Monday 6 August 1666

Up, and to the office a while, and then by water to my Lady Montagu’s, at Westminster, and there visited my Lord Hinchingbroke, newly come from Hinchingbroke, and find him a mighty sober gentleman, to my great content. Thence to Sir Ph. Warwicke and my Lord Treasurer’s, but failed in my business; so home and in Fenchurch-streete met with Mr. Battersby; says he, “Do you see Dan Rawlinson’s door shut up?” (which I did, and wondered). “Why,” says he, “after all the sickness, and himself spending all the last year in the country, one of his men is now dead of the plague, and his wife and one of his mayds sicke, and himself shut up;” which troubles me mightily. So home; and there do hear also from Mrs. Sarah Daniel, that Greenwich is at this time much worse than ever it was, and Deptford too: and she told us that they believed all the towne would leave the towne and come to London; which is now the receptacle of all the people from all infected places. God preserve us! So by and by to dinner, and, after dinner in comes Mrs. Knipp, and I being at the office went home to her, and there I sat and talked with her, it being the first time of her being here since her being brought to bed. I very pleasant with her; but perceive my wife hath no great pleasure in her being here, she not being pleased with my kindnesse to her. However, we talked and sang, and were very pleasant. By and by comes Mr. Pierce and his wife, the first time she also hath been here since her lying-in, both having been brought to bed of boys, and both of them dead. And here we talked, and were pleasant, only my wife in a chagrin humour, she not being pleased with my kindnesse to either of them, and by and by she fell into some silly discourse wherein I checked her, which made her mighty pettish, and discoursed mighty offensively to Mrs. Pierce, which did displease me, but I would make no words, but put the discourse by as much as I could (it being about a report that my wife said was made of herself and meant by Mrs. Pierce, that she was grown a gallant, when she had but so few suits of clothes these two or three years, and a great deale of that silly discourse), and by and by Mrs. Pierce did tell her that such discourses should not trouble her, for there went as bad on other people, and particularly of herself at this end of the towne, meaning my wife, that she was crooked, which was quite false, which my wife had the wit not to acknowledge herself to be the speaker of, though she has said it twenty times. But by this means we had little pleasure in their visit; however, Knipp and I sang, and then I offered them to carry them home, and to take my wife with me, but she would not go: so I with them, leaving my wife in a very ill humour, and very slighting to them, which vexed me. However, I would not be removed from my civility to them, but sent for a coach, and went with them; and, in our way, Knipp saying that she come out of doors without a dinner to us, I took them to Old Fish Streete, to the very house and woman where I kept my wedding dinner, where I never was since, and there I did give them a jole of salmon, and what else was to be had. And here we talked of the ill-humour of my wife, which I did excuse as much as I could, and they seemed to admit of it, but did both confess they wondered at it; but from thence to other discourse, and among others to that of my Lord Bruncker and Mrs. Williams, who it seems do speake mighty hardly of me for my not treating them, and not giving her something to her closett, and do speake worse of my wife, and dishonourably, but it is what she do of all the world, though she be a whore herself; so I value it not. But they told me how poorly my Lord carried himself the other day to his kinswoman, Mrs. Howard, and was displeased because she called him uncle to a little gentlewoman that is there with him, which he will not admit of; for no relation is to be challenged from others to a lord, and did treat her thereupon very rudely and ungenteely. Knipp tells me also that my Lord keeps another woman besides Mrs. Williams; and that, when I was there the other day, there was a great hubbub in the house, Mrs. Williams being fallen sicke, because my Lord was gone to his other mistresse, making her wait for him, till his return from the other mistresse; and a great deale of do there was about it; and Mrs. Williams swounded at it, at the very time when I was there and wondered at the reason of my being received so negligently.

I set them both at home, Knipp at her house, her husband being at the doore; and glad she was to be found to have staid out so long with me and Mrs. Pierce, and none else; and Mrs. Pierce at her house, and am mightily pleased with the discretion of her during the simplicity and offensiveness of my wife’s discourse this afternoon. I perceive by the new face at Mrs. Pierces door that our Mary is gone from her.

So I home, calling on W. Joyce in my coach, and staid and talked a little with him, who is the same silly prating fellow that ever he was, and so home, and there find my wife mightily out of order, and reproaching of Mrs. Pierce and Knipp as wenches, and I know not what. But I did give her no words to offend her, and quietly let all pass, and so to bed without any good looke or words to or from my wife.

