Saturday 27 October 1666

Up, and there comes to see me my Lord Belasses, which was a great honour. He tells me great newes, yet but what I suspected, that Vernatty is fled, and so hath cheated him and twenty more, but most of all, I doubt, Mr. Povy.

Thence to talk about publique business; he tells me how the two Houses begin to be troublesome; the Lords to have quarrels one with another. My Lord Duke of Buckingham having said to the Lord Chancellor (who is against the passing of the Bill for prohibiting the bringing over of Irish cattle), that whoever was against the Bill, was there led to it by an Irish interest, or an Irish understanding, which is as much as to say he is a Foole; this bred heat from my Lord Chancellor, and something he [Buckingham] said did offend my Lord of Ossory (my Lord Duke’ of Ormond’s son), and they two had hard words, upon which the latter sends a challenge to the former; of which the former complains to the House, and so the business is to be heard on Monday next.

Then as to the Commons; some ugly knives, like poignards, to stab people with, about two or three hundred of them were brought in yesterday to the House, found in one of the house’s rubbish that was burned, and said to be the house of a Catholique. This and several letters out of the country, saying how high the Catholiques are everywhere and bold in the owning their religion, have made the Commons mad, and they presently voted that the King be desired to put all Catholiques out of employment, and other high things; while the business of money hangs in the hedge. So that upon the whole, God knows we are in a sad condition like to be, there being the very beginnings of the late troubles. He gone, I at the office all the morning. At noon home to dinner, where Mrs. Pierce and her boy and Knipp, who sings as well, and is the best company in the world, dined with us, and infinite merry. The playhouses begin to play next week.

Towards evening I took them out to the New Exchange, and there my wife bought things, and I did give each of them a pair of Jesimy1 plain gloves, and another of white. Here Knipp and I walked up and down to see handsome faces, and did see several. Then carried each of them home, and with great pleasure and content, home myself, where, having writ several letters, I home, and there, upon some serious discourse between my wife and I upon the business, I called to us my brother, and there broke to him our design to send him into the country with some part of our money, and so did seriously discourse the whole thing, and then away to supper and to bed. I pray God give a blessing to our resolution, for I do much fear we shall meet with speedy distractions for want of money.

20 Annotations

First Reading

cape henry  •  Link

"...they presently voted that the King be desired to put all Catholiques out of employment, and other high things; while the business of money hangs in the hedge."

Some things haven't changed at all, have they?

"Hangs in the hedge" is a great expression.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

poignards

Wikipedia: A poignard, or poniard, originally a French word, is a lightweight dagger employed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It was primarily used for stabbing in close quarters or in conjunction with a rapier. It was used by soldiers of the Vijayanagara Empire in South India in the 14th to 17th centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poig… (with a picture of one)

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"The playhouses begin to play next week."

Next week:

(tune "Opening Night"-"The Producers")

It's Tom Betterton's latest show...Will it flop or will it go? Among the cast, Knipp's taking her final
bow...Here comes our audience now. The doors are open, they're on their way. What will Sam and Bess have to say?

San and Bess emerge from crowd of departing theatergoers...

"He's done it again...He's done it again. Our Betterton has done it again."

Bess: "I can't believe it."

Sam: "Who could conceive it?"

Both: "How'd he achieve it?"

"Midsummer's Night Dream, part II..."

Urggh...Sam...

Bess:

"Sam sat there sighing...Groaning and crying..."

Sam:

"There's no denying...Midsummer's Night Dream, Part II..."

Both:

"Oh, we wanted to stand up and hiss...Did we live though the plague for this?"

"Tom Betterton has done it again..."

Bess:

"The plot was reekin'...The musicians been drinkin'..."

Sam:

"And even I have to say...The new actresses were stinkin'!..."

Both:

"We couldn't leave faster..."

Ned Kynaston, from corner, watching:

"For me, no disaster..."

Sir John Minnes, staggering from the theater entrance:

"My beloved Will would be in shock...!"

All:

"Who produced this schlock?..."

Within theater, Betterton, sighing: "Your Majesty? I don't think another rewrite will do the job."

Charles, singing finale: "Tom, it's just...a minor case of writer's block..."

"Cathy said she loved it. Just a little more tweaking, Tom..."

"Right..." Betterton sighs again, head in hands.

***

Michael Robinson  •  Link

“The playhouses begin to play next week.”

