Thursday 18 April 1667

Up, and to read more in the “Origines,” and then to the office, where the news is strong that not only the Dutch cannot set out a fleete this year, but that the French will not, and that he hath given the answer to the Dutch Embassador, saying that he is for the King of England’s, having an honourable peace, which, if true, is the best news we have had a good while. At the office all the morning, and there pleased with the little pretty Deptford woman I have wished for long, and she hath occasion given her to come again to me. After office I to the ’Change a little, and then home and to dinner, and then by coach with my wife to the Duke of York’s house, and there saw “The Wits,” a play I formerly loved, and is now corrected and enlarged: but, though I like the acting, yet I like not much in the play now. The Duke of York and [Sir] W. Coventry gone to Portsmouth, makes me thus to go to plays. So home, and to the office a little and then home, where I find Goodgroome, and he and I did sing several things over, and tried two or three grace parts in Playford’s new book, my wife pleasing me in singing her part of the things she knew, which is a comfort to my very heart. So he being gone we to supper and to bed.

22 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

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

Ap. 18. 1667. Dr. King of transfusion) present for repository. Wooden bellows wthout Leather. mr Pouey promisd a hammock)

mr. Hooke was desired to meet at Sr. George Ents wth the rest of the anatomicall committee to make scetches of what was considerable.

mr Hooke produced his module for brickmaking and promised to produce another at the next meeting. As also to produce his way of making sphericall glasses bear great apertures without Colours.

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"mr Hooke...to produce his way of making sphericall glasses bear great apertures without Colours."

Hooke did not know at this time what Isaac Newton -- who will be his nemesis -- would discover a decade on, namely that the visual image produced by the lens of any refracting telescope ( esp. one with a "great aperture" ) will suffer from the dispersion of light into some of its component colors (chromatic aberration). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chro…

The solution will prove to be a reflecting telescope. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

John Evelyn's Diary

18th April, 1667. I went to make court to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle, at their house in Clerkenwell, being newly come out of the north. They received me with great kindness, and I was much pleased with the extraordinary fanciful habit, garb, and discourse of the Duchess.

http://bit.ly/aKHOpl

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"and she hath occasion given her to come again to me"

Can anyone help me with this strange syntax? Thanks in advance...

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Oh, I think I get it ... someone has given her a reason and/or permission to come to Sam?

tg  •  Link

"and there pleased with the little pretty Deptford woman I have wished for long"

This is Mrs Bagwell is it not? He doesn't speak in his coded language so I assume nothing coded happened.

jefito  •  Link

“and she hath occasion given her to come again to me”

I read it more as "she has found occasion to come to me."

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Re Terry's quote from John Evelyn's diary, I'm sure all will recall that the Duchess of Newcastle is the notable Margaret Cavendish, who has appeared in SP's journal a couple of times in the past month (30 March and 11 April). Evelyn echoes the general sentiment in noting her "extraordinary fanciful habit, garb, and discourse."

Mary  •  Link

"little pretty Deptford woman"

L&M speculate that this may refer to the 'jolie femme' that Sam encountered a couple of times on his visit to Deptford on 1st April, but whom he did not approach on that occasion, later regretting his own 'lack of ready wit.'

It sounds to me as if the pretty visitor to the Navy Office has now been provided with a reason (given occasion) for making a further visit to the office. Mrs. Bagwell, on the other hand, is quite bold/experienced enough to decide for herself whether or not to come and see Sam; I don't think that she would need to be provided with some specially designated 'occasion.'

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"What is it, my dear?"

"There's talk, sir."

"Talk? About me?" smile.

"The ladies round abouts say you're...Fast."

"Expeditious would be the better word."

"They say I'm a replacement model..."

"My dear." slightly stern look. "My beloved wife can never be...Replaced. I, dear girl, happen to be a happily married man."

"...For Moll Bagwell, they say."

"Ohhh...Well, who listens to idle gossip."

"Mr. Bagwell said it. While drinking last night at the tavern hereabouts. He was angry at her for not holding you, he said. He was going to beat her for it. And he called you a..."

