Sunday 15 March 1667/68

(Lord’s day). Up and walked, it being fine dry weather, to Sir W. Coventry’s, overtaking my boy Ely (that was), and he walked with me, being grown a man, and I think a sober fellow. He parted at Charing Cross, and I to Sir W. Coventry’s, and there talked with him about the Commissioners of Accounts, who did give in their report yesterday to the House, and do lay little upon us as aggravate any thing at present, but only do give an account of the dissatisfactory account they receive from Sir G. Carteret, which I am sorry for, they saying that he tells them not any time when he paid any sum, which is fit for them to know for the computing of interest, but I fear he is hardly able to tell it.

They promise to give them an account of the embezzlement of prizes, wherein I shall be something concerned, but nothing that I am afeard of, I thank God. Thence walked with W. Coventry into the Park, and there met the King and the Duke of York, and walked a good while with them: and here met Sir Jer. Smith, who tells me he is like to get the better of Holmes, and that when he is come to an end of that, he will do Hollis’s business for him, in the House, for his blasphemies, which I shall be glad of.

So to White Hall, and there walked with this man and that man till chapel done, and, the King dined and then Sir Thomas Clifford, the Comptroller, took me with him to dinner to his lodgings, where my Lord Arlington and a great deal of good and great company; where I very civilly used by them, and had a most excellent dinner: and good discourse of Spain, Mr. Godolphin being there; particularly of the removal of the bodies of all the dead Kings of Spain that could be got together, and brought to the Pantheon at the Escuriall, when it was finished, and there placed before the altar, there to lie for ever; and there was a sermon made to them upon this text, “Arida ossa, audite verbum Dei;” and a most eloquent sermon, as they say, who say they have read it. After dinner, away hence, and I to Mrs. Martin’s, and there spent the afternoon, and did hazer con elle, and here was her sister and Mrs. Burrows, and so in the evening got a coach and home, and there find Mr. Pelling and W. Hewer, and there talked and supped, Pelling being gone, and mightily pleased with a picture that W. Hewer brought hither of several things painted upon a deale board, which board is so well painted that in my whole life I never was so well pleased or surprized with any picture, and so troubled that so good pictures should be painted upon a piece of bad deale. Even after I knew that it was not board, but only the picture of a board, I could not remove my fancy. After supper to bed, being very sleepy, and, I bless God, my mind being at very good present rest.

22 Annotations

First Reading

Christopher Squire  •  Link

“Arida ossa, audite verbum Dei;”

"Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord."

Christopher Squire  •  Link

’ . . he will do Hollis’s business for him, in the House, for his blasphemies, . . ’

‘ . . 13.e. ‘a person's business’: work to be done or matters to be attended to in his service or on his behalf. To do (a person's) business: to ‘do for’, ruin or kill him.
. . 1667    S. Pepys Diary 16 Nov. (1974) VIII. 533   Lord Vaughan, that is so great against the Chancellor‥was heard to swear‥he would do my Lord Clarendon's business.
1694    N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) III. 349   They would now doe the queens businesse, if she were not immortall.
1773    O. Goldsmith She stoops to Conquer v. 94   Oh, Tony, I'm killed.‥ That last jolt that laid us against the quickset hedge has done my business.
1816    J. Austen Emma I. viii. 122   Her visit to Abbey-Mill‥seems to have done his business. He is desperately in love.
1883    J. Greenwood Odd People 7   It was the bricks and mortar that did his business, poor chap.
1891    J. M. Dixon Dict. Idiomatic Eng. Phrases 47   His last imprudent exposure of himself to the night air did the business for him.’ [OED]

Michael Robinson  •  Link

"... mightily pleased with a picture that W. Hewer brought hither of several things painted upon a deale board, which board is so well painted that in my whole life I never was so well pleased or surprized with any picture, and so troubled that so good pictures should be painted upon a piece of bad deale. Even after I knew that it was not board, but only the picture of a board, I could not remove my fancy."

Oliver Millar, in the L&M footnote, says the picture is unidentifiable but points out the object of SP's prior admiration, http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… -- now thought to be the Hoogstraten life size 'View down a corridor' now at Dyrham Park. http://www.bridgemanart.com/image…

Thomas Wyck 1616/24 - 1677 was active in England 1660- c. 1667 http://www.rkd.nl/rkddb/(gr4pyq45…

and Evert Collier ( Edward Collier ) active London 1693-1708 http://www.rkd.nl/rkddb/(pd5p4u55…

the latter's "A Trompe l'Oeil of Newspapers, Letters and Writing Implements on a Wooden Board circa 1699", now Tate Gallery, London, is remarkably close to SP's description:
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/Vi…

Mary  •  Link

the picture that Will Hewer brought.

Perhaps we shall never know how this picture came into Will's possession. Borrowed? Provided as a sample of what the artist could do? His own? These trompe l'oeil paintings were to become quite fashionable in the late 17th/early 18th centuries and presumably fairly expensive. Does this evening's demonstration illustrate the fact that Will is already on his way to amassing wealth?

nix  •  Link

“Arida ossa, audite verbum Dei” --

I remember the spiritual, but I never knew it had Latin lyrics.

[With guitar chords]

[F] Ezekiel connected them dry bones
[Gm7] Ezekiel connected them [F] dry bones
Ezekiel connected them dry bones
I hear the [C7] Word of the [F] Lord.