26 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"a jole of Salmon" transcribe L&M

JOLE (of fish): jowl, a cut consisting of the head and shoulders. (L&M Select Glossary)

cgs  •  Link

Noticed he hires the coach for whole trip, so the Cabby has to have his bale of Hay;

I Wonder why Eliza be peevish, S doting too much time with Females and not paying attention?

Seven Itch be in the London aires.

cgs  •  Link

errata: S/B Seven year Itch

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...but perceive my wife hath no great pleasure in her being here, she not being pleased with my kindnesse to her."

Gee...And here you took it so well with Mr. Pembleton's walking dance lessons, Sam.

However the amusing thing is that Chris Knipp, aka Mr. Morose, has apparently decided Pepys is "mostly harmless". "...her husband being at the doore; and glad she was to be found to have staid out so long with me and Mrs. Pierce, and none else"

Mr. Gunning  •  Link

The joy of being a guest where the wife of the house is in a strop. No wonder they all couldn't wait to get out and eat some fish heads.

Mary  •  Link

So it wasn't Pepys himself who rubbed Brouncker up the wrong way the other day, it was just that he had called at the Covent Garden house at a most inconvenient time when B. was dealing with a jealous and hysterical maitresse en titre.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Of course the fact that James Pierce had come along as well (though one gets the impression he left the party early) and that poor Betty P had just lost not one but two children does suggest Bess could have shown a little restraint, at least on the catty remarks front. Still, she clearly has caught on to Sam's errant ways at some level. Probably he's been a little too obvious with Knipp. And Knipp is on a higher social level than Martin or Bagwell...

The salmon almost seems a subconscious dig.

***

James Pierce remains a fascinating side character. Surely if he didn't leave immediately after dropping Betty...And interesting that he would drop Betty alone at Sam's if he did...He must have also caught Bess' wrath. Yet he shows no concern that Sam picks up on. I rather think Betty must have long ago eased his mind on Sam Pepys and that she and James find Sam amusing, charming, and maybe a little lightweight and ridiculous (at least in his clumsy attempts at flirtation). It's a strong suggestion that however successful he is with the occasional shopgirl or barmaid or desperate widow/wife of an employee, he's really not much as a gallant wooer of society women.

djc  •  Link

"the first time she also hath been here since her lying-in, both having been brought to bed of boys, and both of them dead."

Perhaps Elizabeth's ill humour has some subconscious connection to her childless state?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Perhaps Elizabeth’s ill humour has some subconscious connection to her childless state?"

I was thinking that myself...But a bit thoughtless of her considering Betty P's situation.

On the other hand, our Prince Charmless must imagine himself quite a card with his bevy of Bettys...

"Elisabeth?! No, Bess...I meant our lovely Pierce. Or did I mean our beautious Knipp? Haw, haw."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Now, lets to dancing, shall we? Now will all the Bettys who have managed to fulfill their duties as mothers stand over there and..."

Sound of swooshing pan hurled at unthinkable speed...

Terry Foreman  •  Link

“An essay of Dr. John Wallis, exhibiting his hypothesis about the flux and reflux of the sea [ ]” Philosophical Transactions 16, August 6, 1666.
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~lou/wip/La… ]

The continuing discussion about tides in the Royal Society (with John Wallace as point man) is an argument with "Galileo's Discourse on the Tides," which was Galileo Galilei's big mistake. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/gali…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Mrs. Pierce did tell her that such discourses should not trouble her...[it is said] of herself at this end of the towne, meaning my wife, that she was crooked, which was quite false"

Crooked (of a person) = crook-backed, hunch-backed. (L&M Large Glossary).

Ah, the value of rumor, to take a beauty down a peg.

cgs  •  Link

Mrs Pierce be a great subject for analyzing the mores of the times and mans weakness for letting the base brain control.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"So home; and there do hear also from Mrs. Sarah Daniel, that Greenwich is at this time much worse than ever it was, and Deptford too:"

L&M note at Deptford 406 deaths by plague were said to have occurred in 1665 and 522 in 1666. Evelyn several times recently refrained from attending church for fear of infection.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"himself spending all the last year in the country"

L&M: At Rawlinson's death in 1680, he had lands in Lancashire (where his family had cone from), Warwickshire and Essex.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... by water to my Lady Montagu’s, at Westminster,"

I wonder if the Sandwichs have sold or rented the great house in Lincoln's Inn Fields? Sandwich had apartments at Whitehall ... but Lady Sandwich's staying in Westminster. Any ideas anyone?

"and there visited my Lord Hinchingbroke, newly come from Hinchingbroke, and find him a mighty sober gentleman, to my great content."