"The cad...I shall deal with him in my good time. But as for Mrs. Bagwell, my dear... You are dealing with Samuel Judith Pepys, a gentleman of the highest probidity, the most...Why are you laughing?"

"Judith?"

"My mother's idea. Thought it was religious, poor ignorant wretch. I never use it. Now, my dear...To compare a mere Bagwell to you..."

"Sure and you sound like a playactor..."

"I know many, my dear."

Don O'Shea  •  Link

Terry,

"Hooke did not know at this time what Isaac Newton — who will be his nemesis — would discover a decade on, namely that the visual image produced by the lens of any refracting telescope ( esp. one with a “great aperture” ) will suffer from the dispersion of light into some of its component colors (chromatic aberration)."

Newton had already done the work on color dispersion by glass before the time of the current Pepys diary entry, but he did not send the letter analyzing the phenomenon (which is really the first scientific journal paper) until Feb. 6, 1671/72. A .pdf file of the paper can be found at http://files.me.com/donoshea/d2na….

In the introductory paragraph, Newton, concerned about priority, states: "To perform my late promise to you, I shall without further ceremony acquaint you, that in the beginning of the Year 1666 (at which time I applied myself to the grinding of Optick glasses of other figures than spherical,) I procured me a Triangular glass-prism, to try therewith the celebrated Phenomena of Colors."

This was during the time of the plague when Newton was at his estate Woolsthorpe. According to Notes and Records of the Royal Society, Newton constructed a working model of his reflecting telescope in 1668/69.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Don, I must and will take your word for the date Newton referenced the introductory paragraph of his 1671/72 paper. The PDF link downloaded "The First Scientific Paper", a review of Newton's paper by Donald C. O’Shea,
Editor of *Optical Engineering*, Vol. 43 No. 11, November 2004.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"Margareth Cavendish"
Forever immortalized with the bananas :)

Don O'Shea  •  Link

Terry

That's what I get for opening a version on my desktop, then trusting it was a similarly-titled file of mine up there in the "cloud."

Here's the file that should have been referenced: http://files.me.com/donoshea/aoyp…
I checked it.

My apologies,
Don

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Don,

Thank you for that very fascinating 13-page letter that is as you said it was, “The First Scientific Paper”.

Let me also heartily recommend your own article (the first of your links) as a very keen guide to the birth of the genre of the scientific paper of which many of us have read some -- denser than Newton's, of course. Let me suggest another virtue of Newton's beside those that you identify, sc. that insofar as he "described an experiment" he *described an experience* of an intentional serial kind.

'Tis a pity we've forgotten the synonymy/overlap of the terms -- "experiment" and "experience" -- in teaching the scientific method. Methinks you and James Gleick in effect invite us to revisit that.

Glad to have your expert guidance in these things!

Terry

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...the French will not, and that he hath given the answer to the Dutch Embassador, saying that he is for the King of England’s, having an honourable peace, which, if true, is the best news we have had a good while."

How...Ummn...Good of Louis.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" “The Wits,” a play I formerly loved, and is now corrected and enlarged:"

L&M note according to Genest (i. 40) the dialogue had been improved and two short scenes added since the premiere of the play had opened the 'Opera' in Lincoln's Inn Fields.. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the news is strong that not only the Dutch cannot set out a fleete this year, but that the French will not, and that he hath given the answer to the Dutch Embassador, saying that he is for the King of England’s, having an honourable peace, which, if true, is the best news we have had a good while."

L&M: See Louis' letter of 19/28 April to his ambassador in Holland to that effect: D'Estrades, Lettres (1709), iv. 167-8. He had made a secret arrangement with the English a few days before: Feiling, p. 218. The Dutch ambassador referred to here was van Beuningen.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" “The Wits,” a play I formerly loved, and is now corrected and enlarged"

L&M: A comedy by Davenant. According to Genest (i. 40) , the dialogue had been improved and two short scenes added.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"then home, where I find Goodgroome, and he and I did sing several things over, and tried two or three grace parts in Playford’s new book"

L&M: See https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… The second section contained part-songs.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"At the office all the morning, and there pleased with the little pretty Deptford woman I have wished for long"

L&M: Presumably the unnamed 'jolie femme' mentioned above at 1 April.

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