Paul E on 19 Sep 2007  •  Link

"...Frazier is so great with my Lady Castlemayne, and Stewart, and all the ladies at Court, in helping to slip their calfes when there is occasion, and with the great men in curing of their claps that he can do what he please with the King"

I am amazed that this got past Victorian sensibilities to make the Wheatley edition.

Australian Susan on 19 Sep 2007  •  Link

This entry exemplifies many of Sam's strong character traits: domestic contretemps, eagerness to learn travellers' tales, love of good administration well done, admiration of good clothes, buying things for the house (the Habitat/IKEA syndrome) dalliance and a guilty conscience, just loving juicy Court gossip and ensuring the King's business is done expeditiously (but with a little cream off the top for Sam maybe). A typical Sam day.

Terry F on 19 Sep 2007  •  Link

"[As a traveller.] Sir Henry Blount, had an altogether...secular and Baconian frame of mind, as is evidenced in his A Voyage into the Levant (1636). Blount's interest was not so much religious as scientific, and his approach to his encounters was more open. His text is also more prescriptive about the correct manner with which to engage with the Ottomans, though amicably so. Blount, writing in the early 17th century, witnessed the Ottoman Empire at the period of its greatest power and magnificence, comparing it to what he considered to be the then sorry state of one of the greatest powers of antiquity, Egypt.

"Throughout his travels in the Levant and the Orient, Blount took notes on what he observed. His was a form of "strategic travelling," taking both travel and travel writing to a new level of sophistication. His mission was also designed to bring commercial and other benefits to Britain, helping to "stimulate the market for coffee," for example. By the time Blount wrote his Voyage the secular approach of the new scientific age, of which he was a product, had led to the realisation that "nations and the institutions that attend them are as much historical products of geography, nature and climate as they are of religious belief."" http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/7…

A Voyage into the Levant went through 8 editions by 1671. The Pepysian Library has the edition of 1637. Here is the 1st ed. of 1636: http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Terry F on 19 Sep 2007  •  Link

How the mighty have fallen. Lord Teviot, yesterday's dashing near-hero is today's tale's potential tyrant. Either way, a man with a large ego and ambitions.

Nix on 19 Sep 2007  •  Link

Slipping their calfes and curing their claps --

I suppose being Court abortionist/venereologist has always been a plum of a job.

Jesse on 19 Sep 2007  •  Link

"[F]reer from the inconvenience that might follow thereof, besides offending God Almighty"

Quite. Somehow I don't think Josselin would put it in that order and I wonder which perspective might have been more common in that day.

jeannine on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

From "Samuel Pepys and the Second Dutch War" the section entitled "the Navy White Book" edited by Latham

Sept. 19. 1664. Mr Coventry about his having a salary given him extraordinary in place of fees. Duke's promise in behalf of Navy clerks. This day we, all the officers of us, waiting upon the Duke, as we do every week, Mr Coventry, after all other discourse was done, did tell the Duke and us that according to his own desire, the King had granted him by his R.H.'s favour a set allowance instead of a casual one of his fees--which had given occasion to much discourse - (which it seems is 500£ a year) and that from this day or six days backward, he did not only consent but desire if ever any of us doth hear that he receives any kind of gift or gratuity for any places in the Navy, we should tell the Duke of it, desiring only that he might at the same time know it, that so he might be able to justify himself. Only, he desired that it might not be denied that a clerk of his might take a crown or half-a-piece, and not more, upon the passing of such grant. And upon a motion of Sir J Mennes's at the same time, and seconded by all the rest, the Duke did promise that our clerks, as being the fittest men and those that deserve it best, should be advanced into places as places fall.

Patricia on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"...spoke with Jane; who I find cold and not so desirous of a meeting as before..." On the 12th, Sam spent 2 hours kissing her, and yet she doesn't seem to want another meeting. Either Sam's a lousy kisser or she's a virtuous woman. (Or both!)

