Friday 3 August 1666
Up and to the office, where Sir W. Batten and I sat to contract for some fire-ships. I there close all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and then abroad to Sir Philip Warwicke’s at White Hall about Tangier one quarter tallys, and there had some serious discourse touching money, and the case of the Navy, wherein all I could get of him was that we had the full understanding of the treasure as much as my Lord Treasurer himself, and knew what he can do, and that whatever our case is, more money cannot be got till the Parliament. So talked of getting an account ready as soon as we could to give the Parliament, and so very melancholy parted. So I back again, calling my wife at her sister’s, from whose husband we do now hear that he was safe this week, and going in a ship to the fleete from the buoy of the Nore, where he has been all this while, the fleete being gone before he got down. So home, and busy till night, and then to Sir W. Pen, with my wife, to sit and chat, and a small supper, and home to bed.
The death of Everson, and the report of our success, beyond expectation, in the killing of so great a number of men, hath raised the estimation of the late victory considerably; but it is only among fools: for all that was but accidental. But this morning, getting Sir .W. Pen to read over the Narrative with me, he did sparingly, yet plainly, say that we might have intercepted their Zealand squadron coming home, if we had done our parts; and more, that we might have spooned before the wind as well as they, and have overtaken their ships in the pursuite, in all the while.
20 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"the Narrative"
The victory over the fleet of the States general
By Prince Rupert (Count Palatine), George Monck Albemarle (Duke of)
http://snipurl.com/ompc8
L&M name the source of the official account.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...for all that was but accidental."
Well, Sam...Some say all war, victory or defeat, is accidental.
Robert Gertz • Link
A few accidentals...
Pompey's cavalry is "surprised" at Pharasalus
Valens finds out there are a lot more Goths at Adrianople
Mixed signals at Manzikert, 1071.
Napoleon learns horses also travel on their stomachs, Russia 1812.
Ney charges without support, Waterloo, 1815.
Lee's orders are lost and found at Antietam.
Warren spots a gap at Little Round Top.
Franz Ferdinand's driver takes a wrong turn, 1914.
Hitler gets dysentery during the first phase of Barbarosa.
The Germans "forget" to cross the Neva at Leningrad
The search plane's radio fails, Midway 1942
The roads get clogged on the way to Stalingrad, south Russia 1942.
A. De Araujo • Link
"where he has been all this while"
The late bird gets the worm!
Robert Gertz • Link
One interesting thing...We often say in our modern world that people are alienated, closed off, often times without the close friendships, etc, that once existed, say in Sam's day. And this is usually taken as another symptom of the decay of modern society. Yet I note Sam seems to have no truly close male (or female) friends with whom he shares his true feelings. He has a few friends and a wide circle of acquaintances who share small parts of his life-his musician friends, Hewer for the daily office work, Creed to scheme with, James Pierce to gossip on the Court with, Evelyn to discuss lofty topics with, etc...Even poor Bess is occasionally allowed some peeks under the curtain when he needs comfort. But no close friend, it seems, to whom he feels free to bare his soul. When he was a young clerk, he did seem a bit more open-hearted with his old crew...Has he really changed and if so has it been the need to conceal his dealings and his desire to make a show in the world that's forced him to draw back? No one can be allowed to know all about the true Pepys now?
Except of course, us...
cgs • Link
RG:
a misused word?
friend, n. and a.
[Com. Teut.: OE. fréond str. masc. = OFris., OS. friund, friond (Du. vriend), OHG. friunt (MHG. vriunt, mod.Ger. freund), ON. (with change of declension in sing.) fr{aeacu}nde (Sw. frände, Da. frænde), Goth. frijônds; the pr. pple. of the OTeut. vb. *frijôjan to love (OE. fréo{asg}an, fréon, Goth. frijôn; the Ger. freien, Du. vrijen to woo, and the rare ON. friá to caress, are prob. not identical, though from the same root), f. pre-Teut. *priyo- dear: see FREE a.]
2. Used loosely in various ways: e.g. applied to a mere acquaintance, or to a stranger, as a mark of goodwill or kindly condescension on the part of the speaker; by members of the ‘Society of Friends’ adopted as the ordinary mode of address (cf. 7). Also often ironically.
