Friday 1 February 1666/67
Up, and to the office, where I was all the morning doing business, at noon home to dinner, and after dinner down by water, though it was a thick misty and rainy day, and walked to Deptford from Redriffe, and there to Bagwell’s by appointment, where the ‘mulier etoit within expecting me venir … [And did sensa alguna difficulty monter los degres and lie, comme jo desired it, upon lo lectum; and there I did la cosa con much voluptas. Je besa also her venter and cons and saw the poyle thereof. She would seem alguns vece very religious, but yet did permit me to hazer todo esto et quicquid amplius volebam. – L&M] By and by ‘su marido’ come in, and there without any notice taken by him we discoursed of our business of getting him the new ship building by Mr. Deane, which I shall do for him. Thence by and by after a little talk I to the yard, and spoke with some of the officers, but staid but little, and the new clerk of the ’Chequer, Fownes, did walk to Redriffe back with me. I perceive he is a very child, and is led by the nose by Cowly and his kinsman that was his clerk, but I did make him understand his duty, and put both understanding and spirit into him, so that I hope he will do well. [Much surprised to hear this day at Deptford that Mrs. Batters is going already to be married to him, that is now the Captain of her husband’s ship. She seemed the most passionate mourner in the world. But I believe it cannot be true.] — (The passage between brackets is written in the margin of the MS.) — Thence by water to Billingsgate; thence to the Old Swan, and there took boat, it being now night, to Westminster Hall, there to the Hall, and find Doll Lane, and ‘con elle’ I went to the Bell Taverne, and ‘ibi je’ did do what I would ‘con elle’ as well as I could, she ‘sedendo sobre’ thus far and making some little resistance. But all with much content, and ‘je tenai’ much pleasure ‘cum ista’. There parted, and I by coach home, and to the office, where pretty late doing business, and then home, and merry with my wife, and to supper. My brother and I did play with the base, and I upon my viallin, which I have not seen out of the case now I think these three years, or more, having lost the key, and now forced to find an expedient to open it. Then to bed.
32 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
“At noon home to dinner; and after dinner down by water, though it was a thick misty and raining day, and walked to Deptford from Redriffe and there to Bagwells by appointment - where the moher erat within expecting mi venida. And did sensa alguna difficulty monter los degres and lie, comme jo desired it, upon lo lectum; and there I did la cosa con much voluptas. Je besa also her venter and cons and saw the poyle thereof. She would seem alguns veces very religious, but yet did permit me to hazer todo esto et quicquid amplius volebam. By and by su marido came in, and there, without any notice taken by him, we discoursed of our business of getting him the new ship building by Mr. Deane, which I shall do for him.” http://www.pepys.info/bits5.html
Michael L • Link
This must be what they mean by the "Swinging Sixties" in London.
cape henry • Link
"...which I have not seen out of the case now I think these three years..." Good grief. Has it been that long?
cape henry • Link
"She seemed the most passionate mourner in the world. But I believe it cannot be true." Well, Mr. Pepys, she does have to eat after all, doesn't she?
Australian Susan • Link
Capt B drowned on December 17th, so not really very long at all.
"....very child..." Hmmm. Wonder if others thought the same of our Sam in the late 1650s? Very here means true.
Robert Gertz • Link
"There's no faith in you women, Bess. I tell you Mrs. Batters seemed the most passionate mourner in the world."
"I'll out do her, I promise."
***
Poor ole Batters...Well, he's remembered with friendly affection and respect in the 21st century. Which is doing better than say several insane maniac rulers of the 20th.
***
Nice to know Will Bagwell knows which side his bread is buttered on...
Still...Even knowing it was tough to get on then, a cynical young fellow indeed. I wonder that Sam puts any faith in him, regardless of services rendered.
Sam • Link
Can we have a translation please
Ruben • Link
"Mrs. Batters is going already to be married to him, that is now the Captain of her husband’s ship"
Love comes after marriage, said Grandmother.
Ruben • Link
I will try a translation but I am not sure it is the correct one.
