Sunday 21 June 1668
(Lord’s day). Up, and to church, and home and dined with my wife and Deb. alone, but merry and in good humour, which is, when all is done, the greatest felicity of all, and after dinner she to read in the “Illustre Bassa” the plot of yesterday’s play, which is most exactly the same, and so to church I alone, and thence to see Sir W. Pen, who is ill again, and then home, and there get my wife to read to me till supper, and then to bed.
7 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"...with my wife and Deb. alone, but merry and in good humour, which is, when all is done, the greatest felicity of all,..."
He's onto something, but does he really, really know what it is?
Robert Gertz • Link
No doubt the other day's reading and accompanying intimacy helping to give Bess that renewal of feeling she is a needed part of the team...She always seems touchingly content when Sam reaches out in some way like that.
***
Bess setting table...
“Ooh, baby, do you know what that's worth?
Ooh, heaven is a place called France.
They say in heaven love comes first.
So clearly heaven is a place called France...
Bess St. Michel Pepys’ Heaven...Is a place...Called...
...Sam...”
“Hah!! I heard that!” Sam, gleefully...
Hope so...Bess, pensive.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Charles II: June 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 418-468. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
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June 21. 1668
Deal.
Rich Watts to [Williamson].
At Canterbury and other places all complain of the dullness of trade, the cheapness of corn, and the number of taxes;
many farmers have given up their leases, and others must break by Michaelmas, and talk very boldly.
Several vessels from Dieppe had heard nothing of the dispute between the French man of-war and his Majesty’s ship Nightingale;
no Dutch ship has been aground at the Goodwin Sands since the last war.
A French fisherman ran aground in sight of Deal, but did not put off.
I will furnish all Lisbon ships with the news Gazettes and letters, if anything considerable transpires.
[S.P. Dom., Car II. 241, No. 207.]
David G • Link
Any idea when Sam had supper? It must have been late if he went straight to bed afterwards, as the entry implies.
San Diego Sarah • Link
He often has supper right before bed, at around 10 or 11 p.m. The maids stay up for him.
Nicolas • Link
“but merry and in good humour, which is, when all is done, the greatest felicity of all”
I like it when Sam waxes philosophical, it makes the diary come alive for me because I have the same musings.
San Diego Sarah • Link
You'll remember the brouhaha when a Fresh captain stole a Flemish boat from the harbor at Torquay in February 1668? Turns out that the "captain" was of far higher rank than we knew:
In 1668, the squadron leader of the naval armies, Gilles de La Roche Saint-André was ordered to command 10 ships, part of the squadron commanded by the Duke of Beaufort, which Louis XIV wanted to keep at sea. His squadron was made up of eight ships and six smaller ships.
De La Roche commanded Le Jules, when he died of a stroke, off Vigo, on the coast of Galicia, Spain, June 21, 1668. He was 47 years old.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil…
Which leads me to believe that Beaufort is still at sea, somewhere, since he wasn't with De la Roche ...
For the back story on the taking of The Mary, which Pepys thought would lead to war with the French, see:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…