Robert Gertz on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"...with Sir W. Batten and Sir W. Pen to St. James's, and there did our business with the Duke, and thence homeward straight, calling at the Coffee-house, and there had very good discourse with Sir ---- Blunt and Dr. Whistler about Egypt and other things." The boys seem to be getting along well these days. Perhaps Sam's increasing willingness to follow the race for kickbacks is allowing him to see Batten and Penn a bit more tolerantly.

***

Egypt, eh? Pity Sam doesn't tell us more as what was thought about that mysterious land by Englishmen of his day.

Robert Gertz on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"...so after dinner I did give her 15l. to lay out in linen and necessaries for the house and to buy a suit for Pall..."

Not ungenerous when one considers a short time ago it was the equivalent of nearly a third of his old fairly decent annual salary.

A suit for Pall? What would a 17th century ladies' suit have been like?

Paul Chapin on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

slipping their calfes
I didn't understand this phrase at all, but I think Nix has it right: performing abortions.

OED definition 29 for slip, v.1:
29. Of animals: To miscarry with; to drop, bring forth, or cast prematurely. Also transf. of persons.
1665 Pepys Diary 31 Mar., My Lady Castlemaine is sick again; people think slipping her filly. 1757 Phil. Trans. L. 536 As appears by the cows with calf not slipping their calves. 1759 R. Brown Compl. Farmer 52 These [dogs] have sometimes caused them [sows] to slip their pigs. 1827 Sport. Mag. XXI. 38 My grey mare had slipped a fine horse foal+and my best cow her calf. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede vi, The cheese may swell, or the cows may slip their calf.

(Paul again) Note that in the citations, when the female is the agent, it seems to mean 'miscarry', but when a doctor is the agent, the natural interpretation would be to induce a miscarriage in the female, i.e. perform an abortion.

Paul Chapin on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

Patricia writes: On the 12th, Sam spent 2 hours kissing her [Jane], and yet she doesn't seem to want another meeting. Either Sam's a lousy kisser or she's a virtuous woman. (Or both!)

Patricia, there's another possibility - she might have expected the kissing to lead to something more, and when it didn't, decided Sam wasn't worth spending any more time with.

Terry F on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"Egypt, eh? Pity Sam doesn't tell us more as what was thought about that mysterious land by Englishmen of his day."

Robert, go to Sir Henry Blount himself. For as far as his itinerary was concerned, he tells us "The laft and choice piece of my intent, was to view Gran Cairo, and that for two caufes; firft, it being clearely the greateft concourfe of Mankinde in thefe times, and perhaps that ever was; there must needs be fome proportionable fpirit in the Government: for fuch vafte multitudes, and thofe of wits fo deeply malicious, would foone breed confufion,famine, and utter defolation, if in the Tukifh domination there were nothing but fottifh fenfualitie, as moft Chriftians conceive : Laftly, becaufe Egypt is held to have beene the fountaine of all Science and Arts civill. therefore I did hope to finde fome fparke of thofe cinders not yet put out; or elfe in the extreme contrarietie I flould receive an impreffion as important, from the ocular view of fo great a revolution: for above all other fenfes, the eye having the moft immediate, and quicke commerce with the foule, gives it a more fmart touch then the reft, leaving in the fancy fomewhat unutterable; fo that an eye witnefle of things conceives them with an imagination more compleat, ftrong, and intuitive, then he can either apprehend, or deliver by way of relation; for relations are not only in great part falfe, out of the;relaters misinformation, vanitie, or intereft; but which is unavoidable, their choice, and frame agrees more naturally with his judgement,whofe iffue they are, then with his readers;...." p. 3. http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Contra Iman Hamam quoted above this is contra-Bacon insofar as his Novum Organum's XLI rails against "The Idols of the Tribe [which] have their foundation in human nature itself, and in the tribe or race of men. For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions, as well of the sense as of the mind, are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it."
http://www.whitworth.edu/Core/Cla…

Mary on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

Jane Welsh.

