Thursday 10 October 1661

At the office all the morning; dined at home, and after dinner Sir W. Pen and my wife and I to the Theatre (she first going into Covent Garden to speak a word with a woman to enquire of her mother, and I in the meantime with Sir W. Pen’s coach staying at W. Joyce’s), where the King came to-day, and there was “The Traytor” most admirably acted; and a most excellent play it is. So home, and intended to be merry, it being my sixth wedding night; but by a late bruise … [One cannot help curiosity of where a bruise could be that had to be censored out. D.W.] [in one of my testicles – L&M] I am in so much pain that I eat my supper and in pain to bed, yet my wife and I pretty merry.

29 Annotations

First Reading

John Simmons  •  Link

"A LATE BRUISE..."
According to Robert Latham's
"Shorter Pepys"..."a late bruise in
one of my testicles"...

dirk  •  Link

The Traytor

"The Traytor a Tragedie, Written by James Shirley. Acted By her Majesties Servants." 1631, publ. 1635.

Play by James Shirley, see
http://www.britannica.com/shakesp…

Shirley was one of the leading playwrights in the decade before the closing of the theatres by Parliament in 1642.

Bradford  •  Link

Ouch!

(Surely D.W. could have figured that one out. An Editor's Duty!)

daniel  •  Link

*OUCH*
i suppose such a bruise would disincline many of us gents of "being merry", anniversary or not!

upper_left_hand_corner  •  Link

"Late" in the sense of recent, of course. It isn't clear when the incident might have happened in the last day or two, though. Wouldn't he have remarked on it?

Mary  •  Link

"caused by a late bruise"

L&M quote Dr. C.E. Newman, to the effect that this was probably not a bruise, but an episode of inflammation consequent upon a latent infection left by Pepys' operation for the stone. The inflammation could have been provoked by a temporary constriction, e.g. sitting with the legs crossed for a period of time.

Too much sitting around in theatres, Sam?

Bob T  •  Link

"caused by a late bruise”

Thanks for the explanation Mary. Without these explanations, one’s imagination is apt to run wild.

JWB  •  Link

"caused by a late bruise”
With due respect to Dr. Newman, I think it more likely that Sam was bruised getting in/out or helping lady get in/out of one of the coaches he’s been using lately. Without adequate brakes and a couple of burley footmen to hold a fractious team, stepping up into a coach on a busy city street was an adventure.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "a late bruise"

Could someone with access to L&M please fill in the entire phrase? I appreciate John's contribution above (and am working with all my might to avoid making a joke about the information's inclusion in "The Shorter Pepys"), but it doesn't seem as if the sentence is complete.

FWIW, things unrelated to Sam's operation could cause the same pain ... for example, chlamydia (a sexually transmitted infection caused by a bacteria called chlamydia trachomatis) can, in men, cause inflammation of the reproductive area near the testicles (a condition known as epidydimitis).

Uncross your legs, gents.

j.simmons  •  Link

"A late bruise"
Sorry Todd...all Robt. Latham
shows, just insert his section of
the quote. Robt. being a Fellow of
Magdalene College, Cambridge, where
he had charge of The Diary itself,
and has "devoted the past thirty
years to the study of the diary and,
in addition to his work on the
eleven volume edition, is the editor
of "The Illustrated Pepys."...Hmmm,
no pictures for Oct. 10 in that! Makes
you wonder.

vicente  •  Link

There be I thinking of that frolique in that bumpy coach and ...."...but by a late bruise ..." only to be disappointed in the true meaning of 'late' 'bruise' and 'frolic' and he being warned by Bragge that some one be after his bag of loose change that he ties in his english sporran under his inner covering. Oh! well ye live? and ye learn.

Louis  •  Link

"So home and entended to be merry, it being my sixth wedding night; but by a late bruise in one of my testicles I am in so much pain that I eat my supper and in pain to bed; yet my wife and I pretty merry."

Ipsissima verba, Todd!

Pauline  •  Link

"Ipsissima verba, Todd!"
Louis, I think the rule is that you don't do this without immediate translation--lest you wax snobbish and subject to our stones.

"yet my wife and I pretty merry"
I do like our Sam!

Ruben  •  Link

Ipsissima verba
from Google:
The Latin term "Ipsissima verba" means, in a UK legal context: "the very words of a speaker."

Peter  •  Link

I can never tell the difference between my ipsissima verba and my horse's mouth.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

My sympathies to your horse, Peter! :-)

Merci, Louis (and j.simmons, and others).

Peter  •  Link

Todd,....It's why he has such a long face!

Mary  •  Link

"yet my wife and I pretty merry".

Now, how do Sam and Elizabeth contrive to be pretty merry when Sam is in so much pain? Perhaps because both are intimately aware of exactly how he got the bruise (if bruise it be) and both manage to find some enjoyment in the memory of the occasion, despite its painful consequences.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"yet my wife and I pretty merry."

Sam valiantly does his Duty on the 6th.

Poor Pepys duo...She with her unmentionable ulcers and he with his censored bruise...But they get by.

I begin to see why she came back to this guy, even when stuck in the miserable Montague garret that year.

I suppose the person truly miserable in the household this night was one Will Hewer...Though it's hard to be certain from post-Diary events which of the Pepys he was most in love with...

michael j. gresk m.a.  •  Link

to: peter, daniel, mary, pauline, ruben, bob t, JWB vincente, louis, et. al. ---- many thanks for the educational & entertaining running commentary --- MJG

David Ross McIrvine  •  Link

*The Traitor*

Probably Shirley's *The Traytor* was being put on during the Restoration due to its historical basis--the killing, under at least a republican pretext--of a hereditary ruler. Alessandro de Medici had been made hereditary Duke of Florence in 1532, and was assassinated by Lorenzino (or Lorenzaccio) de Medici, who wrote an apology for the murder in which he justified it as an attempt to restore a republic to Florence.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fro…

In the 19th century, Alfred de Musset also wrote a play on this subject, titled *Lorenzaccio*.

Michael N Hull  •  Link

It sounds to me like Pepys was suffering from orchitis.

cum salis grano  •  Link

The late bruise, it be a mystery, medical cause be the most likeliest, stone removal and opportunities to get infection, but could not help but wander if there could involve a defensive hat pin , judging by one of Pepys' MO, although riding in an unsprung horse drawn vehicle can cause new sensations and Pepys' newly gained regular mode of travel versus previous popular mode, shank's pony could also explain his pain.

Second Reading

john  •  Link

I concur with M.N. Hull -- swollen testicles come go, nowadays assisted with Analgesics (vide http://www.merckmanuals.com/profe… as well as the Wikipedia entry. I have had a few with no pain and little discomfort.

Larry Moore  •  Link

I doubt it is a result of the stone. To long after the surgery.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"it being my sixth wedding night"

The entry in the registry of St Margaret's, Westminster, establishes that a civil marriage took place on 1 December 1655 before Richard Sherwin, Justice of the Peace. The most likely explanation is that the Pepyses insisted on a religious ceremony (on the preceding 10 October and at a place now unknown) as well s the civil marriage required by the act of 1653. The Diary shows that they reckoned the years of their married life from the October ceremony.
(L&M footnote)

Matt Newton  •  Link

yet my wife and I pretty merry."

Is this a euphemism for hanky pank

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