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Wednesday 24 April 1661

Waked in the morning with my head in a sad taking through the last night’s drink, which I am very sorry for; so rose and went out with Mr. Creed to drink our morning draft, which he did give me in chocolate to settle my stomach. And after that I to my wife, who lay with Mrs. Frankelyn at the next door to Mrs. Hunt’s, and they were ready, and so I took them up in a coach, and carried the ladies to Paul’s, and there set her down, and so my wife and I home, and I to the office. That being done my wife and I went to dinner to Sir W. Batten, and all our talk about the happy conclusion of these last solemnities. After dinner home, and advised with my wife about ordering things in my house, and then she went away to my father’s to lie, and I staid with my workmen, who do please me very well with their work. At night, set myself to write down these three days’ diary, and while I am about it, I hear the noise of the chambers, and other things of the fire-works, which are now playing upon the Thames before the King; and I wish myself with them, being sorry not to see them. So to bed.

Thursday 25 April 1661Tuesday 23 April 1661

Also on this day

Temperature: 8°C / 46°F

  • (Average for April 1661)

In Earls Colne, Essex

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Annotations

  • “to drink our morning draft,which he did give me in chocolate to settle my stomach” what is this? beer and chocolate? doesn’t sound inviting,let alone to settle the stomach!

  • Aked waked oh! well, Water drinkers don’t write good verse[any way] {so I was taught by my Latin master on my pew translating Horace} “…Waked in the morning with my head in a sad taking through the last night

  • “which he did give me in chocolate”

    I read this to mean “in the form of” a chocolate drink.

  • “…and advised with my wife about ordering things in my house, and then she went away to my father

  • …advised with my wife…

    ‘Advise with’ = ‘take counsel together’
    Sam and Elizabeth are simply discussing the work, exchanging opinions and presumably reaching agreement; no mention of ‘high words’.

  • Vicente: “advised”, smells of more negative content …

    I’m not so sure this word hasn’t retained at least a little of its negative association to this day. I have yet to receive a letter beginning “Please be advised” that imparted anything but bad news.

  • … in chocolate..

    Dirk is right. Compare other expressions such as those expressing forms of payment: in coin of the realm, in small change, etc. The ‘in’ qualifies the form of the morning draught.

    Pepys doesn’t comment on how well or not he appreciated this recommendation. L&M Companion notes that chocolate was a fairly heavy drink at this time as it was rich in cocoa-butter (not yet extracted for the manufacture of chocolate confectionery) and was also often further enriched by the addition of eggs, sack or spices. No mention of sugar or other sweetener being added, which is a little surprising in view of the great bitterness of pure chocolate.

  • Chocolate
    has been discussed a year ago. See “background information”.

    May be SP’s “morning draft” were most of the time a “break-fast” drink, not necessarily beer, like in today’s case.
    Chocolate in those days was bitter, but a taste for sweets was just developing. (prices for sugar cane were a little high).
    Coffee continues to be bitter and it does not make a difference to a lot of people.
    Tea (in my opinion) is better whitout sugar .
    The common ground: caffeine.

  • Chocolate in your cups
    The Aztec word means bitter drink. The Spanish court added sugar and vanilla and this the form that became world beater. Chocolate does go with beer, not as well as with red wine, but then what does? Here in Cincinnati, we put it in our Chili.

  • “Chocolate does go with beer, not as well as with red wine”
    *shudder*
    I hope you don’t waste anything better than Bulgarian plonk on that combination.

  • The aztecs drank their “chocolate” made with water and a small amount of very hot peppercorn. It is extremely good, better than the milk and sugar variety that has developed in europe.

  • Chocolate
    I heard that the Aztecs used chocolate as a hallucinogenic.

  • “set myself to write down these three days

  • Mary: Very few wives at this time, had the luxury of being called “She who must be obeyed” Look at how our Sam runs a round doing his thing, leaving the little wifey to fend for herself while all this hoopla is going on. Just my tort?
    He was laying down the rules of the new improved living arrangements. It is known that she was not the best of organisers of help and feeding of [his majesty] Sam.
    Of course there are exceptions, e.g. Annie [nee Hide] was said to wear the pants [leaving James his cod piece of course] while jimmy [James bro: of CII] had fun entertaining the boys for brecky.

  • Don’t forget - this is Sam’s diary! We do not know what Mrs P is getting up to or with whom during all the time she is away from Sam.

