Thursday 20 February 1667/68

Up, and to the office a while, and thence to White Hall by coach with Mr. Batelier with me, whom I took up in the street. I thence by water to Westminster Hall, and there with Lord Brouncker, Sir T. Harvy, Sir J. Minnes, did wait all the morning to speak to members about our business, thinking our business of tickets would come before the House to-day, but we did alter our minds about the petition to the House, sending in the paper to them. But the truth is we were in a great hurry, but it fell out that they were most of the morning upon the business of not prosecuting the first victory; which they have voted one of the greatest miscarriages of the whole war, though they cannot lay the fault anywhere yet, because Harman is not come home. This kept them all the morning, which I was glad of. So down to the Hall, where my wife by agreement stayed for me at Mrs. Michell’s, and there was Mercer and the girl, and I took them to Wilkinson’s the cook’s in King Street (where I find the master of the house hath been dead for some time), and there dined, and thence by one o’clock to the King’s house: a new play, “The Duke of Lerma,” of Sir Robert Howard’s: where the King and Court was; and Knepp and Nell spoke the prologue most excellently, especially Knepp, who spoke beyond any creature I ever, heard. The play designed to reproach our King with his mistresses, that I was troubled for it, and expected it should be interrupted; but it ended all well, which salved all. The play a well-writ and good play, only its design I did not like of reproaching the King, but altogether a very good and most serious play. Thence home, and there a little to the office, and so home to supper, where Mercer with us, and sang, and then to bed.

23 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

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

Feb: 20. 1667/8. Dr. Clark to try transfusion on madwoman) Dr. Wren of a boy that had a consumption of bones inquired after)

Letter feb: 10. 68. from carcanis [ http://is.gd/VtmQix ?} about correspondence)

Smethwicks 4 foot telescope not sphericall

expt. of weighing tin & copper was made soe as 2 pieces of these 2 metalls were weighed both asunder & mixed in the air & water, and it appeard tht the compound was heauier than the parts separated the curator was ord: to giue it in writing as also Desc of Cider eng. astron: Ind of new pend & expt. of fish (-

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Christopher Squire  •  Link

re: ’but it ended all well, which salved all. ’:

‘salve, v.2
. . 4.a. To preserve or maintain unhurt (one's honour, credit, reputation, etc.) . .
1596    Spenser Second Pt. Faerie Queene iv. iv. 27   To salve his name And purchase honour to his friends behalve.
1607    B. Jonson Volpone iv. iv. 8,   I deuis'd a formall tale, That salu'd your reputation.
. . 1668    T. Smith Jrnl. Voy. Constantinople in Miscellanea Curiosa (Royal Soc.) (1707) III. 7   The Seamen, to salve their Credit, and to excuse their Error,‥pretended that we were set in by a strong Current . . ‘ [OED]

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"But the truth is we were in a great hurry, but it fell out that they were most of the morning upon the business of not prosecuting the first victory; which they have voted one of the greatest miscarriages of the whole war, though they cannot lay the fault anywhere yet, because Harman is not come home."

Grey's Debates
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

JWB  •  Link

Mixing tin & cooper should yield weight equal to addition of each part,alloyed or not.. Melted, of course, the two make bronze. How they were mixed under water in any meaningful way is mystery. Manufacture of brass in England, by the way, had just recently begun, even before separation of zinc as a metal.

language hat  •  Link

"only its design I did not like of reproaching the King"

It's OK for Sam to reproach the King in his diary, and to do so in private conversations with friends he knows well enough to trust, but for someone to do so in public... for shame!

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"I took them to Wilkinson’s the cook’s in King Street (where I find the master of the house hath been dead for some time), and there dined..."

One might ask...What did he die of?

Nate  •  Link

"Mixing tin & cooper should yield weight ..."

I thought that they might have meant denser but if they used a "good" proportion, 8%-14% tin, then the bronze should be less dense than copper and a bit more dense than tin. Strange.

sean adams  •  Link

“Mixing tin & cooper should yield weight …”

You are right Nate - the density of tin bronze should be between that of copper and tin - see the link below.

http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_meta…

JWB  •  Link

Some of us more dense than others. Of course now I see, the note did not mean "mixed in the air and under water", but weighed...in the air and under water.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

JWB, it seems then to play out thus as the "2 pieces of these 2 metalls were weighed"
In what state were these 2 metals? "both asunder & mixed"
Where were they weighed? " in the air & [in the] water"

JWB  •  Link

Ist das nicht die Bronze Dichte?
Ya, das ist die Bronze Dichte.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"thence by one o’clock to the King’s house:"

L&M note 2 1/2 hours before the customary time plays commenced.

nix  •  Link

" I took them to Wilkinson’s the cook’s in King Street #where I find the master of the house hath been dead for some time#" --

MS. LOVETT:
Here we are. Hot out of the oven

TODD:
What is that?

MS. LOVETT:
Its priest
Have a little priest

TODD:
Is it really good?

MS. LOVETT:
Sir, it’s too good, at least
Then again they don’t commit sins of the flesh
So it’s pretty fresh

TODD:
Awful lot of fat

MS. LOVETT:
Only where it sat

. . . .

TODD
Anything that’s lean?

MS. LOVETT:
Well then if you’re British and loyal
You might enjoy royal marine
Anyway it’s clean
Though of course it tastes of wherever it’s been!

. . . .

TODD (spoken):
What is that?

MS. LOVETT:
It’s fop
Finest in the shop
Or we have some shepherds pie peppered
With actual shepherd on top!
And I’ve just begun
Is the politician so oily it’s served with a doily?
Have one!

