Tuesday 7 March 1664/65
Up, and was pretty well, but going to the office, and I think it was sitting with my back to the fire, it set me in a great rage again, that I could not continue till past noon at the office, but was forced to go home, nor could sit down to dinner, but betook myself to my bed, and being there a while my pain begun to abate and grow less and less. Anon I went to make water, not dreaming of any thing but my testicle that by some accident I might have bruised as I used to do, but in pissing there come from me two stones, I could feel them, and caused my water to be looked into; but without any pain to me in going out, which makes me think that it was not a fit of the stone at all; for my pain was asswaged upon my lying down a great while before I went to make water. Anon I made water again very freely and plentifully. I kept my bed in good ease all the evening, then rose and sat up an hour or two, and then to bed and lay till 8 o’clock, and then, … [Continued tomorrow. P.G.]
18 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"I think it was sitting with my back to the fire, it set me in a great rage again, that I could not continue till past noon at the office...."
Any ideas about why "sitting with [his] back to the fire" was such a problem now? He did not report having been so seated, and I'd have thought he'd have changed place if the fire was so hot.
rage (n.)
1297, from O.Fr. raige (11c.), from M.L. rabia, from L. rabies "madness, rage, fury," related to rabere "be mad, rave." Related to rabies, of which this is the original sense. Similarly, Welsh (cynddaredd) and Breton (kounnar) words for "rage, fury" originally meant "hydrophobia" and are compounds based on the word for "dog" (Welsh ci, plural cwn; Breton ki). The verb is c.1250, originally "to play, romp;" meaning "be furious" first recorded c.1300. The rage "fashion, vogue" dates from 1785.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…
Does the OED help clarify what's going on besides frustration?
Australian Susan • Link
Back to the fire
Maybe he had no choice of position in his small personal office if he wanted to continue to work in there.
Sam is always quick to give a reason for his physical ailments. Doesn't mean he was always right!
Rage does seem a strange choice of word. Is this an occasion when L&M has a different reading?
Martha Wishart • Link
Poor Sam. Maybe he just connected the warmth of the fire at his back with the raging pain in his bladder.
Terry Foreman • Link
L&M have "rage"....
CGS • Link
"rage" It not be all the rage to read SP
6. a. A violent feeling, passion, or appetite. Also, violence, severity, height (of a feeling, etc.).
b. Violent desire; sexual passion; heat.
1561 HOLLYBUSH Hom. Apoth. 17b, As sone as he had taken it, furthwyth had he suche a rage and grepyng wythin hym.
c. Violent sorrow; a fit of this. Obs. rare.
c1386 CHAUCER Frankl.
d. Violent pain. Hence humorously suggested as a name for a set of teeth. Obs. rare.
e. Extreme hunger. Obs. rare
CGS • Link
another infuriating input enough to give vent to rage:
rage:
1. a. Madness; insanity; a fit or access of mania. Obs. exc. poet.
c1325
b. Madness, folly, rashness; an instance of this, a foolish act. Obs.
13..
c. Rabies. Obs.
1558 WARDE
of a dogge.
2. Violent anger, furious passion, usually as manifested in looks, words or action; a fit or access of such anger; {dag}angry disposition. a. of persons:
1297
1607 SHAKES. Cor. V. iii. 85 Desire not t'allay My Rages and Reuenges, with your colder reasons. 1697 DRYDEN Virg. Georg. IV. 652 The Seer, who could not yet his Wrath asswage, Rowl'd his green Eyes, that sparkled with his Rage.
b. of animals:
1687 DRYDEN Hind & P. I. 305 The Wolf, the Bear, the Boar..Their rage repressed,..stand aloof, and tremble.
b. An act of violence; a fight. Obs. rare.
c1330
4. transf. a. Violence, violent operation or action, ‘fury’ (of things, e.g. wind, the sea, fire, etc.).
c1320
b. A flood, high tide, sudden rising of the sea.
1390
c. A fierce blast of wind. Obs. rare{em}1.
c1386 CHAUCER Knt.'s T.
6. a. A violent feeling, passion, or appetite. Also, violence, severity, height (of a feeling, etc.).
1390
1593 SHAKES. Lucr. 424 His rage of lust by gazing qualifie
b. Violent desire; sexual passion; heat.
?a1366 CHAUCER Rom. Rose 1657 Whan I was with this rage hent That caught hath many a man and shent.
7. a. A vehement passion for, desire of, a thing. Also const. after, inf., or absol.
1593 SHAKES. Lucr. 468 This moves in him more rage..To make the breach.
1882 A. W. WARD Dickens iii. 65 The rage which possesses authors to read their writings aloud.
b. (all) the rage: said of the object of a widespread and usually temporary enthusiasm.
1785
8. Poetic or prophetic enthusiasm or inspiration; musical excitement.
c1600 SHAKES. Sonn. xvii, So should..your true rights be term'd a poet's rage. c1611 CHAPMAN Iliad I. 66 His prophetic rage Given by Apollo.
9. Martial or high spirit, ardour, fervour, manly enthusiasm or indignation.
1591 SHAKES.
10. Excitement or violence of an action, operation, etc.; also, the acutest point or heat of this.
1593 SHAKES. Lucr. 145 All for one we gage; As life for honour in fell battle's rage.
11. An alleged name for a company of maidens.
1486
verb;4. transf. of things (e.g. wind, the sea, etc.): To be violent and boisterous; to move or rush furiously.
d. Of a disease or pain: To be violent. Also transf.
1602 SHAKES. Ham. IV. iii. 68 Like the Hecticke in my blood he rages. 1611 BEAUM. & FL. Maid's Trag. II. i, Some fever rages in thy blood.
