Thursday 7 March 1666/67

So up, and to the office, my head full of Carcasse’s business; then hearing that Knipp is at my house, I home, and it was about a ticket for a friend of hers. I do love the humour of the jade very well. So to the office again, not being able to stay, and there about noon my Lord Bruncker did begin to talk of Carcasse’s business. Only Commissioner Pett, my Lord, and I there, and it was pretty to see how Pett hugged the occasion of having anything against Sir W. Batten, which I am not much troubled at, for I love him not neither. Though I did really endeavour to quash it all I could, because I would prevent their malice taking effect. My Lord I see is fully resolved to vindicate Carcasse, though to the undoing of Sir W. Batten, but I believe he will find himself in a mistake, and do himself no good, and that I shall be glad of, for though I love the treason I hate the traitor. But he is vexed at my moving it to the Duke of York yesterday, which I answered well, so as I think he could not answer. But, Lord! it is pretty to see how Pett hugs this business, and how he favours my Lord Bruncker; who to my knowledge hates him, and has said more to his disadvantage, in my presence, to the King and Duke of York than any man in England, and so let them thrive one with another by cheating one another, for that is all I observe among them. Thence home late, and find my wife hath dined, and she and Mrs. Hewer going to a play. Here was Creed, and he and I to Devonshire House, to a burial of a kinsman of Sir R. Viner’s; and there I received a ring, and so away presently to Creed, who staid for me at an alehouse hard by, and thence to the Duke’s playhouse, where he parted, and I in and find my wife and Mrs. Hewer, and sat by them and saw “The English Princesse, or Richard the Third;” a most sad, melancholy play, and pretty good; but nothing eminent in it, as some tragedys are; only little Mis. Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play, and there telling the next day’s play; so that it come in by force only to please the company to see her dance in boy’s clothes; and, the truth is, there is no comparison between Nell’s dancing the other day at the King’s house in boy’s clothes and this, this being infinitely beyond the other. Here was Mrs. Clerke and Pierce, to whom one word only of “How do you,” and so away home, Mrs. Hewer with us, and I to the office and so to [Sir] W. Batten’s, and there talked privately with him and [Sir] W. Pen about business of Carcasse against tomorrow, wherein I think I did give them proof enough of my ability as well as friendship to [Sir] W. Batten, and the honour of the office, in my sense of the rogue’s business. So back to finish my office business, and then home to supper, and to bed.

This day, Commissioner Taylor come to me for advice, and would force me to take ten pieces in gold of him, which I had no mind to, he being become one of our number at the Board.

This day was reckoned by all people the coldest day that ever was remembered in England; and, God knows! coals at a very great price.

27 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online

March. 7. 1666[/67]. The Lamp was againe produced hauing for a wick a small threed of Lead thrust through the midst of cottons, which melts as the cotton burnes.

The new telescope produced the Last day was orderd to be perfected against the next meeting. the curator mentiond A metall that may be ground wth. sand & polished with putty. orderd to put it in Execution. (Dr. Wren intimated that an exact plain was best made by motions in a streight Line) Sr. R. Moray. tht Reiue should make a 120 foot obiect glasse and the Society would fitt & vse it)

comr pett disired to obserue tides)

Lists of Recomended things to seuerall persons deliuerd)

Order that the Expt. of Raising a weight or bending a spring by gunpowder be prosecuted. also Expts. wth. Dr Cottons Loadstone. Operator to attend Dr. Wren about Lamp. & about moon globe.

Orderd that the Curator bring in writing the next meeting his demonstration of the motion of the new Lamp and likewise the demonstration of the Curue Line in the circular pendulum.

The curator was put in mind to perfect his Instrument of taking vp things from the bottom of the sea soe as to make it serue for all depths (Crone to produce draught of new chariott)
[In margin]+ Dr. Wren brough in the description of his new Leuell which was orderd to be read next day.

