and was clear. The wind was North and the spout began to be seen at the North Sands Heads almost and so continued for half an hour, the wind driving on the back of the Goodwin towards the South Sands Head half seas over, where it broke and vanished.
The appearance of it was upon the surface of the water as if in a round of some 50 yards diameter the water did rise out of the sea with a white breach and tumbling itself furiously like black smoke out of the mouth of a furnace, and from this breach up to the black cloud that was over it was a pillar of water some 5 or 10 yards diameter continued. At the last about the middle it separated and the one half shrinked itself upwards; the other half in the shape of a cone with the sharp end downwards, fell into the water.
Presently after the end of it we had a great thunder clap and from the N.W. very much rain for one hour and a ½.
[Note: An editor's note by Anderson states that "Sandwich's journal contains a series of drawings of this phenomenon -probably Sandwich's own work" -too bad for all of us, these drawings are not contained in the printed book.]
Terry F • Link
"fitting myself against a great dispute about the East India Company"
What was this about? The note L&M provide here is a conjecture, and in my edition begins with a question-mark: "? about the convoying of the E. Indiaman which was just about to sail: CSPD 1663-4, p. 671."
Paul Chapin • Link
"no breache to my oathe"
This is surprising. The last we heard, Sam's oath would be satisfied when he attained a net worth of 1000L, which he has now done. Has he made a new oath without telling us about it?
Terry F • Link
Paul, I've come to believe there was a book of oaths, listing amendments, with the penalties for their breakings listed; in another column a list of penalties incurred; another column indicating what has been paid. From this book Pepys "reads" the oaths each Lord's Day, as we are sometimes told in the Diary.
Ruben • Link
for a waterspout and pics see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wate…
JWB • Link
Elegant casuistry?
Paraphrasing Mathew Henry: " Duty belongs to the believer, events belong to God." By not paying price of admission, Sam has held to his duty. With Penn's offer, God has provided the event.
JWB • Link
"...a great dispute about the East India Company"
The history of the East India Company is one long dispute by the London "rent seekers". Reading this weekend Middlekauff's "The Glorious Cause" about Pittt's 2d coming and the casuistry of expropriation of company's assets.
Bradford • Link
A counterfeited friendliness in exchange for a free theatre ticket, a bound and slaughtered actor but! a Lord to be made a Marquis! Some days life is a Lot Like That.
JWB • Link
East India Co./the Alkymist
"You know, my darling... I won't. The New World - too far. Too big. Too primitive. No, my place is here... corrupting the young."
- Ben Jonson, 1602, on being offered the office of Proprietor in the Company.
http://albion.chaosdeathfish.com/…
Terry F • Link
"a Lord to be made a Marquis! Some days life is a Lot Like That."
Ah, Bradford, L&M reassure such a day never comes. As consolation, poor Sir Charles Berkeley will be made Earl of Falmouth and Baron Bototort of Langport.
Bradford • Link
Baron Bototort of Langport, aka the Duke of Barataria? Was there a Restoration equivalent of Gilbert and Sullivan?
Second Reading
Marquess • Link
Such a pity he was only made an earl, marquisates are so much more rarer than earldoms in the UK peerage.
Terry Foreman • Link
"Here we hear that Clun, one of their best actors, was, the last night, going out of towne (after he had acted the Alchymist, wherein was one of his best parts that he acts) to his country-house, set upon and murdered; one of the rogues taken, an Irish fellow. "
Clun had been murdered while on his way to his country house in Kentish Town. According to a contemporary poem on his death (reprinted inA little ark containing sundry pieces of seventeenth-century verse by Thorn-Drury, George, pp. 30-1) https://archive.org/stream/little…
Clun was killed, not on 3 August, but on Tuesday the 2nd. The part he had played was that of Subtle, a leading character in Jonson's comedy, the Alchemist. (L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence visited my Lady Sandwich, who tells me my Lord FitzHarding is to be made a Marquis."
He was already an Irish viscount. He was never made a marquess, but in March 1665 became Earl of Falmouth and Baron Botetort of Langport in the English peerage. Charles probable delayed the grant until parliament had been prorogued, in order to avoid pressure from a host of other aspirants to the peerage. See C. H. Hartmann, The King's friend, pp. 174-8. (Per L&M footnote)