Friday 28 February 1661/62

Annotations

• N andy on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 09:05am

  but only to my arm, which I am already, within a quarter of an hour, not able to stir almost.

  serves him right!

  Sam is really getting uppity now.

• N Mary on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 09:08am

  This, surely is the classic example of, “This hurts me more than it hurts you”.

• N George R on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 09:14am

  A new room for the office, the papers in place and most of the salary paid; he feels just Great but being the Boss at home doesn’t come easy. “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you” comes to mind.

• N Xjy on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 09:46am

  Whipper’s elbow
  Sam obviously needs a lot more practice…and a higher quality of school supplies. Fortunately in a couple of centuries the British bourgeoisie will have taken whipping to world-class levels. (sob) I feel (sob) such an attack of nostalgia (sob) coming on… (sob)
  Compare The Walrus and the Carpenter.

• N Pauline on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 03:21pm

  “I bade Will get me a rod…but the rods were so small…”
  Solidarity here? I wish we had a diary of the household by one of the servants.

• N Nix on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 03:40pm

  “We staid looking it over a great while with the Duke” —

  Having worked for a Congressman and a couple of University presidents, I can relate to the boost Samuel gets from having some quality face time with the boss. Very human, very timeless.

• N Bart on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 03:48pm

  “they did not much hurt to him” — Perhaps he was displeased at not having drawn blood. Ahh, the days when child-abuse was considered a normal part of life…
  

• N Todd Bernhardt on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 04:03pm

  re: Spare the child, spoil the rods

  Pauline, good point — perhaps Will’s empathy for the boy influenced his choice of rods.

  Sam’s tense when writing about the effects of the whipping on his arm (“which I am already, within a quarter of an hour, not able to stir almost”) leads me to believe that he wrote the diary entry immediately after the whipping, and is thus predicting (rather than reflecting on) his supper and bedtime. Does anyone else see it that way?

  re: the map of Tangier … folks with access to L&M, is there any note that talks about whether or not this map is still around?

• N Mary on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 04:20pm

  Beckman’s map.

  According to the L&M footnote, this map is still extant in the British Library (King’s maps, CXVII, 78)

• N Mary on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 04:24pm

  half a year’s salary.

• N language hat on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 05:17pm

  map of Tangier
  I haven’t been able to find any historical maps online, but here’s a nice photo that shows the harbor area and Spain clearly visible across the Strait:
  http://www.geocities.com/intrepidberkeleyexplorer/Page26G.html

• N Ruben on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 05:42pm

  A nice postcard of Tanger with a legend in French explaining that the Portuguese gave the city as a present to King Charles and the spoiler that it was difficult to guard and… see more in future Pepys entries.
  See: http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/morocco/tanger/maps/aveline_ca1700_tanger_b.jpg

• N Ruben on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 05:57pm

  the splendid site of the Hebrew University contains a lot of old maps. See: http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/historic_cities.html
  The “Plan Des Villes De Londres Et De Westminster et de leurs Faubourgs
  avec le Bourg de Southwark” is superb and show us how and what the French knew about the English. They probably used a satellite photo to make the map! Or at least some help from within. For sure the Dutch had the same information when they came so near to London during the next war…

• N Todd Bernhardt on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 06:23pm

  re: half a year’s salary

  Mary, I thought Sam’s annual salary was

• N vicenzo on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 08:26pm

  Error[Errata minor] I do believe, as 350L by the quarter, will be the amount mentioned, and that be how one be paid, pre- salaried days, by the quarter, that be popular too for removing a body from the gibbet, quarter it. ‘Tis why Sam be a running around squaring his debtors before they have his hide for Brideswell. Gentlemen be paid by the Year.

• N vicenzo on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 08:33pm

  The under 40’s have missed a treat of touching ones toes and enjoying a quad, and the Master never complained of the exercise of biceps, for HE be a ready for the next culprit standing in line a waiting, then after that practice, out for a fine game of fives or squash. “…whipped him soundly, but the rods were so small that I fear they did not much hurt to him, but only to my arm, which I am already, within a quarter of an hour, not able to stir almost….”

• N roboto on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 08:43pm

  “I bade Will get me a rod…but the rods were so small”
  I remember that one having done it a few time myself in my youth.

• N Glyn on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 08:53pm

  I’m also glad that he suffered more than the boy did, but this seems to me to be a sign that Pepys was a compassionate employer, in that he didn’t beat the boy routinely, as most of his contemporaries would have done.

• N Australian Susan on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 11:36pm

  “All the Admirality papers”
  How much paperwork would that have been, I wonder? And why were official Government papers in someone’s private house (even if he had been a Govt employee) and why had it taken so long for the Navy Office to get these papers into their office?