There's yet another possibility. Jarvis has learned, either by direct observation or by report from neighbours, that Mr. Pepys is visiting the area rather more often than business concerns warrant and has warned his young employee that the boss will be keeping an eye on her. If Jane loses her job, she'll probably lose her lodging as well and that would be a serious consideration.

andy on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

I shall be the freer from the inconvenience that might follow thereof, besides offending God Almighty and neglecting my business

A little post-hoc rationalisation here, i.e. she's just not worth it, will try it on with some other comely young thing - subtly moving on from the fact that she's not available to him anyhow.

tonyt on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

The letter sent on this day by the King to his sister in France included the following:
'I received just now my letters out of Holland, by which I find they make all the haste they can to get out their fleet for Guinea, and I am using my diligence to put Prince Rupert in a condition to follow them in case they go. And as they have always hitherto made the first step in their preparations for war, so I am resolved they shall now send first, that all the world may see I do not desire to begin with them, and that if there comes any mischief by it, they have drawn it upon their own heads. The truth is they have no great need to provoke this nation, for except myself I believe there is scarce an Englishman that does not desire passionately a war with them'.

So those Englishmen who had misgivings about a war, like one Samuel Pepys, were keeping their thoughts to themselves - at least in the presence of the King.

Robert Gertz on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

Wise Jane, dense Sam. She's put him off twice and now makes it unmistakably clear with a minimum of offense that she's not interested. Given Sam's position of power and that it's possible her boss Jervais would bend to him if browbeaten and insist she let his good and dangerously well-connected customer have his way, she's managed things very well so far. Given her deft handling, I doubt Samuel Pepys is the first well-to-do customer to have tried his luck with our pretty barber's assistant.

Which reminds of a more modern tale...In "Russia At War" Alexander Werth tells the story of a Red Army lady barber who had trouble with one of the German generals captured at Stalingrad who'd quickly recovered from his chagrin at defeat and was getting a mite bold with her. She threatened to cut his throat while shaving and as Werth heard the story the general in future declined further shaves as he'd decided to grow a beard.

I wouldn't press it, Sam.

jeannine on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"I met with Dr. Pierce to-day, who, speaking of Dr. Frazier's being so earnest to have such a one (one Collins) go chyrurgeon to the Prince's person will have him go in his terms and with so much money put into his hands, he tells me (when I was wondering that Frazier should order things with the Prince in that confident manner) that Frazier is so great with my Lady Castlemayne, and Stewart, and all the ladies at Court, in helping to slip their calfes when there is occasion, and with the great men in curing of their claps that he can do what he please with the King, in spite of any man, and upon the same score with the Prince; they all having more or less occasion to make use of him"

Hmmm, Today I have a little problem with the accuracy of Sam's gossip via Dr. Pierce. First, in Andrew's book on "Royal Whore" (Castlemaine) he says of Frazier "Sir Alexander Frazier, one of the King's physicians, had a poor reputation as a healer since he let Prince Henry of Gloucester die in 1660, but, possibly doing better as a pox doctor, he confidently ran his own department at court". He goes on to note that although the gossip about Frances Stuart was typical of the London opinion that it was highly unsubstantiated and that to all indication and despite Charles' badgering, that she was a virgin (and would remain one until she was married). As for Lady Castlemaine, it's not clear why she would ever want an abortion where it was to her benefit to have as many children by Charles (or by someone else and then pass them off as belonging to Charles) as she could. Children were what made the tie between them hold over time and Castlemaine was no fool so the more children she had the better for her. (Pox would be another story and she could have used him for that perhaps).

In regards to Rupert, there is actually little substantiated about his love life and it's rather a void in his biographies. Around this time (in 1664) he took a mistress (who later claimed to be his wife) named Frances Bard. They had a son together (whom Rupert provided for in his will, etc.). Later (spoiler) he went on to have a relationship with an actress Peg Hughes and would father a daughter with her. He had tried unsuccessfully to secure marriages along the way, but to no avail for one reason or another. Nowhere is it noted that he was (or was not) of the more libertine ways of the court, but that being said, he would not have been a stranger to the world of whores, the pox, etc. considering the realities of managing armies and ships full of men. These realities just went with the territory. He did suffer throughout his adult life from the results of a wound to his head which would trouble him from time to time, but it's not clear that Dr, Frazier would have ever been involved in any manner to treat him for this. Perhaps, Dr. Pierce had a little bit of "sour grapes" here as he is gossiping about a 'competitor" in the field. Today's gossip (although fun to read!) might best be taken with the proverbial grain of salt!