  • touche[y]

  • Looking around for chocolate and beer, came up, that People speak of beer having a malted chocolate Aroma.
    Aroma: Roast malt or grain aroma, often coffee-like or chocolate-like, should be evident. Hop aroma moderate to low. Fruity esters, and diacetyl, are moderate to none.
    http://hbd.org/ford/newsletters/0501.html
    we have Young’s Double Chocolate Stout!
    http://www.alcoholreviews.com/BEERS/guinness.html
    How does our Three Threads/Chocolate Porter taste? The word “Chocolate” in the name comes from the chocolate malt that we employ in the brewing of our beers.
    Porter is for the Porters’ of Lundon’s hour off from deliveries.
    http://www.bayhawkales.com/ThreeThreads.html
    another additive, is to add a jigger of rum {Jamaican} to a pint of Guinness, removes all humurs past, and present.

  • ‘what Mrs P is getting up to or with whom ‘
    Evidence is that Elizabeth had her own schedule for enjoying the coronation. The plan appears to be to meet Sam at Mrs. Frankelyn’s this morning.

    Perhaps Sam has been in a position to get near the heart of the ceremony and Elizgbeth was willing (or preferred) to go the social route. Sam’s access is a little forbidding:

    “And with much ado, by the favour of Mr. Cooper, his man, did get up into a great scaffold across the North end of the Abbey, where with a great deal of patience I sat from past 4 till 11 before the King came in.”

    Women are more delicate in their “patience” when considering this kind of opportunity.

  • Ruben — no caffeine in chocolate,
    just similar xanthine alkaloids. Besides the more dominant Theobromine (“food of the gods”), the other alkaloid is actually a mirror image of caffeine and has a very different effect— no jitters. Same active substance as that of yerba mate’, actually.

    Vincent/Vicente, a counterpart to your quote of Horice (Horace?) from a spanish drinking song, intentionally mispelled in drunken pronunciation:

    Bever, Bever, Bever es um gran placer;
    el agua es pa ba~narse, y pa losh patosh que nadam bien

    To drink (3x) is a great pleasure;
    water is for bathing and for ducks that swim well.

    I wish I could find the rest of the lyrics …

  • Advise with

    OED sense 7: to take counsel with, to consider in company, to hold a consultation.

    1638, Healey: ’ who, distrusting his friends and familiars, in serious matters adviseth with his servants.’

    No-one is suggesting that Elizabeth is calling the tune; they are just talking the matter over together. If Sam had been carrying a difficult point against Elizabeth, we should probably have heard about it in explicit detail.

  • “We do not know what Mrs P is getting up to or with whom during all the time she is away from Sam.”

    From the Diary so far we can see that Sam is the organiser, and with his attention to detail, if and when she is up to something I’m sure we will hear in explicit detail!

  • upper_left_hand_corner
    thank you for your remark about the chocolate.
    After learning today from you I fill obliged to make a big disgression in your honor:
    Pobrecitos los borrachos
    que estan en el campo santo,
    que estan en el campo santo,
    que Dios los tenga en la gloria por haber bebido tanto.

    Beber, beber, beber es un gran placer
    el agua es para las ranas
    y pa’ los peces que nadan bien.

    “sorry for the drunken, they are in the cemetery, let God keep them in his Glory, cause they had drank so much.”
    The other part you translated.
    for more like this see :
    http://www.dichos.galeon.com/vino.htm

  • “Waked in the morning with my head in a sad taking” —

    Samuel’s conscientious and skillful construction of the narrative shows up here. Though he is composing the three days’ entries while nursing a bitter hangover, his ebullient relation of the two days of pomp and partying convey the immediate joy and and boisteriousness of it with no foreshadowing of today’s suffering. It would be very hard to relate the tale in that state without interpolating some suggestion of the pain to come.

  • Was Sam hung over?

    Do we think he was still hung over by that night? Perhaps he wasn’t—with drinking several glasses of water I can get rid of a hangover by the late afternoon. Pure water was difficult to come by at the time, but on the other hand they must have had some way to rehydrate. Otherwise, life could have easily been a permanent hangover.

  • I hope that Sam didn’t ruin his nice coronation clothing by “spewing” all over it!

  • re: spewing

    Kevin, I was wondering the same thing … maybe he got the velvet coat off before he began to erupt.

    But oh! the smell … his breath was probably improved after his morning chocolate, but I’m sure his garments still stunk. No mention of washing (but, then, there very rarely is…)

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