Sunday 15 January 1659/60

Annotations

• N M.Stolzenbach on Wed 15 Jan 2003, 11:17pm

  I believe the “physic” was usually something to make the bowels work… so no wonder he “staid” at home.

  Someone was asking yesterday whether Pepys ever actually wrote “and so to bed.” They have their answer!

• N Eric Walla on Wed 15 Jan 2003, 11:56pm

  Does someone have insight into “the great Officiale”?

  Nice to see him spending quality time with the wife (OK, enough on this subject … until the topic calls for comment once again).

• N language hat on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 03:04am

  the Apposition:
  (from the OED)

  apposition 1. [a. OFr. aposicion, apposition, variant of opposition, in med.L. sense of oppo

• N Nicholas Laughlin on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 03:47am

• N Charles Weng on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 05:00am

  The Mind of Samuel Pepys

  Upon the wane of Puritan rule, it was apparently not obligatory for fashionable society to go to the same church every Sunday. On the other hand, it would not be unusual for a devout (or appearance-conscious) Christian to participate in multiple religious functions at various venues on a single Sunday, even if it was something as simple as a bible reading.

  The Pepys braved the wintry cold last Sunday to go to church, but this week our man stayed home to attend to his own health and his brother’s Greek. The Classics being our diarist’s scholastic expertise (a far more typical discipline then than now), such exercise would be routine. In any case, Pepys appeared to be much keener towards the politics, social gossip and popular music of his day.

  Now that I’ve made these comments, I welcome my fellow readers to discuss whether Pepys’ many talents and interests were merely fashionable for a man of his times, or that, as we delve further into the diary, we do see the emergence of a most particular intellect.

• N Michael Vincent on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 05:42am

  My personal observation is that talented people must be a doing. At that time they did not have any of the modern distractions, with this diary we can get insight to people using their mind.

• N Chris on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 06:17am

  “Having been exceedingly disturbed in the night with the barking of a dog of one of our neighbours…”

  It’s nice to know some things never change. :-)

• N Ed on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 02:22pm

  I’m really enjoying these journal entries and kudos to the person who had the idea to make them available.
  My only comment is that it seems as if Pepy didn’t have a terribly stressful life. He sure had an abundance of time to eat,socialize,read and listen to recitals.
  I’m sure this isn’t the whole picture, but it seems to be the one he presents in his journal.
  

• N Eric Walla on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 05:32pm

  Is the lack of stress in Samuel’s life actually a reflection of chaos in the life of the Nation? In his position it seems natural for him to become preoccupied with the goings-on in Parliament and the maneuverings of the larger figures of his time. Rather than sit on his hands, he wanders …

  Perhaps time will show him working all that much harder once a true direction has been established. Perhaps not.

• N M Betts on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 06:39pm

  more on Physic

  I have been searching around to find a reference to this physic
  At the time it was something quite specific (As annotated before a purgative) Its other meanings are quite interesting..
  1. The art of healing diseases; the science of medicine; the
  theory or practice of medicine. “A doctor of physik.”
  —Chaucer.
  [1913 Webster]
  
  2. A specific internal application for the cure or relief of
  sickness; a remedy for disease; a medicine.
  [1913 Webster]
  
  3. Specifically, a medicine that purges; a cathartic.
  [1913 Webster]
  
  4. A physician. [R.] —Shak.
  [1913 Webster)

• N crouchback on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 08:43pm

  in reference to stress
  there wasn’t a lot of exact timekeeping in those days, so there weren’t a lot of close deadlines; therefore work flow was a little more informal; therefore less of our modern idea of stress. also, pepys wasn’t involved in much important work at this time … he wasn’t promoted to his positions of influence until later …

• N language hat on Thu 16 Jan 2003, 09:12pm

  Physic:
  I have to disagree with M.Betts; at that time its most common meaning seems to have been the general one of ‘medicine’ (though ‘purgative’ was also used). Here’s the relevant OED entry:

  4 a = medicine sb.1 2. (Now chiefly colloq.)

  1591 Harington Orl. Fur. Pref., Tasso..likeneth Poetrie to the Phisicke that men giue vnto little children when they are sick. 1605 Shaks. Macb. v. iii. 47 Throw Physicke to the Dogs, Ile none of it. 1696 Tate & Brady Ps. civ. 14 Herbs, for Man’s use, of various Pow’r, That either Food or Physick yield. 1730 Wesley Wks. (1830) I. 11 A little money, food or physic. 1862 Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. ii. vi, And, Janey, you’ll take the physic, like a precious lamb: and heaps of nice things you shall have after it, to drive the taste out. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. x, As bad as the wrong physic,

• N Scott Rosser on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 12:37am

  Anybody have any idea what Pepys means by “[making] an end of this week’s notes in this book”? Did he in fact write out his diary entries in full every Sunday from notes gleaned during the week just gone, rather than (as popular imagination might have it) in the evenings before bed?

• N Paul Chapin on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 01:57am

  The word “physic” meaning ‘laxative’ or ‘purgative’ survived into American English through the late 19th century. My grandmother (b. 1885 in Kansas) used it. It formed the basis of a joke she liked to tell, of a teacher ordering that “all students taking physics should bring paper to class.”
  

• N Grahamt on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 12:13pm

  My Derbyshire born English Grandfather always referred to laxatives as physic. I’m sure it still exists in the north, where many old words, like thee/thou, still exist as dialect.

• N Geri on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 02:46pm

  My father (aged 78) still refers to laxatives as “physics”. Reading the term in the diary made me laugh. (And worry - poor Samuel, it wasn’t working!)

• N language hat on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 02:58pm

  “an end of this week’s notes”:
  Scott: I think he just means “make the last of the week’s entries.”

• N M.Stolzenbach on Fri 17 Jan 2003, 04:46pm

  This may be reading too much into the passage, but Samuel says that the physic didn’t work well because of the great cold and snow.

  I wondered if he was stifling his urges and thus impeding its work, rather than hurry to an outside lavatory in the courtyard, which is (I suspect) what they had.

• N Terry F on Fri 15 Jun 2007, 07:17pm

  Pepys is so viscerally distressed he does not *write* this day is Sunday.