• N Bradford on Tue 1 Mar 2005, 11:49pm

  I’m sure we all hope that Sam has now learned his lesson, and won’t let a misbehaving boy tempt him into doing himself such an injury again.

  (Can just imagine Will H.’s inner smirk when he notices Master’s game arm.)

• N DK Johnson on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 12:16am

  Who among us, when asked to fetch the instrument of our own punishment, would reach for any but the lightest rod available?

• N Pauline on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 02:05am

  “…I bade Will get me a rod, and he and I called the boy…”
  To keep it straight: Will Hewer is sent to select the rod, but it is Wayneman Birch who gets the, ah, birching.

• N Pauline on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 02:11am

• N dirk on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 03:48am

  the boy’s punishment

  Re comments like:

  “I

• N Pauline on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 04:44am

  “…resolved to whip him for that and many other faults…”
  Dirk, even in my day there was sometimes a sense of a spanking due for an accumlation of behavior that needed to be stopped—time to settle oneself down by experiencing an immediate consequence.

• N vicenzo on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 05:24am

  Lashings were the standard in that they be common along with common law of the Day. One of the multitude of reasons for the various revolutions that have taken place to give us this bruise free backsides that we enjoy in this civilized age.

• N Australian Susan on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 08:01am

  Corporal punishment & Sam
  Whipping one’s servants was perfectly normal in those days. Sam does not lash out at the boy in a fit of temper, but administers what would have been normal punishment in an ordered fashion. He “reckons up” all Wayneman’s faults to show the boy that this whipping is an inevitable consequence of his actions. Apprenctice indentures of the time often had clauses about corporal punishment included - what was/was not allowed.

• N Xjy on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 10:18am

  Cold-blooded calculated whippings
  “Normal” and “ordered”, just like dear Judge Jeffreys. Hang a man for sixpence.
  Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb makes a lot of sense in this kind of setup.
  I’m with Vincent on the place of revolutions with respect to weltless withers.
  Britain’s still a pretty sick place as far as children’s rights and integrity are concerned, as a couple of reports in today’s Guardian show.
  I suppose it all comes down to whether you sympathize with the master or the slave…

• N language hat on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 04:42pm

  “I suppose it all comes down to whether you sympathize with the master or the slave”
  I don’t think anybody here is applauding corporal punishment. To point out that it was normal procedure in Sam’s day is not to say it’s a good thing. I’m glad you have such refined morals, but it’s not becoming to assume everybody else lacks them.

• N language hat on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 04:45pm

  the splendid site of the Hebrew University

  Thanks for this, Ruben! As it happens, they have a 1572 view of Tangier (I doubt it changed all that much in the following century):
  http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/morocco/tanger/maps/braun_hogenberg_I_56_1.html

  They also have a couple of 18th-century maps. Great find!

• N Robert Gertz on Wed 2 Mar 2005, 11:28pm

  In context of the time Sam seems to have been fairly easygoing with his people and I get the impression he’s feeling that he’s let things slide too long, especially perhaps,after Will Hewer’s behavior over the churchgoing…

  He mentioned wanting to “be as good as my word…” suggesting he’s let the boy off before.

  And to his credit, he gave Wayneman a full account of why he was being punished. I think the question would be was there any push against corporal punishment at the time…Will Penn Jr.’s Quakers perhaps?

• N Xjy on Thu 3 Mar 2005, 08:57am

• N dirk on Fri 4 Mar 2005, 02:41am

  It seems to me we’re here to try and understand Sam in his own time, against his own background, personal and political. Not to judge the 17th century by our own (fairly recent standards). All agree?

  I see no objection to personal opinions (like Xiy’s), but let’s not get caught up in fruitless debate…
  

• N vicenzo on Fri 4 Mar 2005, 03:48am

  Learn from yester years , enjoy this day and apply lessons learnt for tomorrow.
  Mans inhumanity to fellow man still goes on.
  you must needs learn, lord to amend this fault.
  Henry IV, part 1 Act 3 sc. 1

• N Xjy on Fri 4 Mar 2005, 09:03pm

  Understanding Sam in his own time.
  What’s “personal” about what I wrote?
  What on earth are “our” standards??
  What on earth are the standards of the 17th century?
  Where does Sam’s time begin, and where does it end? Where does his setting begin and where does it end?
  So many questions… begged ;-)
  Good to learn that Greek euphemism and Lewis Carroll are both granted honorary status as “our own” anyway…

• N vicenzo on Fri 4 Mar 2005, 09:58pm

  couldnae find the orig. source, ‘tis all been said afore, XYJ, ‘wot’ ye be a saying or wud it be rote, makes this clod hopper think a little more of where we be.

• N vicenzo on Sat 5 Mar 2005, 07:34pm

  mans imhumanity: serfdom : see todays news:
  http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=616978