"where the ‘mulier etoit within expecting me venir … By and by ‘su marido’ come in,
"where the woman was within expecting me come... by and by her husband come in,"
"find Doll Lane, and ‘con elle’ I went to the Bell Taverne, and ‘ibi je’ did do what I would ‘con elle’ as well as I could, she ‘sedendo sobre’ thus far and making some little resistance. But all with much content, and ‘je tenai’ much pleasure ‘cum ista’.
"find Doll Lane, and with her I went to the Bell Taverne, and there I did do what I would with her as well as I could, she giving way thus far and making some little resistance. But all with much content, and I had much pleasure with her."
martinb • Link
Very elegant sidestepping, Ruben!
language hat • Link
I don't think "sedendo sobre" means "giving way thus far." Sedere is 'to sit.'
jeannine • Link
"and the new clerk of the ‘Chequer".
I must have been reading Sam for too long. As I read through the Diary each day, I automatically think that anything written with any type of "foreign flair", accent mark, etc. immediately means that Sam is fooling around with someone and jumping into his 'code'. When I came to this sentence it actually took me a second or two to realize that 'Chequer was actually Exchequer and that he wasn't about to go grabbing after the clerk!
I also agree with martinb -Ruben does a wonderfully elegant dance describing some not so elegant actics of our hero.
Sam • Link
Thanks Ruben
But thats only half of what he records, can we have the rest. I take it we are not coy about his antics!!
martinb • Link
The key words: "venter" has to be French "ventre" or Spanish "vientre" i.e. belly. This is what he kisses first. "Cons" is obvious, and "poyle" must be French "poil" i.e. hair.
As for "sedendo sobre", if the second word is a Spanish preposition, Doll is literally "sitting on" -- sitting tight/holding firm?
A. De Araujo • Link
methinks Sam meant "cedendo sobre" instead of "sedendo sobre" in which case Ruben's translation is right.
A. De Araujo • Link
Tentativelly:climb the steps and lie like I desired it
upon the bed and did the thing with much sexual pleasure,I kiss also her belly and cunt and saw the hair thereof;she would seem sometimes very religious but yet did permit me to do all this and whatever else I wanted.
Mary • Link
let us be a little thankful that Sam does not enlarge further on the "whatever else I wanted."
Ruben • Link
1. In our time, someone like Sam would have taken a video of himself copulating with the girls, or at least a pix with his cell phone.
2. In all this years of diary we had not a word about his marital sex life, probably because it was rutine and not an adventure to treasure.
Robert Gertz • Link
I suspect Bess has become "the wife" not to be mentioned in association with such sordid details as sexual pleasure...Unless something extraordinary occurs.
Spoiler...
As it will...
language hat • Link
"methinks Sam meant 'cedendo sobre' instead of 'sedendo sobre' in which case Ruben’s translation is right."
No, I think Ruben misread it. Sam knew Latin very well and would never have written ced- for sed-. Besides, "sedendo sobre" makes no sense.
language hat • Link
Sorry, I meant "cedendo sobre" makes no sense.
Ruben • Link
Dear language hat:
Your lapsus makes my point clear.
pepf • Link
"she ‘sedendo sobre’ thus far" seems to be a text corruption.
Look up TF's link above for L&M's more plausible transcription: "she sedento sobra una chair".
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
jeannine posted: "and the new clerk of the ‘Chequer".
"I must have been reading Sam for too long. As I read through the Diary each day, I automatically think that anything written with any type of "foreign flair", accent mark, etc. immediately means that Sam is fooling around with someone and jumping into his 'code'. When I came to this sentence it actually took me a second or two to realize that 'Chequer was actually Exchequer and that he wasn't about to go grabbing after the clerk!"
jeannine, the accent was on 'Chequer may be due to a scanning-error; Frownes (Frouns) was newly Clerk of the Cheque at Deptford, whom Pepys schools in taking charge of the yard..
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... I upon my viallin, which I have not seen out of the case now I think these three years, or more, having lost the key, and now forced to find an expedient to open it."
I understood 17th century locks and keys were big, unwieldy things. But on a violin case they must be small and delicate. Anyone got any insights on this?
