Tuesday 19 March 1666/67

Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon dined at home very pleasantly with my wife, and after dinner with a great deal of pleasure had her sing, which she begins to do with some pleasure to me, more than I expected. Then to the office again, where all the afternoon close, and at night home to supper and to bed. It comes in my mind this night to set down how a house was the other day in Bishopsgate Street blowed up with powder; a house that was untenanted, and between a flax shop and a —————-, both bad for fire; but, thanks be to God, it did no more hurt; and all do conclude it a plot. I would also remember to my shame how I was pleased yesterday, to find the righteous maid of Magister Griffin sweeping of ‘nostra’ office, ‘elle con the Roman nariz and bonne’ body which I did heretofore like, and do still refresh me to think ‘que elle’ is come to us, that I may ‘voir her aliquando’. This afternoon I am told again that the town do talk of my Lord Arlington’s being to be Lord Treasurer, and Sir W. Coventry to be Secretary of State; and that for certain the match is concluded between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stewart, which I am well enough pleased with; and it is pretty to consider how his quality will allay people’s talk; whereas, had a meaner person married her, he would for certain have been reckoned a cuckold at first-dash.

17 Annotations

First Reading

cum salis grano  •  Link

"...between a flax shop and a —————-,..."
place of ill repute?
flax shop, a place to make same or be it to sell flax made goods or beat to pulp flax?
flax
1666 PEPYS Diary (1879) VI. 34 In the town did see an old man beating of flax.

1632 MASSINGER & FIELD Fatal Dowry IV. i, He has made me smell for all the world like a flax or a red-headed woman's chamber.
1600 Sir John Oldcastle I. iii, A man may make a *flax-shop in your chimnies, for any fire there is stirring.

1679 BEDLOE Popish Plot 27 A Gentle-woman that kept a Flax-shop in the Minories.
some combinations
flax-thrasher, a machine for beating out the seeds from the bolls of the flax-plant; flax-wench, -wife, -woman, a female flax-worker.
flaxen:
a. ? Of the colour of the flax-flower; azure.
1603 T

1616 SURFL. & MARKH. Country Farme 551 That kind of Wheat which amongst the English is called Flaxen~wheat, being as vvhite or vvhiter than the finest Flax. 1621 BURTON Anat. Mel. III. ii. II. ii. (1624) 376 Leland commends Guithera..for a faire flaxen haire.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

cum salis grano, why would a cathouse be on Bishopsgate and "bad for fire"?

cum salis grano  •  Link

Too many candles flopping around and men with buckets may put out the wrong fire, besides the dashes are an indication of Victorian censorship.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

the dashes are an indication of Victorian censorship.

In this instance not; L&M have the same ellipsis so SP must have left a gap in his manuscript. Perhaps he had not made a contemporary note, or could not recall, the function of the second house and intended to fill the space in at a later time.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

the dashes are an indication of Victorian censorship.

Following a quick check the Wheatley text, the one used here, follows the convention: _____ for an ellipsis in SP's text and ..... for cuts made by Wheatley himself. However, on occasion, there are omitted single words or short passages to whose absence / excision Wheatley makes no allusion -- I don't know if these are in fact defects in the Mynors Bright transcription and notes from which Wheatley worked, L&M describe Wheatley with the euphemism 'a worker of random habits.'

L&M Vol I, Introduction, p. lxxxxvii - cxiii, 'Previous Editions.'

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

"I would also remember to my shame how I was pleased yesterday, to find the righteous maid of Magister Griffin sweeping of ‘nostra’ office"
It occurs to me that Sam's listing of his various lusts are not just records or even bragging - maybe it is his puritan conscience that requires him to note them 'to my shame'.
And can one of our scholars confirm that 'aliquando' means 'frequently'?

language hat  •  Link

Aliquando means 'sometimes, now and then.'

I agree with Michael that Sam left the lacuna himself, presumably unable at the moment to remember. I do this myself in my own humble Week-at-a-Glance entries.

L. K. van Marjenhoff  •  Link

Damning with faint praise, all Sam can find to say about Elizabeth's postprandial performance is that her singing "begins" to please him "more than [he] expected."

I feel very sorry for her -- she's trying pitifully hard to achieve and please -- but trying to sing when one doesn't have the pipes is like beating a dead horse, and Elizabeth, bless her heart, just doesn't have the pipes.

Tom, Barker, Mercer, and esp. Sam's "Barbary Allen," aka Diana Crisp, obviously do, and they, by simple gift, have it in them to please Sam when all her trying -- e.g., to learn to trill -- can never come to anything.

jeannine  •  Link

Wheatley's Victorian Censorship

All you have to remember is that

........ equals the Limerick below

There once was a man named Wheatley
Who preferred his translations done sweetly
So if words were found
With an indelicate sound
He deleted those words completely

cum salis grano  •  Link

Thanks for the clarification.

I. Newton  •  Link

"...Bishopsgate Street blowed up with powder...all do conclude it a plot..."

Isn't Gresham College on Bishopsgate St.? Didn't Hooke live there? Wasn't Hooke just then carrying-out a series of experiments involving gunpowder & springs for the Royal Society? Just asking.

Fern  •  Link

"the righteous maid"

Does this mean Sam had previously tried it on with her and been severely rebuffed?

arby  •  Link

Any idea of the "plot"?

jeannine  •  Link

(SPOILER ALERTS NOTED)

and that for certain the match is concluded between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stewart, which I am well enough pleased with; and it is pretty to consider how his quality will allay people’s talk; whereas, had a meaner person married her, he would for certain have been reckoned a cuckold at first-dash."

Maybe a spoiler (not sure). The Duke of Richmond and Frances actually had a daring plan where they ran away and eloped. I do not know the exact date that their marriage takes place (but it's around this time). I don't know if Sam's comment about the marriage being 'concluded' means that they actually did get married. This marriage was never sanctioned by the King, which would have been customary at this time.

(This is a spoiler, but Sam won’t have the details on this) The King is devastated by this elopement and did not easily get over this. With all of the mistresses that he took over the years, Frances, who never gave in to his advances, totally broke his heart. He struggled with this loss well into the summer, as seen in his correspondence to his sister Minette. Considering his ego and need to rationalize that Frances would leave him, the King looked for someone to blame for convincing her to marry. The cabals and the politics worked against Lord Clarendon as the usual Court backstabbers (Lady Castlemaine, Lord Buckingham, Lord Arlington, etc. jumped on this opportunity to blame Clarendon for this marriage. The devastated King will turned against him, and will then stacked the deck to go after him. Sam will see the results of this, but will not see the politics behind this.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"a house was the other day in Bishopsgate Street blowed up with powder; a house that was untenanted, and between a flax shop and a —————-, both bad for fire; but, thanks be to God, it did no more hurt; and all do conclude it a plot."

L&M: A newsletter of 16 March (PRO, SP 29/194, no. 23) reported that the fire had occurred at about 4 a.m. on the 14th, and that the house was near Bishopsgate St. The writer (Henry Muddiman) added that 'it being seated advantageously to promote a second fire [it] doth confirm the Jealousy of such who believe the former was begun by designe'.

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