Bradford on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"my wife and I having a little anger about her woman already, she thinking that I take too much care of her at table to mind her (my wife) of cutting for her,"

One trusts this means Sam shaving off the joint for Liz, and not cutting her meat into bite-sized bits? Or have the pronouns got muddled?

Robert Gertz on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"Sam'l, the rare piece on the end, please." Bess asks.

"Yes, certainly. So, Mercer...Did you try that music I set out for you yesterday? Here, have a bit from the end."

"Thank you, sir. Indeed I did, though a difficult piece for me. P'haps later you could show me, sir...?"

"Yes, of course. And hows about another piece?"

"Sam'l?"

"Hmmn?"

"I'm waiting...And I wanted the end piece."

"Oh, yes, certainly. Anyway, Mercer...I was thinking we could have Hunt and a few of my friends over to practice later and...Bess? Why the devil did you throw that fork at me? Bess?!"

Nix on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"not so desirous of a meeting as before" --

This suggests that there may also been an element of Jane pursuing Samuel, to pick up some cash or glitter or just for diversion. Of course, that may just be a reflection of Samuel's vanity, but a shopgirl didn't have a lot of opportunities, either social or financial. She wouldn't be the first to run a semipro business on the side.

Andrew Hamilton on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

Sir ---- Blunt

Pace (that is to say, aloud, pa che)Terry, I have on good authority word that what we have here is an instance of time travel by Sir Anthony Blunt, who is of course meeting with the Tsar's secret agent in 1664 London, Mr. Samuel Pepys. (Both Cambridge men, you know)

Terry F on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

Andrew, yea, time marches on and so does "The Great Traveller" Blount.
BTW, I did not quote his observations of "Gran Cairo" themselves, but only the reference to them in the second (and final) long introductory paragraph.

Cum grano salis on 20 Sep 2007  •  Link

"...Up, my wife and I having a little anger about her woman already, she thinking that I take too much care of her at table to mind her (my wife) of cutting for her, but it soon over, and so up..."
I Dothe thinke it be plain and simple, Peps, his eyes not be on his work but on the proverbial cleavage, and just keeping his wandering eyes on the the wrong female, Man has a bad habit of hunting, and when sumthing dothe wobble, his eyes focus be on his prey, hoping to pounce, when the opportunity occurs .
Tis why many of the predators have been beaned with the rolling pin.

For the Female, Life is full of snags.

language hat on 21 Sep 2007  •  Link

"Pace (that is to say, aloud, pa che)"

Huh, you learn something every day. I have always said PAY-see (traditional anglicization) and assumed that was the only correct way, but looking it up I see PAH-chay (Church Latin pronunciation) is equally acceptable. Which makes sense.

Pedro on 21 Sep 2007  •  Link

Colonell Reames

In L&M as Col. Bullen Reymes (1613-72)

Pepy's colleague on the Fishery Corporation and the Tangier Committee. A Dorset landowner active in the trade of importing sailcloth from France; MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis 1660, 1661-72: responsible for obtaining money for the improvement of the harbour there. A friend of Penn, Coventry, Clifford and Ashley; a Commissioner for the sick and wounded in the Second and Third Dutch wars; appointed surveyor of the Wardrobe 1668. Elected FRS in 1667 on Evelyn's nomination.

Pedro on 21 Sep 2007  •  Link

Never speak ill of the dead.

In defence of the charges against Teviot.

"if my Lord Tiviott had lived, he would have quite undone Tangier...

He did put the King upon most great, chargeable, and unnecessary works there...

The fighting performance in the first two years under Peterborough was abysmal. Peterborough was not fit to manage so disparate a population as Tangier. He was replaced by Teviot a professional soldier and his short term of office was the most encouraging during the occupation of the Colony.

He realized that the key to success in the defence of Tangier lay in the construction of the fortifications that would allow the Garrison, and not the Moors, to control the surrounding hills.