Similarly in parliamentary language, ‘my honourable friend’ is often used by members in referring to each other; so also ‘my learned friend’ is applied in the law courts by counsel to each other. Cf. 6.
A. n.
1. a. ‘One joined to another in mutual benevolence and intimacy’ (J.). Not ordinarily applied to lovers or relatives (but cf. senses 3, 4).
Beowulf 1018
b. In various proverbial expressions. {dag}but a friend's friend: ever so remotely connected.
1340...
---------------------
3. A kinsman or near relation. Now only in pl. (one's) relatives, kinsfolk, ‘people’.
This is the only sense of the word in the Scand. langs., where sense 1 is expressed by ON. vinr (Sw. vän, Da. ven); similarly in many HG. dialects, freund is ‘kinsman’, the sense of ‘friend’ being expressed by guter freund (Kluge).
c1468 Paston Lett. No. 582 II. 313 Better ys a frende unknow then knowen.
c1489 CAXTON Sonnes of Aymon xix. 433 It is sayd, that at the nede the frende is knowen.
1539 TAVERNER Erasm. Prov. (1552) 32 A frende is more necessary than either fyer or water.
1546 J. HEYWOOD Prov. (1867) 37 Many kynsfolke and few freends, some folke saie.
4. A lover or paramour, of either sex.
1490
1588 SHAKES. L.L.L. V. ii. 405 O! neuer will I..come in vizard to my friend, Nor woo in rime like a blind-harpers songe. 1603 {emem} Meas. for M. I. iv. 29 He hath got his friend with childe.
5. a. One who wishes (another, a cause, etc.) well; a sympathiser, favourer, helper, patron, or supporter; spec. a supporter of an institution or the like, contributing help, money, etc. Const. of, to. Usu. in pl.
6. a. As opposed to enemy in various senses: One who is on good terms with another, not hostile or at variance; one who is on the same side in warfare, politics, etc.
a1000
7. A member of the Society of Friends, a Quaker.
Carl in Boston • Link
Sam seems to have no truly close male (or female) friends with whom he shares his true feelings. Alas, he's too high up and cursed with too much money to have friends who know his secrets. You see how careful he is to keep his bribe taking hidden and covered with plausible denial.
Pepys speaks to his most discreet and inscrutable, unreadable friend: his Diary. He tells it all to the Diary. He says 7 parts of himself to his seven cronies, each a different specialist part, but together they make up a pretty good friend.
They say the American Indians would dig a hole, lie down and speak their thoughts into the hole (or Mother Turtle, or Mother Earth) and then fill up the hole and go on their way. This here's yore Grass Dance.
cgs • Link
Navy needs TARPaulin monies to keep the ships afloat, the King is using monies from 'is buddy le Roi so not beholden to the missing bankers and their gold plate,
thus Parliament is sent to the wilds of Highgate,and cannot raise Taxes on the Rich merchants.
CarlosII has prorogue the rogues to the coffee shops.
"...more money cannot be got till the Parliament. So talked of getting an account ready as soon as we could to give the Parliament, and so very melancholy parte..."
Glyn • Link
You're probably correct Robert Gertz. It's certainly true that one of his good friends from the early years (sorry but I forget the name) died of the plague last year and Pepys only mentioned him in passing.
Yet what has always amazed me is the huge number of people he has met and recorded by name in his diary - personally, I haven't met a tenth of that number during that time. Also, his status as a poor young political worker for an aristocrat means that he has had access to an immense social range of people - beginning the day talking to a coach driver or an annoying neigbhour and finishing by talking to the king. It's one of the things that makes it fascinating - John Evelyn's diary isn't half as interesting.
Glyn • Link
His name was Peter Luellin (probably Llewellyn).
Terry Foreman • Link
If Pepys has no "bosom friend," perhaps it has to do with what Povey said Tuesday last about the Court -- that "of all places, if there be hell, it is here. No faith, no truth, no love, nor any agreement between man and wife, nor friends." He "would have spoke broader," but Pepys said 'later ' and departed. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Robert Gertz • Link
I thought it was interesting that Sam seems very modern in his inability to confide deeply in any one trusted friend while having a host of acquaintances in various compartments of his life.
