Friday 2 November 1666

Up betimes, and with Sir W. Batten to Woolwich, where first we went on board the Ruby, French prize, the only ship of war we have taken from any of our enemies this year. It seems a very good ship, but with galleries quite round the sterne to walk in as a balcone, which will be taken down. She had also about forty good brass guns, but will make little amends to our loss in The Prince.

Thence to the Ropeyarde and the other yards to do several businesses, he and I also did buy some apples and pork; by the same token the butcher commended it as the best in England for cloath and colour. And for his beef, says he, “Look how fat it is; the lean appears only here and there a speck, like beauty-spots.”

Having done at Woolwich, we to Deptford (it being very cold upon the water), and there did also a little more business, and so home, I reading all the way to make end of the “Bondman” (which the oftener I read the more I like), and begun “The Duchesse of Malfy;” which seems a good play.

At home to dinner, and there come Mr. Pierce, surgeon, to see me, and after I had eat something, he and I and my wife by coach to Westminster, she set us down at White Hall, and she to her brother’s. I up into the House, and among other things walked a good while with the Serjeant Trumpet, who tells me, as I wished, that the King’s Italian here is about setting three parts for trumpets, and shall teach some to sound them, and believes they will be admirable musique. I also walked with Sir Stephen Fox an houre, and good discourse of publique business with him, who seems very much satisfied with my discourse, and desired more of my acquaintance.

Then comes out the King and Duke of York from the Council, and so I spoke awhile to Sir W. Coventry about some office business, and so called my wife (her brother being now a little better than he was), and so home, and I to my chamber to do some business, and then to supper and to bed.

18 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"And for his beef, says he, “Look how fat it is; the lean appears only here and there a speck, like beauty-spots.”"

Times change.

***
Quite a melodrama, "Duchess of Malfi"...With one of the most startling changes of motivation in a character I've ever seen. But fun in its way...

cape henry  •  Link

"...but with galleries quite round the sterne to walk in as a balcone, which will be taken down." Sneering at the French is as old as time.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"by the same token the butcher commended it as the best in England for cloath and colour"

cloath = skin (of meat; so the L&M Select Glossary)

I wonder whether we would use "by the same token" this way?

Miss Ann  •  Link

"So called my wife" - I wonder what Samuel would make of the use of mobile phones today - he could really call his wife then ...

Michael Robinson  •  Link

@Miss Ann “So called my wife”

Were SP to have a cell phone I think we know what the ringtone would be ... 'Beauty Retire' now down-loadable as an mp3 (sung by Richard Wistreich)

http://www.classicsonline.com/cat…

CGS  •  Link

needed fat , it be cold.
token, used before.

"...by the same token the butcher commended it as the best in England for cloath and colour. ..."
15. Phrases (in which the sense of token becomes vague). a. by the same token or (somewhat arch.) by this (or that) token: (a) on the same ground; for the same reason; in the same way; (b) (= F. à telles enseignes que), ‘the proof of this being that’; introducing a corroborating circumstance, often weakened down to a mere associated fact that helps the memory or is recalled to mind by the main fact (now arch. or dial.).
Sense (a) represents the predominant modern use (and app. that current in the 15thc.). Sense (b) occurs from 1600.
1463 Paston
1659-60 PEPYS Diary 28 Feb., Up in the morning and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before. 1662 Ibid. 13 Apr., I went to the Temple Church, and there heard another [sermon]: by the same tokens, a boy, being asleep, fell down a high seat to the ground.

token, n

[OE. tácen, tácn; = OFris. têken, têkn, teiken (WFris. teiken, {dag}teeckne), OS. têcan (MLG., MDu., LG. têken, Du. teeken), OHG. zeihhan (MHG., Ger. zeichen), ON. teikn (tákn from OE.), Sw. tecken, Da., Norw. tegn, all neuter:{em}OTeut. *taik-nom (in Goth. taikns fem.:{em}*taiknis), cognate with *taik-jan, OE. t{aeacu}cean to show, TEACH.]

1. a. Something that serves to indicate a fact, event, object, feeling, etc.; a sign, a symbol. in token of, as a sign, symbol, or evidence of.
c890 tr

b. A sign of the zodiac. Obs. rare.
c1000

c. An ensign, a standard. (Only OE.)
a1000
d. The sign of an inn, etc. Obs. rare{em}0.
c1440

2. a. A sign or mark indicating some quality, or distinguishing one object from others; a characteristic mark.
c1000

b. A spot on the body indicating disease, esp. the plague. Now rare or Obs.
1634 T. JOHNSON Parey's Chirurg. XXII. xiii. (1678) 500 [In Plague] spots (vulgarly called Tokens) appear over all the body. 1666 J. H. Treat. Gt. Antidote 5 The Tokens are, I am confident, Marks sent from God, and it is as impossible to cure any that have them, as to contradict the Divine Decree.

3. a. Something serving as proof of a fact or statement; an evidence.