TODD:
Put it on a bun
Well you never know if it’s going to run!

MS. LOVETT:
Try the friar!
Fried, it’s drier!

TODD:
No!
The clergy is really too coarse and too mealy!

MS. LOVETT:
Then actor!
It’s compacter!

TODD:
Ah, but always arrives overdone
(spoken) I’ll come again when you have judge on the menu

Have charity towards the world, my pet!

MS. LOVETT:
Yes, yes, I know, my love

TODD:
We’ll take the customers that we can get!

MS. LOVETT:
High-born and low, my love!

TODD:
We’ll not discriminate great from small
No, we’ll serve anyone

(simultaneously)

MS. LOVETT:
We’ll serve anyone!

TODD:
Meaning anyone!

BOTH:
And to anyone
At all!

http://www.sweetslyrics.com/55709…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Unsavoury Chefs (soon to die?) have been around for a while:

"A cook they hadde with hem for the nones
To boile the chiknes with the marybones
And pourde-marchant tart and galyngale
Wel koude he knowe a draughte of Londoun ale
He koude roste, and sethe, and broille and frye,
Maken mortreux, and wel bake a pye.
But greet harm was it, as it thoughte me,
That on his shyne, a mormal hadde he.
For blankmanger, that made he with thr beste."

Proplogue to the Canterbury Tales, lines 379-387.

A mormal was a gangrenous ulcer.
Mortreux were stews.
Pourdre-marchant means spiced or flavoured.

I love Chaucer's humour in adding the little extra bit of information - "and he makes blancmange as good as anyone's!" - just when you have gone off totally touching anything he's cooked.....

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

L&M transcribe "The play designed to reproach our King with his mistress;"

And note: Nell Gwynn played the part of Maria, with whom the King of Spain falls in love, but she is never represented as his mistress, and there is little in the text to prompt Pepys's assumption except an episode in Act IV, Scene i, in which certain characters ascribe "lust: and "luxury" to Maria and the King, But these accusations were baseless.

And, though it is unknowable how this particular performance actually treated the characters -- as constantly modified as Restoration performances were --, it was allowed to proceed without royal disapproval, so Pepys may be projecting..

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"But the truth is we were in a great hurry, but it fell out that they were most of the morning upon the business of not prosecuting the first victory; which they have voted one of the greatest miscarriages of the whole war, though they cannot lay the fault anywhere yet, because Harman is not come home."

For the debate in Commons see Grey's Debates:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
For the controversy over the conduct of the Battle of Lowestoft (June 1665) , see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Sir John Harman had commanded the Royal Charles, carrying the Duke of York, and had obeyed what he took to be the Duke's order to shorten sail. He was now order to attend the House. On his return from the W. Indies in early April he was committed to the Tower, and examined by the Commons on the 17th: Commons Journal http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… ; Grey's Debates: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and Knepp and Nell spoke the prologue"

L&M: Their joint delivery of the prologue receives special mention in the first edition olf the play (1668).

Tonyel  •  Link

A friend who deals in such things recently showed me an 1870's autograph album compiled by a member of the Royal Geographical Society. In addition to Victorian worthies like Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens, it also had signatures of William Penn and - yes! - Samuel Pepys which appear to have been snipped from documents. It was touching to see Sam's elegant signature and imagine him with sore eyes, possibly in the light of a candle.
It's up for auction if you are interested - see http://app.dukes-auctions.com/en/….

Tonyel  •  Link

Sorry, it's a long link which continues from: 1016/the-winter-auction/391-a-colection-of-autographs-compiled-by-j-w-newton-1874.
I hope this will work - computerspeak is not my first language.

Dorothy  •  Link

Tonyel, the link worked for me. Thanks for posting it!

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Sam's misgivings concerning the Duke of Lerma seem another little window into his brain, where we suspect we see in action the hypertrophied Survivall Circuit, typical of high-level civil servants and of anyone with recent experience of a dictatorship (we mean Oliver!!) It sends alarms at the slightest sign that anything within a radius of several meters could be construed as partaking in dissent, or impure thoughts, or lèse-majesté. And who knows what innocent-seeming repartee could have sent ripples of knowing chuckles ...

Being stuffed into the mailbag today (at https://play.google.com/books/rea…) a note from Porsmouth that Monsieur De La Roche is still at Cowes (No. 20); an order co-signed by Sam at the Office, hopefully clearing the name of James Whiston the ex-purser of the Loyal Merchant (No. 18); at the preceding page, a somewhat more interesting message (No. 13) to Sam from John Tinker, on his hesitation to let the Revenge sail away "with the 80 or 90 [men] she has, few being seamen". Another problem then: as the professionals won't come back after they didn't get paid, the crews now consist of pressed turnip farmers who can't tie or untie a knot. Tinker implies he wants an order to loose the ship and its flawed crew. Anyone wants to put his elegant signature to that Miscarriage-in-Waiting?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Robert Hooke voyaged to the West Indies in 1662, discovering how gravity changes (less strong on the equator) and humidity interfered with the accuracy of a clock.
He also realized the movement of the ship added additional errors to the pendulum's swing. To overcome these issues, he invented counter-wound spiral springs and double balances that compensated for these variable forces on the pendulum.
He then designed a marine chronometer employing these improvements and created a pocket watch utilizing his compensating devices.

The new timepiece was demonstrated 20 Feb. 1668 to the Royal Society.

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/m…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.