San Diego Sarah • Link
I'm reading an article in The Atlantic about the Harvey Weinstein trial, and I keep thinking about Pepys, his collection of women, and the way he is grooming the young ones. These paragraphs particularly struck me as being illuminating:
"Exhibit A for the defense is a series of emails from Mann, who claims that Weinstein raped her on March 18, 2013. “I hope to see you sooner rather than later,” she wrote three weeks after the alleged assault, one of hundreds of warm emails she sent him over the years. The next day she wrote, “I appreciate all you do for me, it shows.” Five months later: “Miss you Big Guy.” Four years later, she was still writing: “I love you, always do. But hate feeling like a booty call. :).”
“Friendly emails do not mean it’s consensual,” Tetlow notes. “But they are very tricky to explain to a jury.” Still, she says, put yourself in the alleged victim’s shoes: Harvey Weinstein may hold the keys to her every career opportunity. “The desire to somehow make nice and hope that you can still get what you have earned in your career is very strong. It’s easy to blame women, but I don’t know why you would blame them for that versus blaming the man who would put them through such hell.”
"Veronique Valliere, a forensic psychologist who works with both sexual perpetrators and victims, says that for most victims who know their assailant, reaching out to him, “even if it feels wrong,” helps them sort through their confusion. They need some sort of admission from him to set their world back on its axis: “Even just an acknowledgment and apology, like, ‘Hey, I was a little drunk last night. I went a little too far. Sorry.’” It’s easier for a victim to deny that a friend or mentor or colleague assaulted her than to deal with its fallout. “Because to say I’ve been raped, I have to say my friend is a rapist,” Valliere explains."
There's much more to this "game," and somewhere along the way Pepys learned how to play it well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas…
Jonathan V • Link
Thank you, SD Sarah. When you first encounter Sam doing his thing, it can strike you as a bit titillating and fun. The longer it goes on, the more sordid it becomes. And the closer to modern day, unfortunately.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... the more sordid it becomes. And the closer to modern day, unfortunately."
I dunno about that Jonathan. Maybe you and I have trouble accepting two of the most basic human motivations? This has endured through thousands of years. Men have urges, and women not only have urges but also need protectors (until the pill changed the equation, and that really seems to be upsetting a large sector of our society who want to turn the clock back). Fulfilling these compatible drives can be a lot of fun. Then add alcohol, and since they didn't drink water, they all must have been slightly tipsy all the time.
It's the long-term fall out Mother Nature seems to have overlooked -- but people were not designed to live as long as we en masse do now.
I'm okay with Pepys playing around with grown women, so long as it's consensual. They know the risks, and he's already got one claiming he's the father.
It's his grooming of the young ones that I hate. But I know he wasn't alone. And he's probably less assertive and more generous than many of his peers.
And Elizabeth? We will never know, but I hope she had some fun along the way, somehow with someone. All that laundry (beneath Pepys' mention these days) deserves a break.
Third Reading
Trevor M Randall • Link
“…and there without any notice taken by him we discoursed of our business of getting him the new ship”
Does this mean that su marido was party to the exchange of favors?
San Diego Sarah • Link
It would seem so, Trevor.
Guy de la Bedoyere • Link
L&M were in error with the word 'cons'. The shorthand for this passage which I have studied, actually reads 'cono' (Spanish coño), a slang term for the vulva and best translated as pussy though that doesn't alter the meaning here. Yes, poyle (written out in l.h. in this passage) is poil, which he spells thus on 22 March 1667.
Guy de la Bedoyere • Link
My transcription of part of this entry from the original shorthand is thus, together with my translation:
At noon home to dinner and after dinner down by water though it was a thick misty and raining day and walked to Deptford from Redriffe, and there to Bagwell’s by appointment. Where the moher erat within expecting me venida. And did sensa alguna difficulty monter los degres and lie como jo desired it upon lo lectum and there I did la cosa con much voluptas. Je besa also her venter and cono and see the poyle thereof. She would seem alguns veces very religious, but yet did permit me to hazer todo esto et quicquid amplius volebam.
[‘Where the woman was within expecting me to come. And did without any difficulty mount the steps and lie, as I desired it, upon the bed and there I did the thing with much pleasure. I kissed also her belly and pussy and see the pubic hair thereof. She would seem sometimes very religious but yet did permit me to do all that and whatever more I wanted].