Wednesday 28 March 1666

Up, and with Creed, who come hither betimes to speake with me about his accounts, to White Hall by water, mighty merry in discourse, though I had been very little troubled with him, or did countenance it, having now, blessed be God! a great deale of good business to mind to better purpose than chatting with him.

Waited on the Duke, after that walked with Sir W. Clerke into St. James’s Parke, and by and by met with Mr. Hayes, Prince Rupert’s Secretary, who are mighty, both, briske blades, but I fear they promise themselves more than they expect. Thence to the Cockpitt, and dined with a great deal of company at the Duke of Albemarle’s, and a bad and dirty, nasty dinner.

So by coach to Hales’s, and there sat again, and it is become mighty like. Hither come my wife and Mercer brought by Mrs. Pierce and Knipp, we were mighty merry and the picture goes on the better for it.

Thence set them down at Pierces, and we home, where busy and at my chamber till 12 at night, and so to bed.

This night, I am told, the Queene of Portugall, the mother to our Queene, is lately dead, and newes brought of it hither this day.1

25 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

march. 28. 1666. (vote for election day Aprill the 11th. next)
mr. Hooke presented a paper conteining some obseruations made by himself of the planet mars. in the face whereof he affirmed to haue Discouered in these 2 last monthes of february & march both that there are seuerall spotts & that they change their place and Return not vnto the same position vntill the next ensuing night neer about the same time. Collecting thence that mars as well as Iupiter the earth &c doth moue about his own axis in about 24 howers.
To which he added his obseruations concerning the differing dispositions of the air, as to its more or Lesse fitnesse to see through it affirming that oftentimes a very bright sky was altogether vnfitt for obseruation, but that when it had fewer inflecting vapours dispersed through it it was then most transparent, and consequently most proper for it. wherevpon the president took notice to the
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…
the company (wherein his Lp. was seconded by Dr. Wilkins) that Sr. P neil had already some years agoe obserued the like difference in the air, & tht sometimes in a very bright sky he could see nothing distinctly in the celestiall bodys, but at other times the Sky being serene after a good shower of Rain, that had swept down store of terrestriall effluviums mingled with the air, and hindring the free passage of the Starry beames he could see those bodys very distinctly. mr. Hooke was thanked for these obseruations, and desired to continue there for further confirmation and it was
orderd that the paper should be registred.
mr Hooke produced a pair of scales in a box to make experiments wth. vpon a good Loadstone, for the finding out of the decrease of the attractiue force vpon a body according as it is placed at greater and greater distances, in order to find /out/ whether grauitation be somewt magneticall, which he said might be done by comparing the distances of the bodys made vse of in the experiments, from the superficies of the earth &c Loadstone wth the diameters: It being probable that if they hold the same proportion they haue the same cause. It was orderd that he should make in it seuerall Expts. by himself and then make them before the Society.
(from Green prsent 1 wild peniroyall or bastard dittany. 2 pistolochia. 3 virginia scorzonera. 4 faba Egyptiaca a great Restoratiue)
moray about silkwormes & mulberys in Virginia)
Enquirys to be made about obseruation made in the Late Plague).
more silk pods rom virginia)
mr. Boyles Origine of formes prsented.)

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"mr. Boyles Origine of formes"

THE ORIGINE OF Formes and Qualities, (According to the Corpuscular [Mechanical] Philosophy,) Illustrated by Considerations and EXPERIMENTS,
(Written formerly by way of Notes upon an Essay about NlTRE)
By the Honorable ROBERT BOYLE, Fellow of the Royal Society....1666

The Works of Robert Boyle, Edited by Michael Hunter and Edward B. Davis volume 5
The Origin of Forms and Qualities and other publications of 1665-7
LONDON Pickering & Chatto. 1999
-- the first part of the text: http://snipurl.com/ecl1e

Bradford  •  Link

Better things to do and think of than present company allows these days, and wouldn't you like to know just how much dirt there was in that nasty dinner? Having one's accounts in a snarl is enough to put one's nose out of joint.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...a bad and dirty, nasty dinner."