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

cape henry  •  Link

"...and it was pretty to see how Pett hugged the occasion..." Wonderful turn of phrase, isn't it? It just oozes the oiliness of the scene.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"let them thrive one with another by cheating one another"

thrive
c.1200, from O.N. þrifask "to thrive," originally "grasp to oneself," probably from O.N. þrifa "to clutch, grasp, grip" (cf. Swed. trifvas, Dan. trives "to thrive, flourish"), of unknown origin.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

cum salis grano  •  Link

"...I do love the humour of the jade very well...."
[Of unknown origin; often assumed to be a doublet of YAUD (Icel. jalda mare), but app. without reason.]

1. A contemptuous name for a horse; a horse of inferior breed,
e.g. a cart- or draught-horse as opposed to a riding horse; a roadster, a hack; a sorry, ill-conditioned, wearied, or worn-out horse; a vicious, worthless,
ill-tempered horse; rarely applied to a donkey.
c1386 CHAUCER Nun's Pr. Prol. 46 Be blithe though thou ryde vp-on a Iade, What thogh thyn hors be bothe foule and lene.
1530 PALSGR. 233/2 Iade a dull horse, galier.
.

2. A term of reprobation applied to a woman. Also used playfully, like hussy or minx.
1560 ...

1590 SPENSER F.Q. II. xi. 31 The Squyre..Snatcht first the one, and then the other Iade [the hags Impotence and Impatience].

1668 PEPYS Diary 14 Jan., [Mrs] Pierce says she [Miss Davis] is a most homely jade as ever she saw

Australian Susan  •  Link

"...he and I to Devonshire House, to a burial of a kinsman of Sir R. Viner’s; and there I received a ring, ...."

I had not thought that Sam and the goldsmith-banker were close, but here is Sam being asked to a funeral and being given a mourning ring. Or is this just another case of disguised bribes or acknowledgement of power?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This day, Commissioner Taylor come to me for advice, and would force me to take ten pieces in gold of him, which I had no mind to, he being become one of our number at the Board."

L&M note Taylor had, when a timber-merchant at Wapping, given several presents to Pepys, and his accounts for building a ship were now under examination.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I had not thought that Sam and the goldsmith-banker were close, but here is Sam being asked to a funeral and being given a mourning ring."

Pepys is a regular client of Alderman Viner, lodging personal sums with him and is a conduit to the King's money. Pepys has mentioned Viner 40 times in the Diary so far; a ring is a politic thing..

Claire Lee  •  Link

I am curious about the dropping temperature. At 2 degrees C, March's avg. temperature is colder than February's was at 4 degrees. Is this the normal pattern for English winters, or was it an unusually cold March that year? I note Pepys complaining about the cold weather and the high price of coal.

Matt Lee  •  Link

The data presented on the sidebar is an analysis of recorded temperatures, but not in London, and in unheated rooms (not outdoors). This link has some good links to the data and the analysis:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/about/a…
The data indicates a very unusually cold March.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...though I love the treason I hate the traitor."

Sam being facetious here? An open admission that some of his own "practices" would not bear scrutiny?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"“…though I love the treason I hate the traitor.”
Sam being facetious here?"

L&M say it's a proverb implying Pepys has a divided mind, approving of any attack on Batten, while disapproving of the attacker in this case (Brouncker).

Glyn  •  Link

Robert Gertz, that sounded like a quotation to me, and a quck google came up with this:

"This principle is old, but true as fate,
Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate."

- Thomas Dekker (Decker), The Honest Whore

Has Pepys seen this play recently?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Has Pepys seen this play recently?"

The L&M Index does not list that as one he ever saw.

