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Monday 13 January 1661/62

All the morning at home, and Mr. Berkenshaw (whom I have not seen a great while, came to see me), who staid with me a great while talking of musique, and I am resolved to begin to learn of him to compose, and to begin to-morrow, he giving of me so great hopes that I shall soon do it. Before twelve o’clock comes, by appointment, Mr. Peter and the Dean, and Collonel Honiwood, brothers, to dine with me; but so soon that I was troubled at it. But, however, I entertained them with talk and oysters till one o’clock, and then we sat down to dinner, not staying for my uncle and aunt Wight, at which I was troubled, but they came by and by, and so we dined very merry, at least I seemed so, but the dinner does not please me, and less the Dean and Collonel, whom I found to be pitiful sorry gentlemen, though good-natured, but Mr. Peter above them both, who after dinner did show us the experiment (which I had heard talk of) of the chymicall glasses, which break all to dust by breaking off a little small end; which is a great mystery to me. They being gone, my aunt Wight and my wife and I to cards, she teaching of us how to play at gleeke, which is a pretty game; but I have not my head so free as to be troubled with it. By and by comes my uncle Wight back, and so to supper and talk, and then again to cards, when my wife and I beat them two games and they us one, and so good night and to bed.

Annotations

  • Game of gleek

    The following is also posted now at the “Cards” link:

    http://www.pagat.com/pointtrk/gleek.html

    gives brief information on the game which Sam is playing with his wife and Aunt Wright on Monday 13 January 1661/62.

    This page

    http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/histocs/gleek.html

    gives more information and some charming names for the cards:

    “If the turn-up is a Four (Tiddy), the dealer receives 4p from each opponent - or, similarly, 5 for the Five (Towser) or 6 for the Six (Tumbler), but only by prior agreement.”

    Trumps are mentioned, but a good deal of the game and the betting and bluffing involved sounds like poker. A page of a near-contemporary manual (The Compleat Gamester, 1674) is shown, where it declares that the game must only have three players, as we see happening here in the Pepys family.

  • See this website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~aroos/ROOS(000).pdf
    for information about the ‘chymicall glasses’ - it’s a pdf so I can’t cut and paste. Scroll down to the last paragraph on p129 and the top of the following page.

  • Below is some info cut & pasted from Jenny

  • re: “I am resolved to begin to learn of him to compose”

    One of Sam’s most charming attributes to me is his eagerness to take on new challenges, and to seek out instruction about them. Many people his age, and of his experience (he’s already a capable musician, after all), wouldn’t show such an enthusiasm for learning.

    Is Sam the Iggy Pop of the 1660s? He’s got a lust for life, yeah, a lust for life…

  • “a lust for life

  • Since someone as musically inclined as Sam is perfectly capable of making up a melody, one wonders if being taught to “compose” comprises, rather, composing an accompaniment to said melody, say for the lute; or some rules of text-setting (avoid real high notes on long “ee” sounds); or the difficult art of learning to notate what you make up so a stranger can play it too.

  • I can sympathize with Sam’s dismay in seeing the Honiwood brothers arrive too early for a planned meal. “What am I going to do with these people until the food is ready?” One can only pretend to be merry.

  • Prince Rupert’s glass drops were introduced in Sep 03 at
    http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/1357.php#c7549

  • written about by J Evelyn at an earlier date “of the chymicall glasses, which break all to dust by breaking off a little small end; which is a great mystery to me” the drawing had a similar shape to tadpole.

  • Great-tricks
    Greatorex, note # 42/

  • Composing:
    “In the 1660s John Birchensha claimed to have developed a system of

  • “a lust for life” A busy man is always ready for more, idle hands be devil hands. If you want something done always look to the busy one, even been in a cafe and the waitress/waiter is a sitting , you will always be a waiting , the busy one never keeps ye waiting or a waisting if it can be helped.

  • Pictures of Prince Rupert’s drops, the second pic was made with polarizing filters to show the internal stress of the glass.

    http://www.odu.edu/webroot/orgs/SCI/CHEM/TACT.nsf/files/polarize1.jpg/$FILE/polarize1.jpg

    http://www.odu.edu/webroot/orgs/SCI/CHEM/TACT.nsf/files/polarize2.jpg/$FILE/polarize2.jpg

  • Peter Carey has an excellent description of the the effect of Prince Rupert’s drops in Oscar and Lucinda. The rest of it is pretty good too!

  • Interesting that in 1662, 20 years after Prince Rupert introducted them, Sam did not call them Prince Rupert’s Drops, whilst they are always called that now. Does anybody know when they started to be called this?

  • “…the dinner does not please me…” — The guests come early, then they’re “pitiful sorry gentlemen,” they started dinner without waiting for the Wights, and the cook is a lazy slut. Sometime’s it’s just hard to act merry.

  • Thank you Katharina for the lovely photographs. And I, too, immediately thought of Oscar and Lucinda, where the use of these glass objects by the author becomes mystical, challenging and a metaphor for Lucinda’s life choices and her gambling passion - if she twists off the tail of the drop, it will be gone for ever, but for how long can she resist not doing it, just as when she loses vast amounts of money, now gone for ever, there is a sense of cathartic release. Carey is an amazing author.

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