Wednesday 16 July 1662

Annotations

• N Pedro on Sat 16 Jul 2005, 11:02pm

• N Terry Foreman on Sat 16 Jul 2005, 11:24pm

  “But strange it is how for her beauty I am willing to construe all this to the best and to pity her wherein it is to her hurt, though I know well enough she is a whore.”
  Ah, me, sometimes life imitates theatre — recalling Sam’s viewing John Ford’s “Tis Pity She

• N A. De Araujo on Sat 16 Jul 2005, 11:38pm

  “she is a whore”
  methinks Sam uses the word very looselly,like the rappers of today use the word Ho;
  She wasn’t a whore; she was the King’s Mistress.

• N Terry Foreman on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 02:23am

• N Clement on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 05:57am

  “…seeing a very neat leaden standish…I also got that of him.” Based on Creed’s standing with respect to Pepys, and since Sam seems to be willing to pay for material things that he fancies, are we to believe he bought the standish from Creed? Or did he simply claim it as a gift? That doesn’t seem likely, but would be a significant revelation, either about Sam or about his relationship with Creed.
  Sam has been a little assertively presumptuous lately, but taking a gift seems extreme.
  Without knowing the details of the transaction, a recent event may have parallels: an American sports team owner took off his diamond and gold Super Bowl victory ring and showed to visiting Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Putin said “thank you” and put it in his pocket. It was neither paid for, nor returned.

• N Mary on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 06:02am

  standish.

  Pepys is clearly referring to some kind of travelling writing-case here, rather than the stand-alone covered ink-well defined in the background note. L&M edition substitutes ‘leather’ for ‘leaden’, which makes much better sense.

• N Mary on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 06:04am

  ”..is gone to Richmond, to a brother of hers”

  L&M note that in fact she went to the home of her uncle, Col. Edward Villiers, who lived in Richmond Palace.

• N Terry Foreman on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 10:30am

  “and so I lost my labour”
  Does Sam mean he did’t get to show the fruit of his morning’s work and the praise he deserves? or…? Apparently Moore’s request thate he do Sandwich’s accounts didn’t reflect a sense of anxiety on the latter’s part, since he left after dinner with Mr. Edward Montagu and his brother, and Mr. Coventry at least. Surely there will be a time at which he can report, etc. Has he not done this later in the day previously?
  

• N Pedro on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 01:02pm

  “But strange it is how for her beauty I am willing to construe all this to the best and to pity her wherein it is to her hurt, though I know well enough she is a whore.”

  I think that Sam gives us an insight to how many of the time would consider “the Lady”. Being the King’s mistress would not warrant being called a whore, but her “gallantries” were not confined to one of two, and she was noted for her promiscurity. Several historians agree that beneath her tantrums, tempers and outbursts, there was a very calculating and manipulative womam.

• N Pedro on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 01:23pm

• N language hat on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 04:15pm

  “…though I know well enough she is a whore.”

  A striking conclusion to another fine sentence. I don’t think the word “whore” has ever been limited exclusively to professional prostitutes; Sam is using the traditional extended sense of “sluttish woman,” and however we may deprecate the sexism involved, his conflicting sentiments are well and concisely expressed.

• N language hat on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 04:20pm

  standish:

  The OED defines it as “A stand containing ink, pens and other writing materials and accessories; an inkstand; also, an inkpot.” An explanatory citation from not long after this time:

  1688 HOLME Armoury III. xiv. (Roxb.) 20/1 This fashion of Horne.. is now converted into Lead, and hath the denomination of a standish: or of tyn and soe haue both Inke place, sand box, candlestick and a long box to lay wax, pens and knife in: all fixt togather, yet all but a standish.

• N Jeannine on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 05:03pm

  Lady Casltemaine’s not so wholesome character.
  In response to above, Lady Castlemaine was both the King’s Mistress and a whore, and often at the same time. She was well initiaited prior to her marriage to Palmer, manipulated her way up to Charles, but never stopped entertaining various lovers. During the years spent with Charles as his mistress she had many other lovers ranging from other upper class men right on down to a juggler who she is said to have paid to service her. There are some that seem to hint that she also slept with Charles’ son Monmouth. None of this seemed to bother Charles as he was rather cut from the same cloth and was never “faithful” to her either. Interesting stories include the paternity of one of her children —she wanted Charles to own the child (better for her if he did) so when Charles questioned the paternity she flew into a rage and threatened to bash the child to death if he wouldn’t claim it, which he did. Pedro politely says she was “calculating and manipulative”, which is probably one of the kindest descriptions of her nature ever in print—-perhaps that characterization would apply to a moment when she was counting her accumulated wealth and feeling “sweet and kind” towards the world ~~ a rare day for sure! Stories of her outbursts, temper tantrums, arrogance, vulgar, overtly and higly sexualized antics abound (not included here due to spoilers!) and if only half of the episodes written about are true, then to call her a “whore” would be a compliment. The one title that she did receive, which never fit her true character, was “Lady”.