“Midsummer’s Night Dream, part II… a.k.a 'Springtime for Cromwell'?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"but most of all, I doubt, Mr. Povy"

doubt = suspect

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Broderick to Ormond
Written from: Westminster

Date: 27 October 1666

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 35, fol(s). 109

Document type: Holograph

... The Lord Mayor, Aldermen & Council of the City of London "do not agree to any of the models designed by Dr Wren, Mr Hugh May, and Mr Pratt. [They are], however, content that a wharf [meaning a quary or embankment], be made from the Tower to the Temple, carrying eighty feet in breadth". ... Other particulars of the proposals for the rebuilding of London are added.

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Anglesey to Ormond
Written from: London

Date: 27 October 1666

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 217, fol(s). 348-349

Document type: Holograph

Narrates proceedings in the House of Lords upon the Irish Cattle Bill. The heat of debate led to a quarrel between the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Ossory, which was discovered, before they could meet in the field; and both are now under order to attend the House on Monday. The Duke is first to complain of a breach of privilege; his words having been said in debate. This first quarrel nearly led to a second betwixt Buckingham and Arlington, "who, a little too warmly, ... took up the bucklers for my Lord of Ossory". ...

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Bryan M  •  Link

“who, a little too warmly, … took up the bucklers for my Lord of Ossory”

A buckler (French bouclier 'shield', from Old French bocle, boucle 'boss') is a small shield, 15 to 45 cm (6 in to 18 in) in diameter...

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck…

Mary  •  Link

"poignards to stob people with"

is the L&M reading. Sounds brutal.

GrahamT  •  Link

"...some ugly knives, like poignards, to stab people with, about two or three hundred of them were brought in yesterday to the House, found in one of the house’s rubbish..."
Weapons of Mass Disembowelment?

mike melick  •  Link

With all these knives found it could have been an early attempt at the tax payers getting their "pound of flesh"......

CGS  •  Link

Parliament still civil as no fisticuffs yet, all the seeds of discontent available, money shortage, religious differences, racial differences, and lack of access to profits and lack of privileges.
poignards any one.

Second Reading

Mike Zim  •  Link

"...they presently voted that the King be desired to put all Catholiques out of employment, and other high things; while the business of money hangs in the hedge."

Patrick Kurp's comments about "hangs in the hedge":
"So writes Samuel Pepys in his diary on this date, Oct. 27, in 1666. What interests me is less the anti-Catholic bigotry that raged in England in the seventeenth century, which is well-known, than that concluding expression, “hangs in the hedge.” The OED gives a straightforward definition: “to be put on one side, to be ‘on the shelf.’” We might say “put on the back burner.” In other words, not to explicitly dismiss something but to defer it, put it off. Hedgerows can be impassably dense ecosystems (they slowed the Allied advance through Normandy) of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and other vegetation. Anything might “hang in the hedge,” tangled in the tight weave of branches, as though on bales of barbed wire."

evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.com/20…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Then as to the Commons; some ugly knives, like poignards, to stab people with, about two or three hundred of them were brought in yesterday to the House, found in one of the house’s rubbish that was burned, and said to be the house of a Catholique."

L&M: The report of the committee appointed 'to receive information of the Insolency of the Popish priests and Jesuits, and of the Increase of Popery' (CJ, viii, 641-2) does not mention the poignards. According to Milward (p. 32) only two daggers were brought into the house as samples. They were knives used in whale fishing, belonging to two French Papists -- 'as desperate instruments...as ever I saw'. Cf. HMC, Portland, iii. 302.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"they presently voted that the King be desired to put all Catholiques out of employment, and other high things"

L&M: The Commonsresolution of the 26th asked the King to banish Catholic priests and Jesuits, to put the recusancy laws into force by proclamation, to disarm all Pepists and to require all officers, military and civil, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy on pain of dismissal: CJ, viii, 641-2. The Lords concurred (ib., p. 645) and the King issued a proclamation banishing priests and Jesuits (apart from those in the queen's service) and enforcing the recusancy laws: Steele, no. 3478 (10 November).
---------
The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oat…

The Popish Recusants Act 1605 (3 Jac.1, c. 4) was an act of the Parliament of England which quickly followed the Gunpowder Plot of the same year, an attempt by English Roman Catholics to assassinate King James I and many of the Parliament.

The Act forbade Roman Catholics from practising the professions of law and medicine and from acting as a guardian or trustee; and it allowed magistrates to search their houses for arms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop…

Tonyel  •  Link

asked the King to banish Catholic priests and Jesuits, to put the recusancy laws into force by proclamation, to disarm all Pepists

Hey, we're the Pepists Terry! Don't disarm us.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Jessemin (Jasminum), the flowers of which are of a delicate sweet smell, and often used to perfume gloves."

According to this article, sensibilities by the 18th century was totally to the perfume of flowers, but currently at Versailles, a masculine kind of odor was predominant:

https://daily.jstor.org/when-roya…

Log in to post an annotation.

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