Sunday 5 July 1668

(Lord’s day). About four in the morning took four pills of Dr. Turberville’s prescribing, for my eyes, and they wrought pretty well most of the morning, and I did get my wife to spend the morning reading of Wilkins’s Reall Character. At noon comes W. Hewer and Pelling, and young Michell and his wife, and dined with us, and most of the afternoon talking; and then at night my wife to read again, and to supper and to bed.

12 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

I wonder how Bess likes "being Sam's eyes"...No doubt he's making it clear the dismal future he fears awaits them if he loses his ability to read but her take would be interesting. Obviously Sam's problems are mostly reading-related now but is he suggesting to her he believes true blindness is just around the corner? Given his medical history he could be forgiven for expecting the worst. And does she view this as an unmitigated disaster or perhaps one that will allow her a bit of impowerment in the marriage?

Jenny  •  Link

I think Elizabeth enjoyed reading to Sam. It would have brought them closeness and intimacy. I am sure she worried about his eyes - she cared for him deeply. I don't know that the notion of empowerment would have entered her head. Yes, she was a wonderfully feisty and independent woman, but she was a 17th century woman. My mother laid out my late father's clothes for him every morning and always made sure he was served first at dinner and that was in the late 20th century. He was the man of the house and the breadwinner and that was how things were. It didn't make her unhappy - it was her role.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Not in so many modern words, but I wonder if Bess would have considered that blind (or reading blind) Sam would be needier and more dependent Sam. I'm sure she's concerned for him...They're a very loving and supportive couple as to mutual illnesses, despite their frustrations with each other at times. On the other hand I can't see Bess Pepys as a woman quite comfortable with her "role"...At least the uncomplaining, dutiful, unquestioning, and above all, unbothering one Sam often seems eager for her to take up. Though at least subconsciously Sam, as often as he resents her rebellious streak, seems rather pleased when she shows a little spirit. She likes to help him and seems at her best when he's making her feel a part of a team with him but without that element she becomes resentful and I think takes no little pleasure in getting a rise out of him by neglecting duties he expects her to perform. They married for love and she expects and I think again was led by him to expect more from him as a result.

john  •  Link

My wife read to me whilst I recovered from eye surgery (despite it not being a topic close to her heart -- ancient Egyptian history #6-). But this is now and it seems that reading to one another was common then. I understand his terror.

JKM  •  Link

When Sam says the pills "wrought well"--do we think they were some sort of purgative?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Shows how paltry the armaments of physicians at the time, and how probative what they did was -- eliminate bad humours first, then.... --, sans the Royal Society's experimental basis of it. So they struggled for results and repute.

"First, do no harm" is the germ of, but below the current standard of demonstrated safety and effectiveness.

Alan  •  Link

For a contemporary examination on the prospect of blindness to a man of letters, we need look no further surely than "On his Blindness" ( http://www.bartleby.com/101/318.h… ) by John Milton. Of course, Milton's Puritan faith may have made him a little more accepting of what he perceived as God's will. I don't see Sam as being very happy to "only stand and wait".

That said, Milton went on to write "Paradise Lost" while blind, so perhaps deep-down he wasn't much on standing and waiting either.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Even by the standards of the day, Milton exploited his family when blind. Don't think Sam would have behaved in the same way, but who knows. Going blind or deaf is a frightening prospect for anyone, anywhere and at all times.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'Charles II: July 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 469-516.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk…

@@@
July 5. 1668
The Mary, Portsmouth.
Capt. Rob. Clarke to Williamson.

I perused the letters sent to Sir Thos. Allin,
he having left me in command of the ships.

I have little news beyond that a fleet of ships has been seen off the Isle of Wight, supposed to be Hollanders, but a small vessel has been sent out for better satisfaction.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 143.]

ADM. ALLIN'S WIFE WAS SICK LAST MONTH, SO HE HAS PROBABLY TAKEN THIS OPPORTUNITY TO CHECK IN ON HER BEFORE SAILING.

@@@
July 5. 1668
Portsmouth.
B. J. [Ben. Johnson] to Williamson.

Forty merchant ships convoyed by 2 Holland men-of-war have passed by St. Helen’s Point outward bound,
and the Emsworth sloop is sent out to take a more particular view of them.
The Monk, Bristol, and Providence continue at Spithead.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 242, No. 144.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Going blind isn't fun, but going blind with money is better than without it.

Elizabeth and Sam are part of an extended family ... they lived communally, an experience few in this group have had.
They have a nice house in Brampton which we know sleeps 8 (maybe more); they will continue to have a cook, a housemaid, a boy (and possibly a girl) from the parish to run errands and be given rudimentary education, and Sam would probably have a man to assist him with his daily chores, and Elizabeth will find a gentlewoman to be friends with (we hope).

It's close to Hinchingbrooke, so if they have an emergency, presumably help can be summonsed from The Big House (which doesn't mean a prison in this case).

Pepys will dictate his History of the Navy from the books and papers he has collected. He will sing in the church choir, and by the honeysuckle in his garden. He will play his organ and his viol. He may become a local J.P.

It's Elizabeth who will go nuts from boredom, as usual. I can't see her learning to make her own paint, somehow. She's no Mary Beale. Reading to Sam may become her regular occupation and be the saving of her marriage.

Third Reading

Log in to post an annotation.

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