{dag}b. Something remaining as evidence of what formerly existed; a vestige, trace, ‘sign’. Obs.
1555

5. A sign or presage of something to come; an omen, portent, prodigy. Obs. (exc. as included in 1).
971
6. A signal given; a sign to attract attention or give notice. Now rare or Obs.
a1000 Prose
7. a. A sign arranged or given to indicate a person; a word or material object employed to authenticate a person, message, or communication; a mark giving security to those who possess it; a password.
1377

7. a. A sign arranged or given to indicate a person; a word or material object employed to authenticate a person, message, or communication; a mark giving security to those who possess it; a password.
1377
b. pl. Armorial bearings, heraldic arms. Obs.
1562 LEIGH Armorie 28b, In the first inuention of them, they were not called Armes, but Tokens.

9. Something given as an expression of affection, or to be kept as a memorial; a keepsake or present given especially at parting.
c1385
10. a. Something given as the symbol and evidence of a right or privilege, upon the presentation of which the right or privilege may be exercised.
1538

b. spec. A stamped piece of lead or other metal given (originally after confession) as a voucher of fitness to be admitted to the communion: in recent times used in Scotland in connexion with the Presbyterian Communion service, but now generally represented by a ‘communion card’.
1534 i

11. a. A stamped piece of metal, often having the general appearance of a coin, issued as a medium of exchange by a private person or company, who engage to take it back at its nominal value, giving goods or legal currency for it.
From the reign of Queen Elizabeth to 1813, issued by tradesmen, large employers of labour, etc., to remedy the scarcity of small coin, and sometimes in connexion with the truck-shop system. bank-tokens, silver tokens for 5s., 3s., 1s. 6d., were issued by the Bank of England in 1811: see quots. 1812, 1832.
1598-1604 T

12. Printing. A measure or quantity of presswork; a certain number of sheets of paper (usually 250 pulls on a hand-press) passed through the press.
token-sheet, the last sheet of each token, turned down to facilitate counting the whole number.
1683

Don McCahill  •  Link

I have trouble picturing SP reading on his travels. This was the time before pocket books, so he must have carried a large, bound volume with him. How did he carry the book when he wasn't reading? Too big to stick in a pocket conveniently.

Did our Mr. P invent the knapsack?

arby  •  Link

Times may not have changed quite so much regarding the beef, Robert. It sounds like it would be graded "Prime" in the US. I would happily pay over $15 a pound for some good aged Prime beef. I don't know how it would have been prepared in those days, but since it's England, I'm guessing it would be boiled. It would make a rich broth and the meat would be very tender and moist. If I had some, I would be dumping charcoal into the Webber kettle right now. rb

Mary  •  Link

Not necessarily boiled. It could have been roasted before the fire using either a jack or a spit - and let's not forget that Elizabeth Pepys is the proud owner of an oven. We know that she sometimes bakes tarts in her oven; perhaps the odd joint of meat, too?

Mary  •  Link

Pepys's reading matter.

Perhaps these are unbound copies of plays, in which case he might have rolled them up and tucked them into a pocket or put them with his other papers (the ones on which he took notes). Although he took care to have his 'worthy' books bound, there must have been lighter works that didn't merit such expense.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

"But keep the wolf far hence, that's foe to man, or with his claws he'll dig it up again.'

John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

A prophetic read for Pepys, the publication of whose diary is a life unburied.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

My ignorance is showing like a baboon's bottom. How embarrassing. Here's the source, in context. At least it is John Webster:

John Webster (ca. 1580-ca. 1632) From "The White Devil"

Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
Call unto his funeral dole
The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole,
To rear him hillocks that shall keep him warm
And, when gay tombs are robb'd, sustain no harm;
But keep the wolf far thence, that's foe to men,
For with his nails he'll dig them up again.

CGS  •  Link

Books came in different sizes.
The printed sheet be full sized but it could be folded into smaller pages.

My favorite for carrying around for a quick read be octodecimo
see http://www.trussel.com/books/book…

see Pepys Book shelf at Maudlin

Much of the printed works were printed to Customer needs, see Thomas Paine's little rabble rouser Common sense

djc  •  Link

Yes, books, even fine bound books came in all sizes. The books Pepys carried on his excursions could well be small enough to fit in a pocket.

C D Conrad  •  Link

He would have his boy carry them, of course. :)

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

This entry by Pepys is the first evidence that English trumpeters were beginning to play composed music, although no trumpet parts in English music have survived until after the late 1680s.

Before now, the trumpet was used as a fanfare instrument, used in armies and at courts to invest ceremonial with grandeur. Trumpeters usually played in bands, supported by timpani, using a semi-improvised repertory based on one or two chords.

The first experiments with using trumpets in composed music were made in German church music around 1620,
although it seems that trumpets were not used in instrumental music until after 1650.

The earliest dated sonata for trumpets and strings is by Vincenzo Albrici and was written between 1652 and 1654 when he was director of the Italian musicians at the Swedish court.

Albrici is important for the history of English trumpet music because he worked in London in the 1660s. In 1664 James, Duke of York asked him to press trumpeters to work at sea, so apparently they were used for audible communications during the Second Anglo-Dutch war (or at least James wanted to try that).

For more on early trumpetry in classical music:
http://www.goear.com/listen/c021d…

Steven Snipes  •  Link

“Beauty Retire” is available on iTunes for $0.99. I wonder what Sam would make of that?

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