• N Robert Gertz on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 06:22pm

  A link to some details about poor Roger Palmer…I allow the “poor” as he married Barbara before the Restoration rather than plotting to use her beauty to advance. He also seems to have been kind to her children, insisting on taking them as his own at times when Barbara was threatening to bash one skull in if Charles didn’t acknowledge it.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Palmer,_1st_Earl_of_Castlemaine

• N Robert Gertz on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 06:52pm

  One’s skull

• N Pauline on Sun 17 Jul 2005, 08:34pm

  “

• N Australian Susan on Mon 18 Jul 2005, 04:20am

  I took “lost my labour” to mean his time spent rushing through the accounts, travelling to the Wardrobe and hanging about to no purpose.
  I concurr with Pauline - I think the “him” refers to Ferrars and it is from him that Sam got the handsome accessory, but the getting of both items seems grasping and rude to me. Or have I just got the 17th c. mores wrong?

• N Pauline on Mon 18 Jul 2005, 05:18am

  ‘the getting of both items seems grasping and rude’
  I’m assuming that Ferrers was with Sandwich in Portugal? I have friends just back from Colorado; they brought me a piece of a gold mine coring, which is very cool. I grasped, indeed (it has a nice heft); but was pleased and far from rude. Perhaps Ferrers has made Sam a bit coy about it by offering up choices.

• N Pauline on Mon 18 Jul 2005, 05:30am

  Shoot! Should have reread the entry
  About offering to sell the rings, etc. Still, I have some sense over the last years that Ferrers is fond of Sam, and especially fond of Elizabeth, and assumed he was willing to indulge Sam’s preferences. But A. Susan is likely very right in sensing that Sam is here taking advantage of that fondness.

• N Tom Burns on Mon 18 Jul 2005, 01:51pm

  Standish

  Apparently an inkwell or inkwells on a tray or in a box. I wonder if “leaden” refers to pewter - that seems a more likely material for a decorative item than the soft, heavy metal.

  I found several nice examples of 17th and 18th cetury standishes by searching for standish with Google’s image search. I’m not posting them because they were all associated with auctions and are probably ephemeral.

• N Terry Foreman on Mon 18 Jul 2005, 07:37pm

  David Quidnunc’s How Restoration society viewed mistresses (as celebrities) posted 17 Jan 2004 is specifically relevant as he posted it under People > Palmer, Barbara. See: http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/1062.php#c10452

• N Glyn on Mon 18 Jul 2005, 08:40pm

  How far different is Pepys’ reaction to today’s readership of Hello or other similar magazines? He makes allowances for her because she’s a beautiful celebrity that he wouldn’t if she wasn’t beautiful or famous, and he knows that’s wrong even as he does it. And who would be the equivalent today - Paris Hilton maybe?

• N Paul Chapin on Tue 19 Jul 2005, 04:49am

  Who would be Lady Castlemaine’s equivalent today?
  You would need to look for somebody prominent in her own right who consorts with the most powerful political figures of the day. Paris Hilton doesn’t qualify unless somebody catches her in bed with George Bush or Dick Cheney (now there is a truly disturbing image). Neither does Monica Lewinsky, who had no stature of her own. A recent example might be Elizabeth Ward Gracen, the former Miss America who had an affair with Bill Clinton. A better one would be Marilyn Monroe with John Kennedy, although the public didn’t know about that one until much later.

• N GrahamT on Tue 19 Jul 2005, 09:16am

  Who would be Lady Castlemaine

• N Paul Chapin on Wed 20 Jul 2005, 04:26am

  Good point, GrahamT.
  I guess the name didn’t spring to my mind because Castlemaine is noted for her beauty.

• N laura k on Sat 23 Jul 2005, 05:58pm

  Who would be Lady Castlemaine

• N E on Mon 25 Jul 2005, 04:36pm

  Any comparison?

  It sounds to me as though we should be very grateful that our generation got Mrs Parker Bowles and not Lady Castlemaine. Our Charles seems an improvement on Sam’s, even if not perfect.