"More slop and offal, unfit for porcine let alone human consumption, gents?"

Well, Sam...I once had to eat tofu cheesecake at a superior's dinner party at Woods Hole so I've no sympathy at all.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"Collecting thence that mars as well as Iupiter the earth &c doth moue about his own axis in about 24 howers." (Hooke folio, provided by Terry)

Hooke was right about Mars. Its day is just under 24 hours 40 minutes. He doesn't say why he concluded the same about Jupiter - maybe when you've seen two planets, Earth and Mars, you've seen them all? But in fact Jupiter's day is a little under 10 hours. Since it is a gas planet, the rotation is a little faster at the equator, which bulges as a result, than at higher latitudes. (Info from Wikipedia)

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"So by coach to Hales’s, and there sat again, and it is become mighty like. Hither come my wife and Mercer brought by Mrs. Pierce and Knipp, we were mighty merry and the picture goes on the better for it."

"Doesn't it, Halys?" Sam turns to the grim-looking Halys.

"Yeah, sure." Frosty nod. "Would you please give return my brush, Mrs. Pepys?..." curt aside to a bubbly Bess eagerly showing off her Woolwich painting skills.

"What?...Oh, yes...Just a mo...So Mr. Browne said the proper technique is to 'feel the painting with your soul' and then just put that on the canvas. Isn't that the trus artist's way, Mr. Halys?"

"Yeah, sure." rubs face. "My brush, please."

Wonder what else that fool Browne was feeling...

"Mr. Browne is setting up a factory of young artists to paint pictures in bulk of scenes people like..." Bess notes. "Ones that really suit a home, you know. He plans to call himself 'the painter of light' and just do the prototype which his people will then copy in bulk. He'll just number the areas to be filled in. He's even working on ways to put his paintings on all sorts of things like cups, vases, chamber pots. Is that not a fine idea, Mr. Halys?"

"That is where most of them belong, indeed, Mrs. Pepys. Ur...Ur...Pardon me, madame...I'm a trifle ill today. Might I please have my brush and we continue with the work."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Light, you say?" Sam calls over. "That's what I was thinking, Halys. I think I need a bit more light to set off my features."

"Yes, yes. Let there be light!." Mrs. Pierce calls. "Your skin should glow more."

"Let me open that window." Bess offers.

"Isn't this wonderful us all working together to get this portrait right?" Sam notes to Halys, hands over eyes, rocking in chair.

JWB  •  Link

Daughter of Duke de Medina Sidonia

I believe she was the grandaughter of the Sidonia(7th Duke) we know as the Admiral of the Armada.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"and by and by met with Mr. Hayes, Prince Rupert’s Secretary, who are mighty, both, briske blades, but I fear they promise themselves more than they expect"

Secretary Hayes, of course, made a point of rummaging through the Prince's leftover clothes for his fencing uniforms. This predilection for incorporating the color of royalty into these outfits eventually led to his nickname of "Purple Hayes."

('scuse me while I kiss this guy...)

Pedro  •  Link

Purple Hayes

I thought that was Jimi Hendrix?

(Sorry could not resist!)

cgs  •  Link

nasty, such an unsavory word: "...and a bad and dirty, nasty dinner..."

OED: [Origin unknown; compare -Y suffix1. Compare Dutch nestig (Middle Dutch nestich, nistich) foul, dirty, of unknown origin.

Compare also Swedish naskot, regional nasket, naskug dirty, nasty < nask dirt; a similar stem nasc- in English is perhaps suggested by the Middle English forms naxte, naxty and NASKY adj., although the relationship between the forms is unclear.