[C7] Your [F] toe bone connected to your foot bone
Your [Gm7] foot bone [C7] connected to your [F] ankle bone
Your ankle bone connected to your leg bone
Your [Gb6] leg bone connected to your knee bone
Your [G6] knee bone connected to your thigh bone
Your [Ab6] thigh bone connected to your hip bone
Your [A6] hip bone connected to your back bone
Your [Bb6] back bone connected to your shoulder bone
Your [B6] shoulder bone connected to your neck bone
Your [C] neck bone connected to your head bone
I hear the [F] Word of [G7] the [C] Lord.

[C] Them bones, them bones gonna walk around
Them [G7] bones, them bones gonna walk around
Them [C] bones, them bones gonna walk around
I hear the [F] Word of [G7] the [C] Lord.

[C] Disconnect them bones, them dry bones
Discon-[G7] nect them bones, them dry bones
Discon-[C] nect them bones, them dry bones
I hear the [F] Word of [G7] the [C] Lord.

[C] Your head bone connected from your neck bone
Your [B6] neck bone connected from your shoulder bone
Your [Bb6] shoulder bone connected from your back bone
Your [A6] back bone connected from your hip bone
Your [Ab6] hip bone connected from your thigh bone
Your [G6] thigh bone connected from your knee bone
Your [Gb6] knee bone connected from your leg bone
Your [F] leg bone connected from your ankle bone
Your ankle bone connected from your foot bone
Your foot bone connected from your toe bone
I [F] hear the [Gm7] Word of [G7] the [C7] Lord
I [Gm7] hear the [C7] Word of the [F] Lord.

http://www.gospelmusic.org.uk/a-g…

nix  •  Link

"and did hazer con elle" --

Whenever we come across one of these passages, I wonder whether it occurred to Samuel that anyone who could break his cipher wouldn't have much trouble with his Spanish-French pidgin?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the bodies of all the dead Kings of Spain that could be got together, and brought to the Pantheon at the Escuriall"

Pantheon of the Kings

This consists of twenty-six marble sepulchers containing the remains of the kings and queens regnant (the only queen regnant since Philip II being Isabella II), of the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties from Charles I to the present, except for Philip V and Ferdinand VI. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_E…

"The paintings [of the monarchs interred there] which line El Escorial's walls provide an instructive peek at the consequences of inbreeding among royals — a common problem throughout Europe in those days. The Spanish emperor Charles V was the most powerful man in Europe. His illegitimate son was famous for his good looks, thanks to a little fresh blood. Many other portraits show the unhappy effects of mixing blue blood with more of the same blue blood. When one king married his niece, the result was Charles II (1665-1700). His severe underbite (an inbred royal family trait) was the least of his problems. An epileptic before that disease was understood, poor "Charles the Mad" would be the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. He died without an heir 1700, ushering in the continent-wide War of the Spanish Succession, and the dismantling of Spain's empire." http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/de…

Claire  •  Link

Nix: The original lyrics were, of course, in Hebrew.

nix  •  Link

Even harder to sing!

language hat  •  Link

"I wonder whether it occurred to Samuel that anyone who could break his cipher wouldn’t have much trouble with his Spanish-French pidgin?"

He clearly wasn't using it as encryption; my guess is that it simply gave him pleasure to report his amatory escapades in a Romance (heh) mix. "Ooh, talk dirty to me in French, baby!" It's a longstanding phenomenon.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

""and the dismantling of The Spanish Empire""
In Europe that is,since Spain still had if I am not mistaken the Kingdom of the two Sicilies and all of spanish speaking America.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"They promise to give them an account of the embezzlement of prizes, wherein I shall be something concerned, but nothing that I am afeard of, I thank God."

The report on the prize-goods affair led to the impeachment of Penn: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Mike Zim  •  Link

nix: “Arida ossa, audite verbum Dei” --
I remember the spiritual, but I never knew it had Latin lyrics.
... [C7] Your [F] toe bone connected to your foot bone
Your [Gm7] foot bone [C7] connected to your [F] ankle bone

Favorite cover, in The Singing Detective, 1986.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_…

Jmacg  •  Link

Surely our man wasn't hazer con elling Mrs. Martin in the presence of her sister and Mrs. Burrows?

Jeremy Buck  •  Link

I'm amazed that Sam just casually met the King whilst strolling in the Park..also surprised at so much activity, formal business and otherwise, on a Sunday. I thought everyone went to church in those days and nothing much else happened?

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Brings a couple of idle questions to mind.

Does Pepys name drop while hazer conning?

Also, is the hazer con all in shorthand or spelt out? If spelt out I could concur with L.H. about the added titillation WR to a foreign language (A Fish Called Wanda comes to mind - albeit Russian). But if the racy bits are in short hand, interpretation (for us) would be extra difficult I would think.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"I'm amazed that Sam just casually met the King whilst strolling in the Park."

Lots of stories about Charles II talking to people in the Park. He had security with him, and people had to get permission before approaching, but he loved taking out the dogs, and feeding his ducks.

That's how he first heard about the Popish Plot, but now we're beyond the Diary again.

Or was your point that Charles and James, both closet Catholics by now, would willingly be attending church to listen to Anglican sermons chastising them for their many mistresses? Charles just fired a Bishop because he was tired of the lectures.

I suspect they kept attendance to the bare minimum.

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