General fate of a public man or woman thoughout the centuries, perhaps.
Spoiler...
I suppose it will be Will Hewer who will rank as the one deep friend of Sam's life as he reaches more of an equal footing with Sam and follows Sam's "teachings" regarding the way to wealth. Oddly perhaps, given his behavior, general evasiveness, and often utter indifference to her feelings, I think the only other person to have so much of Sam is Bess.
Robert Gertz • Link
Then too, perhaps even Will's final answer to "Are you his friend?" would be the fictional one of Louis Howe to Eleanor in "Eleanor and Franklin:The White House Years".
"If I'm his 'best friend' then he has no friends. He has admirers, followers...Worshippers. But no friends."
cgs • Link
Friend: a difficult definition, best def. be one who is not your enemy or foe.
Samuel's tru friend was his diary, it did not talk back, it was the only item that got to see his true psyche, everyone else got see bits and pieces, to-day if thee do not talk to your diary you paid some one to listen, to those thoughts that your "best friend" should not hear, especially espousal.
So now we have a very "propheting" business to be the function of a "true friend"
Strange, psyche came into the recognition in the Stuarts era
friend, friend of one's bosom; acquaintance, neighbor, wellwisher; alter ego; bosom friend, fast friend; amicus; usque ad aras; fidus Achates; persona grata., favorer, fautor, patron, Mecaenas; tutelary saint, good genius, advocate, partisan, sympathizer; ally; friend in need (auxiliary) [more]., associate, compeer, comrade, mate, companion, confrere, camarade, confidante; old crony, crony; chum; pal; playfellow, playmate; schoolfellow; bedfellow, bedmate; chamber fellow; classfellow, classman, classmate; fellow man, stable companion; maid of honor., compatriot; fellow countryman, countryman., roommate, shopmate, shipmate, messmate; fellow companion, boon companion, pot companion; copartner, partner., Arcades ambo Pylades and Orestes Castor and Pollux, Nisus and Euryalus, Damon and Pythias, par nobile fratrum., host, Amphitryon, Boniface; guest, visitor, protégé.
1. comrade, chum, crony, confidant. See acquaintance. 2. backer, advocate. 4. ally, associate, confrere, compatriot.
Antonyms:
1, 4. enemy, foe.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"the Narrative"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"to Sir Philip Warwicke’s at White Hall about Tangier one quarter tallys"
Tallies for the payment of the Tangier garrison for one quarter. Warwick was secretary to the Lord Treasurer.
Terry Foreman • Link
" we might have intercepted their Zealand squadron coming home, if we had done our parts; and more, that we might have spooned before the wind as well as they, and have overtaken their ships in the pursuite, in all the while."
L&M: The main English fleet had had a chance of intercepting Tromp who returned to the Dutch coast, pursued by Smith's squadron, on the evening of the 26th. But the ships had lost touch in the night, and the Dutch had slipped in behind the shoals. (To 'spoon' is to run before wind without any sail.)
San Diego Sarah • Link
"But this morning, getting Sir W. Pen to read over the Narrative with me, he did sparingly, yet plainly, say that we might have intercepted their Zealand squadron coming home, if we had done our parts; and more, that we might have spooned before the wind as well as they, and have overtaken their ships in the pursuit, in all the while."
Beware of backseat drivers, Pepys. Penn was sitting at Sheerness, handing out spare parts. The Channel is very tricky. Rupert and Monck could just as easily have lost the entire exhausted fleet aground on a sandbank in the dark.
But the need to train the officers on how to sail better ... especially the gentlemanly ones ... that's a good idea. Is Penn volunteering?
Gerald Berg • Link
Sister? Beth has a sister and she lives nearby? First I heard of it!
San Diego Sarah • Link
No -- Pepys means Esther Watts St. Michael. They didn't use the "-in-law" bit back then.
When a noun is in blue, it means there are annotations and information attached to that word or concept. Hover over "my sister" and you'll see Esther's name.
More than half the joy of the annotations is hidden back there!