Thursday 25 May 1665

Up, and to the office, where all the morning. At noon dined at home, and then to the office all the afternoon, busy till almost 12 at night, and then home to supper and to bed.

16 Annotations

First Reading

Ruben  •  Link

In spite of all our exhortations, Samuel still writes this short entries from time to time...

CGS  •  Link

What! The Bell strikes 12, and the bed be still cold, poor Elizabeth.

Larry Bunce  •  Link

Dear Readers:
Pardon my lack of detail this past week, but I was writing this diary for myself, and have been too busy this week to spend much time writing detailed entries after my busy days. I sketched in these entries days later when I finally got some time for my diary again. These busy days have not been spent on exciting activities and history-making decisions, but on the mind-numbing details of bureaucracy without which no government activity takes place, and the neglect of which would have cost me my position.
You have no idea how embarassed I would have been in my owm time to have known that one day strangers would be reading my diary. From the distance of a few centuries, I am no longer concerned by strangers finding out about my human foibles, and tittering over my little trysts and vanities. I also realize that if I had been writing my diary for posterity to read, I might have published it at the end of my life, and I would now be unknown save to a few historians, the diary gathering dust in library archives. I have also noticed that you annotaters get busier on the days of my skimpy entries, so be thankful for today's chance to "annotate"
your obedient servant, Samuel Pepys.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

May 4th, 6th, 20th, and now the 25th ... he's almost got a template for how he writes about the daily grind ... except today, he doesn't even talk about how weary he is, or satisfied about knocking out a bunch of work. Wonder if it's getting to him at all...

JWB  •  Link

For those who cannot afford coffee:

Cock, Thomas. Advice for the poor by vvay of cure and caution ... London : Printed for Joseph Leigh, in Basing-hall Street, near the Naggs-Head Tavern, 1665. http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/vi…

(For best view use the site's magnifier, not your browser's)

JWB  •  Link

O'Dowde, Thomas. Two letters conce[rn]ing the cure of the plague :the one to Thomas Elyot esq, one of the grooms of the bed chamber to his Maiesty, the other to the mayor of the town of Southampton. [London : s.n., 1665].

http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL…

Phil  •  Link

These short entries all seem associated with work at the office. I don't believe, for example, that he has every written "..laid around all day doing nothing." He always has an activity or person to recall even on his play days.

Generally,when he reports on a work day, he records money matters, events of history (as he sees the event being historic) and the stress relief he enjoyed that day.

So as Todd points out, why 4 days this month with this templated like entry? I wonder if the entry itself is Sam's way of recording dates when he did do something he could not/ should not keep a record of? Maybe top secret stuff for the navy or under the table deals or ...one's imagination runs wild ....

I did read Samuel Larry Bunce Pepys letter to me and find it most logical, but I'm still suspicious. If you were writing a diary and just tired and found it too much a bother, wouldn't your diary be very spasmodic? Like an entry every other day or weeks skipped, writing only when you felt like it. But if you were committed, like a writer is to a novel, it seems to me to be a waste to take pen in hand and not write something meaningful.

I must admit, these short entries are my pet peeve and in a recent exchange of emails with another fellow Pepysian reader, I'm likely making a mountain from a flea bite. I haven't tried to keep a diary mostly because I would expect the vast majority of my entries would be like the one Sam has recorded for this day. I enjoy the daily stroll in Sam shoes and disappointed when we aren't out there snoopin' and a struttin'

cgs  •  Link

To the tune of Robin Hood I thank you for the cure for flea bite us.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Sam could at least fill us in on Balty's doings. I tell ya, I am worried about our would be Sieur de St. Michel, supposedly off to fight the dread Turk for the HR Emperor.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Heaven

"Oh, for heaveens sake, they're at again..." Sam sighs to Bess. "Is my name Dickens? Do I do this for pay that every entry should be a feast of entertainment? Besides haven't these people ever heard of minimalism? Small is better?"

"Well, if you'd listened to me and ended these short ones with 'Home to bed and the hottest sex in 17th century England.' It was, after all." Bess notes.

"True enough...But one can't help taking these things as part of the daily routine after a while."

jeannine  •  Link

“May 4th, 6th, 20th, and now the 25th”

Todd, on some of the days that Sam has had smaller entries he has written letters to other people (but I’ve been lax in entering them ---too busy to keep up these days!). He’s had letters to Commissioner Middleton, Lord Sandwich, and Mr. Coventry on those dates and some entries (nothing too big) in the White Book of his Navy records.

So, for today……. he wrote to Mr. Coventry dated 25 May 1665 and it’s pretty short and sweet so it is as follows:

“What we shall shortly do without better payments I am loath to guess, or add to your other melancholy mediations so heavy a one as that, but it is come already that people under their hands have said, “Pay me for what you have had, and I’le trust you further”.

Apparetnly Sam has a lot on his mind these days.

CGS  •  Link

Ah! that damnable credit crunch again. nowt changes.
Would like to see the other letters.

Second Reading

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Ruben wrote: “In spite of all our exhortations, Samuel still writes this short entries from time to time...”

I suspect Sam often failed to write on the day in question. On this day when he had been working until midnight, there was probably nothing he could do but fall into bed, exhausted. He probably filled in the missing entries days later. Note the lack of detail about his activities.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

The "dined at home" probably included mum and Bess, as he specifically mentioned dining alone the other day, because they were out.

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