Saturday 5 January 1666/67

At the office all the morning, thinking at noon to have been taken home, and my wife (according to appointment yesterday), by my Lord Bruncker, to dinner and then to a play, but he had forgot it, at which I was glad, being glad of avoyding the occasion of inviting him again, and being forced to invite his doxy, Mrs. Williams. So home, and took a small snap of victuals, and away, with my wife, to the Duke’s house, and there saw “Mustapha,” a most excellent play for words and design as ever I did see. I had seen it before but forgot it, so it was wholly new to me, which is the pleasure of my not committing these things to my memory. Home, and a little to the office, and then to bed, where I lay with much pain in my head most of the night, and very unquiet, partly by my drinking before I went out too great a draught of sack, and partly my eyes being still very sore.

19 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Conway to Ormond
Written from: London
Date: 5 January 1667

Has received his Grace's letter of 28th ultimo, with the cypher enclosed therein ...

After the alarm as to a French invasion, and a question asked [in the House of Lords] thereupon, by Lord Ashley, as to modes of defence, the writer answered: ... "We do not intend to think of it. We have [ already ] represented to the House that we should be disabled by the Irish Bill" [ i.e. the bill prohibiting exportation of Irish cattle ] "from defending ourselves, in case of invasion" ...

Adds (in cypher) the expression of his, the writer's, opinion of the policy the King must follow, should the Commons continue to refuse adequate supplies for maintenance of the War.

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Ormond to Kingston
Date: 5 January 1667

Herewith Lord Kingston will receive an account of what has been offered and desired by Lord Dillon [in respect to the suppression of the rebellion in Connaught] ... also, intelligence sent by Lord Arlington and ... [a note of powers conferred on Lord Dillon] ...

The Lord Lieutenant cannot himself think that the French will invade Ireland at this season of the year; but since the information brought by shipping on that subject has weight attached to it in England, it ought not to be undervalued in Ireland.
_____

Ormond to Arlington
Written from: Dublin
Date: 5 January 1667

Describes the measures of precaution & defence taken on the Irish coasts, upon receipt of his Lordship's dispatch of December 30, and of the accompanying examination of the Skipper taken by the Sheriff of Cornwall.
_____

Ormond to Arlington
Written from: Dublin
Date: 5 January 1667

... Could wish to be informed by what rules of prudence Spain can be so obstinate in refusing the title of King to Portugal
[ http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… ], having heretofore allowed that of a Free State to the rebels of Holland, when, the Duke thinks, "they [the Spaniards] were in a better condition than now they are, and at the same time - knowing of the league betwixt France & Portugal - be so very backward in entering into one with England."

All the answer the Duke can give himself is that their [the Spanish] counsels betray their interests, or that they have a very low value of our alliance ...

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

You wouldn't know any of this was happening from Pepys's diary today.

cape henry  •  Link

"I had seen it before but forgot it, so it was wholly new to me, which is the pleasure of my not committing these things to my memory." It is likely that the crowd, the women, and various distractions of food hawking and the like at the scene tend to help in the "not committing." The theater of the time was as much about all those things as about the play itself.

CGS  •  Link

On a good day we only get to view infinitesimal piece of what is going on, though in our own mind, we are the sun to all the other satellites as we dash through the cosmos of this ether..

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"So...Mrs. Williams is Lord Bruncker's..."

"Right."

Hmmn...

"So...Being his ... She could leave at any time if she were unhappy?"

"Bess...I think we're getting into dangerous waters here."

"I have done the 'leave him, be destitute', Sam'l. If you recall..."

"Recall what?" wave to Knipp on stage.

"You didn't tell me Knipp was in this."

"In this? Who?"

"I admire that flexible memory of yours so much."

"Mustapha enters..." Mrs. Betterton hisses toward stage left.

"What?" Betterton turns from where he'd been watching Sam and Bess in their usual box.

Oh, right...We're the ones on...

"Have to get a crack at playing that Mr. Pepys sometime." he notes aside to Mrs. B while hurrying on to stage.

CGS  •  Link

"...being forced to invite his doxy,..."
Oh! how we love a good pecking order.

Blessed by king, begets a lady, but not necessarily be a wife.
Blessed by church, be a wife but need not act the lady.

Blessed not wedded but bedded, be a mistress, may be a wife, or a lady or a common "lawed" Oh! the titter, poor thing has no rights to the money.

Now Palmer she be wife to one, be a titled lady, and Mistress to another man, and gets enough monies to run the Navy, no ones would ever say Doxie to her face except, may another in the same play box monied position..

I guess just peer pressure makes the difference, fun but no commitment? Poor Abbie ?

CGS  •  Link

"...I had seen it before but forgot it..."
so memorable?? , not found in the diary?

CGS  •  Link

follow up; found
twas April 3 '65

then with Creed, my wife, and Mercer to a play at the Duke’s, of my Lord Orrery’s, called “Mustapha,” which being not good, made Betterton’s part and Ianthe’s but ordinary too, so that we were not contented with it at all. Thence home and to the office a

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
found also
and pretty witty Nell,too

Australian Susan  •  Link

......are we all pretending not to notice that the month has mysteriously changed? Is this a fiendish plot to jerk us all into watchfulness? Or is it just me......? Maybe I had better start taking those little green pills again....

Lawrence  •  Link

Well I never spotted the wrong month, but the entry is correct for January 5th 1666/67, yet it reads september?

Ruben  •  Link

wrong month
Just may be, if we stop the watch or go in reverse, this diary may continue forever.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Heaven...

"Well, you were right...Changing the month got them."

"Knew it would..." Bess, smugly.

***
"...partly by my drinking before I went out too great a draught of sack..."

"Now, Bess, what time of day is it, girl?"

"Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack
and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon
benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to
demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the
day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes
capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the
signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself
a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no
reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand
the time of the day."

"Ummn..." Sam blinks.

A bit too close to the mark there...

"Knipp suggested it as the most appropriate speech to employ with you. I've been waiting all week to use it."

Uh... "Knipp aware of my love of Falstaff, eh?"

"Sam'l...What do you take me for? 'Oh, sir...Why do you kiss that gentlewoman so?'..." Bess, sardonic tone.

"Think I could use some more sack right now."

cape henry  •  Link

A. Susan saw September and thought, Spring again - how lovely.

Bradford  •  Link

Are you sure it's January? I haven't finished December yet.

"I was glad, being glad of avoyding the occasion of inviting him again, and being forced to invite his doxy, Mrs. Williams."
Envious Pot resents Unashamed Kettle.

Meanwhile, how to flatter your shortcomings:
"it was wholly new to me, which is the pleasure of my not committing these things to my memory."
This is disquietingly like a late great-uncle of mine who, as his days grew short, could reread with pleasure books once enjoyed as wholly unknown to him.

CGS  •  Link

I dith Ass_U_Me: missing entree.

from the
http://www.pepys.info/bits3.html#…

• January 5th, 1666
"...Pepys finds the combing of his hair an erotic grooming experience ...
“ …. I had great satisfaction herein; so home, and to my papers for lack of company, but by and by comes little Mrs. Tooker and sat and supped with me, and I kept her very late, talking and making her comb my head; and I did what I will with her et tena grande plaisir con ella, [took great pleasure of her] tocando sa cosa con mi cosa, [touching her thing with my thing] and hazendo la cosa per cette moyen. [doing the thing in this way] So late to bed.”..."

Phil Gyford  •  Link

Sorry for the error with the wrong month - corrected now.

Second Reading

Gerald Berg  •  Link

"being forced to invite his doxy, Mrs. Williams..." LOL Who happens also to hate your guts.

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