(Info from The Army of Charles II by Childs)

"and took the course industriously to deter, all other merchants but himself to deal there,"

Mr. Pepys says...

"the Tangier Committee; where my Lord Tiviott about his accounts; which grieves me to see that his accounts being to be examined by us, there are none of the great men at the Board that in compliment will except against any thing in his accounts, and so none of the little persons dare do it: so the King is abused. "

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Among the little people are probably Reymes, Gauden, Povey, Rider, Ford and others who make their cuts without putting their necks on the line.

pepf on 10 Mar 2011  •  Link

"...helping to slip their calfes when there is occasion"

Wheatley's Victorian sensibility is outdone by an ingenuous and PC interpretation my compatriots lit on. To share my exhilaration I retranslate from German: Dr. Fraiser is helping the ladies at Court to put on their stockings whenever there is occasion, so that's why He-who-must-be-obeyed is so great with the Ladies! Well, at least they figured out the dose of clap.

Mary on 11 Mar 2011  •  Link

Thank you for this little gem.

Terry Foreman on 12 Jul 2015  •  Link

Alexander Fraizer was physician-in-ordinary to the King and the most trusted of his medical advisers. Jerome Collins had written to Pepys on the 17th, informing him that he (Collins) had been appointed surgeon to Rupert by the King's 'positive orders', and would require special medicines: CSPD 1663-4, p. 11. (L&M footnote)

Sasha Clarkson on 19 Sep 2017  •  Link

According to his Wikipedia entry, in 1666 Frasier "superintended the successful trepanning of Prince Rupert's skull ", to treat his previous head wound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale…

Tonyel on 20 Sep 2017  •  Link

"where Colonell Reames hath brought us so full and methodical an account of all matters there, that I never have nor hope to see the like of any publique business while I live again. "
I trust this an example of Sam's sense of humour - along the lines of "You have taught me more about palmate newts than I ever wanted to know."

Chris Squire UK on 24 Sep 2017  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . cutting for her . . ’
'cut v. < Old Germanic . .
. . 8. a. spec. To carve (meat); also absol.
. . 1738   Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 121   Don't cut like a Mother-in-Law, but send me a large Slice . . ‘
…………..
Re: ‘ . . to slip their calfes . . ’
'calf n.1 < Old germanic . .  1. b. to slip (cast) the calf: to suffer abortion; said of the cow, also (humorously) of women (obs.)
1664   S. Pepys Diary 19 Sept. (1971) V. 275   Fraizer is so great with..all the ladies at Court, in helping to slip their calfeswhen there is occasion.

…………..
Re: ‘ . . to boggle in the business . . ’

‘boggle, v. < boggle, variant of bogle n. a spectre, (such as horses are reputed to see). 
. . 2. To raise scruples, hesitate, demur, stickle (at, occasionally about, over, etc., or to do a thing).
. . 1668 S. Pepys Diary 30 Mar. (1976) IX. 140 I find the Parliament still bogling about the raising of this money . . ‘

…………..
Re: ‘ . . most great, chargeable, and unnecessary works . . ’

'chargeable < Old French . .
. . 4. Burdensome (as a tax or payment); costly, expensive. Obs. (Formerly the most frequent meaning.)
. . 1660   Exact Accompt Trial Regicides (1679) 186   That [royalty] was a dangerous, chargeable, and useless Office.

…………..

(OED)

Terry Foreman on 1 Jul 2019  •  Link

"I myself to White Hall to a Tangier Committee, where Colonell Reames hath brought us so full and methodical an account of all matters there, that I never have nor hope to see the like of any publique business while I live again."

L&M: On 11 September Bullen Reynes had returned from Tangier, where he had been sent in June. His lengthy report (now untraced) on both Tangier and Salli, and on the needs of the garrison, had been presented to the Privy Council on the 18th, and received with great commendation. Reymer writer in his diary: 'The King was so well pleased with my booke, which he held his hand and perused all the time, as...all of them confessed, they never had so good an account in all their life. And I overheard the King say to himself as he turned over the booke, "Indeed, indeed, it was very well done and playne"' (qu. H. A. Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, p. 196). A subcommittee was appointed to send men and money immediately.