Saturday 1 August 1668
All the morning at the office. After dinner my wife, and Deb., and I, to the King’s house again, coming too late yesterday to hear the prologue, and do like the play better now than before; and, indeed, there is a great deal of true wit in it,1 more than in the common sort of plays, and so home to my business, and at night to bed, my eyes making me sad.
7 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"hear the prologue, and do like [*The Old Troop, or Monsieur Raggou* by John Lacy] better now than before; and, indeed, there is a great deal of true wit in it"
PROLOGUE.
To you that judges are i' th' public street
Of ballad without sense, or even feet;
To you that laugh aloud with wide-mouth'd grace,
To see Jack Pudding's custard thrown in's face—
To you I do address; for you I write;
From you I hope protection here to-night.
Defend me, O my friends of th' upper region,
From the hard censure of this lower legion.
I was in hope that I should only see
My worthy crew of th' upper gallery.
What made you wits so spitefully to come?
To tell you true, I'd rather had your room.
Order there was, and that most strictly gi'n,
To keep out all that look'd like gentlemen.
You have e'en bribed the doorkeepers, I doubt,
Or else I'm sure they would ha' kept you out.
You must nor censure poet nor his play,
For that's the work o' the upper house to-day.
Deal you, Sirs, with your match, your Dryden wit,
Your poet-laureate both to box and pit.
It is some conquest for to censure him
That's filled with wit and judgment to the brim:
He is for your censure, and I'm for theirs,
Pray therefore meddle with your own affairs.
Let wits and poets keep their proper stations;
He writes to th' terms, I to th' long vacations.
http://goo.gl/Qd3TF
DiPhi • Link
Your eyes are making me sad too, Sam.
JWB • Link
But 'Mens cujusque is est Quisque'! I guess Pepys writing to th' terms on his bookplate, and to long vacations in the diary.
Terry Foreman • Link
"true wit"
Clever, methinks, how Lacy maps the theatre audience onto the larger sociopolitical space and time and locates himself and the poet laureate. Nice lines, those last: Dryden writes for the parliament in session, Lacy for the rest of the people (those in the pits) in the greater times when parliament is prorogued.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Charles II: August 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 516-565. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… .
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Aug. 1. 1668
Edinburgh.
News
that the Council are ordered to raise more forces, and will raise a regiment of foot and 3 troops of horse, and perhaps more forces,
and dispense with the militia.
The King ordered the quartering of guards in Edinburgh for its security,
but the Lord Provost prevented that trouble by entering bond to the Council to clear the city of all rebels and conventicles,
or forfeit 100/. sterling for every conventicle,
and 50/. for every rebel found in the city.
A close search is making after them, and 40 are imprisoned,
some of whom are sentenced to a fine and banishment to Virginia.
[Dom. Papers, Charles II., Vol. 243, No. 154.]
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Aug. 1. 1668
Portsmouth.
Thos. Hayter to Sam. Pepys.
Is detained through the backwardness of the ships for payment.
Sends notes in answer to his inquiry concerning tickets.
Particulars as to payment of Sir Thos. Allin’s squadron at Spithead.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 58.]
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Aug. 1. 1668
Victualling Office, London.
Sir Denis Gauden to the Navy Commissioners.
Hearing that Mr. Fitzmaurice, executor to Thos. Amory, had neglected to supply the ships on the coast of Ireland with victuals as promised,
gave order for their supply other ways, and with some difficulty remitted some moneys;
hopes there will be no further complaint.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 59.]
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Aug. 1. 1668
The Merlin, Hung Road, Bristol.
Capt. John Clements to the Navy Commissioners.
I went to Sir John Knight for the necessary materials for tallowing,
when Sir John told me to buy tallow, &c. with the 5/. which you ordered him to pay me;
but I have spent it in cordage, according to your command.
I would not trouble Sir John if I had money of my own, but I am in a strange
place where I have no acquaintance to borrow from;
the deck and sides are so leaky that we cannot lie dry in our beds.
The 2 state-rooms want canvas over them.
Being ordered to continue, and winter coming on, I desire a supply of things needed
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 61.]
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Aug. 1. 1668
Bristol.
Capt. John Wettwang to the Navy Commissioners.
Particulars of the launching of the Edgar.
The fall being great, she broke 3 of the lowermost ways, and gave way a little in the midships;
she draws 2 feet astern, 10 feet 10 inches of water ahead, and swims well.
Shall buy things at the best hand; hopes that what volunteers come may be entered.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 62.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Sir Denis Gauden to the Navy Commissioners.
"Hearing that Mr. Fitzmaurice, executor to Thos. Amory, had neglected to supply the ships on the coast of Ireland with victuals as promised,
gave order for their supply other ways, and with some difficulty remitted some moneys;
hopes there will be no further complaint."
Denis Gauden is in a difficult position. His Victualling contract is being contested, as Pepys tells us https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… so while he wants to perform responsibly, I'm sure he doesn't want to over extend himself doing other people's contracts.
Pepys sees little of him for about two months while this situation works its way through the Committee. I'm sure both Pepys and Gauden were happy that Rupert wasn't on the committee, but Allin's complaints have not been helpful.
Stephane Chenard • Link
For several weeks now, the Gazette, at the end of page 2 where the good stuff often is, has printed an Advertisement from the Lord Commissioners of the Treasury, to invite "all Receivers and other Accountants", and all Collectors, to show up, on Tuesdays at 7 of the morning or on Thursdays at 3 of the afternoon, to account for the taxes they have Collected, or (for the Receivers), received from the Collectors. So far, so good, in a system where of course tax collection is outsourced to private gentlemen.
Except, the notices pertained to recovering, among many taxes, "the one Moneths Tax from the 29 of September 1660" and "from the First of July 1661". That's right, money collected as long as 8 years ago. Admittedly those were still unsettled years, but the Collectors were still "admonished (...) to take care forthwith to pay all such Moneys to the Receivers as they have in their hands", or else.
Now, Gazette No. 281, containing items dated through July 31, must be hitting the streets today, and the series comes to an end with this page 2 ad: "Whereas Advertisement hath been several times given to the Receivers of His Majesties' Money, that they should without delay pay into His Majesties' Exchequer all such Moneys as were remaining in their hand, and apply themselves with diligence to their respective Auditors", &c. &c. &c., "very many of them have neither done the one nor the other", and so the Treasury will be cracking down.
Thus is exposed one of the reasons why Sam can't pay the bills, apart from all the demands placed on the money pipe, and the Realm's sorry condition post-Fire/war/plague: The tax collectors have kept the loot for themselves, unmolested since the Restoration, to fund their coaches and manor houses. Sam would surely not have needed the Gazette to know this but might still have nodded at the display. He also thinks the lord Treasurers are unusually competent, for a Commission. So will they succeed? Why, perhaps the Treasury will seize some of those coaches and auction them cheap ...