I bet Hinchingbrooke was sober ... but we see from this that he doesn't confide in Pepys as much as Pepys assumes.

Hinchingbrooke doesn't mention seeing the Queen at Tunbridge Wells or his broken engagement!

{According to A PROFANE WIT, The Life of JOHN WILMOT, Earl of Rochester by James William Johnson, University of Rochester Press, page 85, ISBN 978-1-58046-336-2.

In July and August 1666, Lord Hawley was in the retinue of Queen Catherine when she went to Tunbridge Wells to take the waters. Lady Warre and Elizabeth Mallet (his niece) were also there, as was Lord Hinchingbrooke. While Hawley wrote letters expressing pleasure about being attendant on the Queen, Elizabeth was breaking up with Hinchingbrooke -- and she showed a discernible measure of satisfaction in so doing. Apparently the previous February she had offered herself as his wife, and he had not exhibited any enthusiasm or romantic attention since, and she was no longer interested.)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"So it wasn't Pepys himself who rubbed Brouncker up the wrong way the other day, it was just that he had called at the Covent Garden house at a most inconvenient time when B. was dealing with a jealous and hysterical maitresse en titre."

I disagree with Mary. It was Pepys who offended Brouncker ... he was told it was a bad time to visit, so Pepys and Creed walk around outside waiting to ambush Brouncker when he came out to his coach.

If a servant like a footman says it's a bad time, etiquette requires you go away. Stalking is bad manners yesterday and today.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... Greenwich is at this time much worse than ever it was, and Deptford too: ..."

I assume these plague numbers mean the shipyards will be impacted by dead and missing workers. Repairing the fleet just became more difficult????

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... how poorly my Lord carried himself the other day to his kinswoman, Mrs. Howard, and was displeased because she called him uncle to a little gentlewoman that is there with him, which he will not admit of; for no relation is to be challenged from others to a lord, and did treat her thereupon very rudely and ungenteely."

Brouncker treated his relative, Mrs. Howard (housekeeper of James' Deptford Treasurer's House, and known to the Evelyns -- i.e. she is a lady, not a servant) poorly because she called him "uncle" to a little gentlewoman who is living in his Covent Garden house, which he will not admit to.

Illegitimate children were often explained away when the father take them in and introduce the inconvenient child as being a niece or nephew. Mrs. Howard is starting gossip Brouncker does not welcome.

Brouncker is turning out to be quite the Lothario.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"So I home, calling on W. Joyce in my coach, and staid and talked a little with him, who is the same silly prating fellow that ever he was,"

Pepys really did not want to go home!

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"I perceive by the new face at Mrs. Pierces door that our Mary is gone from her."

So the Pepys' former maid has now left Mrs. Pierce. Perhaps that's how Mrs. Pierce heard Bess' unkind comments about how few outfits she had?

"... but I would make no words, but put the discourse by as much as I could (it being about a report that my wife said was made of herself and meant by Mrs. Pierce, that she was grown a gallant, when she had but so few suits of clothes these two or three years, and a great deale of that silly discourse), and by and by Mrs. Pierce did tell her that such discourses should not trouble her, for there went as bad on other people, and particularly of herself at this end of the towne, meaning my wife, that she was crooked, which was quite false, which my wife had the wit not to acknowledge herself to be the speaker of, though she has said it twenty times."

In what I can unravel from this sentence, I don't think the L&M definition of crooked can apply here. Maybe "devious" would be more appropriate -- but it's hardly a word I would apply to Bess. For a gossip, sometimes Pepys is too obscure.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Ormonde to Sir Francis Foulke
Written from: [Dublin Castle]
Date: 4 August 1666
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 144, fol(s). 85
Document type: Copy [in Letter Book]

Further instructions concerning the transfer to the charge and care of Mr William Crispin of the Dutch prisoners now at Clonmel.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Meanwhile, in Lisbon, Catherine of Braganza's brother was preparing for his dynastic wedding:

Upon the arrival of Louis XIV's cousin, Dona Maria Francisca of Savoy, Mademoiselle d'Aumale in Portugal, she became known as Queen Maria Francisca Isabel de Sabóia.

The new Queen was deeply disappointed with her new life at the court of Portugal. The wedding with Alfonso VI in person took place a few days after her arrival, on 2 August 1666.

But King Alfonso was too infirm and unstable to consummate the marriage.

Queen Maria Francisca soon decided to participate in a palace coup d'état that ended the government of Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor, which she did in cooperation with her brother-in-law, the Infante Pedro, Duke of Beja.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.