Rafael Avendaño  •  Link

“…and it was pretty to see how Pett hugged the occasion…” Wonderful turn of phrase, isn’t it? It just oozes the oiliness of the scene.

that's right. good apreciation.

cum salis grano  •  Link

"...for though I love the treason I hate the traitor...."
a translation from

"that he loved treachery but hated a traitor;"
Plutarch, Life of Romulus, p141 17-3
a version
The Parallel Lives
by
Plutarch
published in Vol. I
of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1914

The text is in the public domain.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thay…
------------------
\p141 17-3

3 Tatius agreed to this, whereupon she opened one of the gates by night and let the Sabines in. Antigonus was not alone, then, in saying that he loved men who offered to betray, but hated those who had betrayed; nor yet Caesar, in saying of the Thracian Rhoemetalces,

that he loved treachery but hated a traitor;

but this is very general feeling towards the base on the part of those who need their services, just as they need certain wild creatures for their venom and gall; for while they feel the need of them, they put up with them, but abhor their vileness when they have obtained from them what they want.
4

cum salis grano  •  Link

There is a Greek Phrase
" love treason hate traitors
translated into Latin as
Amo proditionen odi proditorem.
restated by Milton,
Shakespeare,by Miguel de Cervantes Saaverdra, in Castilian for Don Quixote de La Mancha
other versions
Dryden: She hugged the offender and forgave the offense
Sex at last.
Cymon and Iphigenia

magna pars hominum est quae non pecatis irascitur, sed peccantibus.
A large part of Mankind is angry,not with the sins but with the sinner.
Seneca De Ira ii 28 8

Seneca of anger. Bonus judex damnat improbanda, non odit
the upright judge condemns the crime but does not hate the criminal.
Anger i 16,7
Shakespeare measure for measure Act ii s 2.1.35
Condemn the fault not the actor of it.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Has Pepys seen this play recently?"

L&M note this is the first definite record of a performance of this play first published this year. According to Downes (p. 27), Betterton played King Richard; Harris, the Duke of Richmond; Smith, Sir William Stanley.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"little Mis. Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play, and there telling the next day’s play;"

L&M: This form of theatrical publicity was used in England until the mid-19th century.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"little Mis. Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play,"

L&M: This was an Elizabethan practice which continued in Restoration theatres. A jig was a song and dance elaborating a dramatic action, or sometimes just a dance in character.

mountebank  •  Link

Lots of hugging, for example "it was pretty to see how Pett hugged the occasion of having anything against Sir W. Batten"

I would guess this has carried over into the current usage of "to hug myself with glee".

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

In the morning "my Lord Bruncker did begin to talk of Carcasse’s business. Only Commissioner Pett, my Lord, and I there, and it was pretty to see how Pett hugged the occasion of having anything against Sir W. Batten, which I am not much troubled at, for I love him not neither. Though I did really endeavour to quash it all I could, because I would prevent their malice taking effect. My Lord I see is fully resolved to vindicate Carcasse, though to the undoing of Sir W. Batten, but I believe he will find himself in a mistake, and do himself no good, and that I shall be glad of, for though I love the treason I hate the traitor."

Pepys meditates on the problem for a few hours before trotting over to see the Sir Williams after office hours:

"... and so to [Sir] W. Batten’s, and there talked privately with him and [Sir] W. Pen about business of Carcasse against tomorrow, wherein I think I did give them proof enough of my ability as well as friendship to [Sir] W. Batten, and the honour of the office, in my sense of the rogue’s business."

By which I think Pepys means that he was able to persuade the two Sir Williams that the evidence against Carkasse is over-whelming, and at tomorrow's meeting they should present a united front calling for his dismissal ... leaving My Lord Brouncker with egg on his face for sticking up for the rogue. I suspect no one much cares what Commissioner Pett thinks.

Much as Pepys likes Brouncker, he must have realizes that Admirals Penn and Batten know more about the Navy than Brouncker ever will, and as former Parliamentarians they can talk comfortably with the difficult Tar Captains, so he has swallowed his personal distaste and sided with them to do what they don't want to do, but need to do. There were probably more reasons, so please feel free to add your ideas.

I haven't read tomorrow's entry to know what kind of meeting/hearing is happening.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Interesting that Commissioners Peter Pett of Chatham and Capt. John Taylor of Harwich, are both in town today. The Stuart brothers must be having a conference about which ships they can afford to rebuild and which to mothball.

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