A connection has also been suggested with Old French, Middle French nastre, natre strange, of low social status (c1212), shortened < villenastre infamous, ignoble (1237; 13th cent. as vilain nastre) < vilein VILLAIN n. + -astre -ASTER suffix.
The original force of the word, denoting what is disgustingly dirty or foul, has been greatly toned down or altered in modern usage (see especially senses 3 , 4 , 5). However, this has proceeded more rapidly in British than in U.S. usage. For comments on various stages in the development of the use and meaning of nasty in British and U.S. English, see: M. Schele de Vere Americanisms (1871) 509; R. G. White England without & Within (1881) xvi. 386; H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. (1919) 317; W. A. Craigie and J. R. Hulbert Dict. Amer. Eng. (1942) III. 1580/1; B. Evans and C. Evans Dict. Contemp. Amer. Usage (1957) 313.]
3. a. Of a thing: unpleasant, disagreeable; objectionable, annoying. In recent use freq. in heightened sense: offensive; repellent.
cheap and nasty: see CHEAP adj. 1a.
1548....
1657 R. LIGON Barbados 121 Captaines and Masters of Ships..either pinch them [sc. the passengers] of a great part [of the promised victualls], or give them that which is nastie and unwholsome.

b. Offensive to smell or taste; nauseating. Now freq. in predicative use passing into sense 3a.
a nasty taste in the mouth (fig.): see TASTE n.1 5c.

1601 J. WEEVER Mirror of Martyrs C j b, The aire's a gnastie old mans breath ill smelling.
1616 G. CHAPMAN tr. Homer Odyssey XII. 192 [The ship's] bulke was filld With nasty sulphur

c. Of weather: bad, unpleasant, wet.
1634 T. HERBERT Relation Trav. 216 We..had little other or better weather then high stormes, nastie raines and lowd thunders.

4. Morally corrupt; indecent, obscene, lewd.
Now freq. showing some degree of semantic overlap with sense 3a.
a1601 J. MARSTON et al. Jacke Drums Entertainm. II. 311 You forget your selfe to vse such jests, Such nastie ribauldrie, vpon my daughter.

1638 R. BRATHWAIT Barnabæ Itinerarium (new ed.) II. sig. I4, A Curmudgeon rich but nasty [L. perobscænum].

1666 BP. S. PARKER Free Censvre Platonick Philos. (1667) 52 An intemperate sensuality is nasty.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

RG, I don't understand why you consistently spell Hayls' name as "Halys".

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Touch of dylexia, I think. I tend to transpose a letter or two on some words or names every now and then. Don't let it bother you.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

And (sorry, rushing earlier) I usually dash the light fluff stuff off early in the am or very late or as now in snatches between things so don't often get to review it and get locked into a mistake. Thanks for catching it. At least I usually get Pepys right.

I'm still waiting for someone to ask me why I always have Bess call him "Sam'l".

Ruben  •  Link

Sam'l
Well...I always asked myself about this, but was ashamed to ask. My idea was that you have to be born to English to understand.
Our sages said 1700 years ago that "the presumptous does not teach and the bashful does not learn", and I presume that was my predicament.
Now, what is the meaning of 'l?

Mary  •  Link

Being born to English doesn't help in the least!

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Sam’l etc.

Being born English I assumed this was a contraction used to show intimacy; similar to my mother calling my father "Jo'th" in certain circumstances rather than her usual Joe or, very occasionally, Joseph.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"... my wife and Mercer brought by Mrs. Pierce and Knipp, ...." Nice to see Bess obviously having a jolly time with girlfriends. Probably quite a formidable bunch actually. Overtones (or undertones?) of Sex and the City?

Pete D  •  Link

"The ladies were directed .. to appear without spots on their faces, the disfiguring fashion of patching having just been introduced."

That's odd - I thought patching was a fashion derived from covering smallpox scars. Is the 'disfiguring' here a reference to women aping their (possibly scarred) betters?

Mary  •  Link

The 'disfiguring' here is Agnes Strickland's 19th Century comment on the fashion of wearing patches on the face; it may tell us more about her opinion than it does about the view of the Court in mourning in the 1660s.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Terry Foreman -- I'm greatly enjoying the Royal Society information that you have so meticulously included. It's fascinating, and illuminating. Thank you for your labor of love.

Louise Hudson  •  Link

“Thence to the Cockpitt, and dined with a great deal of company at the Duke of Albemarle’s, and a bad and dirty, nasty dinner.”

But, apparently, he ate it.

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