Paul Chapin • Link
rage
Of the various OED definitions of this word that CGS has adduced, #6.d. 'violent pain' seems the most congruent with the passage. OED calls that gloss obsolete and rare, and the last citation they offer is from 1561, but it is hard to detect the difference from the 1709 citation they give under gloss 6.a., 'A violent feeling, passion, or appetite. Also, violence, severity, height (of a feeling,etc.).' (not qualified as obsolete or rare):
1709 Steele Tatler No. 34 32 It is in vain to give it when the Patient is in the Rage of the Distemper.
ghlee • Link
For those Pepysians that might be interested there is presently available on BBC7 (Streaming Radio) a six episode (1 hr each) truncated life of SP available for the first five episodes as "Listen Again". You will need RealPlayer or Media Player to listen, the former better in my opinion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listena…
Robert Gertz • Link
"caused my water to be looked into..."
"Hewer? Hayter? I've a job for you."
Actually I feel less filthy than when I was helping him with the Tangier accounts last week, Hayter notes to the grumbling Hewer. "There they are..." Hewer sighs, nodding at the bottom. "Two small ones, sir!" he calls.
Ah, Sam nods, pleased... Right on the money.
"Now what? Does he want us to put them in boxes...Or name 'em?"
"That one 'Sam', that 'Bess'." Hayter grins.
Mary • Link
caused my water to be looked into..."
Quite possibly he sent his water round to Dr. Hollier's for examination. This would not have been an unusual practice in an age when the condition, appearance, colour etc. of both urine and faeces were recognised as providing useful clues to the health of the individual.
Ruben • Link
May I add to Mary's annotation:
"Quite possibly he sent his water round to Dr. Hollier’s for examination. This would not have been an unusual practice in an age when the condition, appearance, colour, taste and odor, etc. of both urine and faeces were recognised as providing useful clues to the health of the individual".
A sweet urine was very bad indeed, this was the only way to diagnose what we today call diabetes...
A. De Araujo • Link
"which makes me think that it was not a fit of the stone at all"
It was Sam, It was!
tld • Link
On the Kidney Stones:
From a dozen or so personal experiences passing Kidney Stones I can say they vary in symptoms over a wide range. This one fell into the lower middle of the pain scale possible.
1. It appears he has associated the common back pain that can come with passing a kidney stone with sitting with his back to the fire.
2. He took two days to pass couple of stones he could feel as they passed. That’s average time. Many times the stones are mere grains of sand size and you never see them. These would be more like double grains of rice in size. He would have a sensation one could imagine as shooting a pea through a straw as they were expelled, which he describes here. I can report that the size of the stone and the pain experience are not correlated. Small, invisible stone can incapacitate oneself with pain, while larger stones may feel more like the flu or nothing at all.
3. There is no real treatment for these. If one is susceptible to forming them then diet can play a role. Cola, greens, and nuts are bad for the most common type of stones. From his dietary descriptions, he doesn’t seem to have a high intake of those. Cola isn’t available yet, he rarely mentions greens like Kale or spinach, if ever. And he hasn’t mentioned nuts but a few times: sweetmeats. Some kidneys are configured such that they can favor the formation of stones. Good chance that is Sam’s problem. He needs to intake more citrus from any source. Citrus can hinder the formation of some common stones.
4. The biggest risk of these stones is infection from one getting stuck. If infection set in, it can take a week antibiotics to fix while one fights fevers over 104 F. Getting it out takes medical intervention - first to allow fluid to pass, then something to get the stuck stone out. Sam has avoided this type so far.
dirk • Link
Kidney Stones
There is a more or less general consensus that Sam suffered form kidney and bladder stones. When he talks about "being cut for the stone" he is referring to bladder stones. As for the incident described here, I'm no medical doctor - but personally I'd be inclined to guess these were bladder stones too.
Cf. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Mary • Link
Kidney/bladder stones.
I don't believe that there is any special reason why Pepys should not have suffered the effects of both types of stone at different times. Personal experience, which matches tld's second point above, makes kidney stones sound the more likely cause of the present painful episode. We know, from the later post mortem report on Pepys' state at death, that he did indeed have many stones present in the kidneys.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Anon I went to make water, not dreaming of any thing but my testicle that by some accident I might have bruised as I used to do, but in pissing there come from me two stones, I could feel them, and caused my water to be looked into; but without any pain to me in going out, which makes me think that it was not a fit of the stone at all; for my pain was asswaged upon my lying down a great while before I went to make water."
Dr. C.E. Newman writes: 'This was an attack of colic caused by stones passing from the kidney into th bladder (which would bring on th pain which radiated from the back into the testicle) . Passage of the stones through the urethra was sometimes painless.' (L&M note)
Chris Squire UK • Link
Re: ’ . . it set me in a great rage again . . ’
‘rage, n. . . < Anglo-Norman and Old French . .
. . 5. d. Acute physical pain; an instance of this. Obs. rare.
. . 1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii.xlii. 265 Called tormentill because the powder or decoction of the roote doth appease the rage and torment of the teeth.
Third Reading
Thomas M. Fiddler • Link
RE: 'Tormentill'
"Blutwurz is a liqueur made from the root of the common tormentil plant (Potentilla erecta), which derives its German name (blood root) from the color of the juice that emerges when the root is cut. The root provided a traditional anti-inflammatory medicine. Today it is still consumed in the form of tea, syrup, cream, or powder. Most importantly, the Penninger company uses Blutwurz as the key ingredient of an herbal liqueur or Bitters that the company produces in Bavaria."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…