Sunday 6 August 1665
(Lord’s day). Dressed and had my head combed by my little girle, to whom I confess ‘que je sum demasiado kind, nuper ponendo mes mains in su des choses de son breast, mais il faut que je’ leave it lest it bring me to ‘alcun major inconvenience’. So to my business in my chamber, look over and settling more of my papers than I could the two last days I have spent about them. In the evening, it raining hard, down to Woolwich, where after some little talk to bed.
18 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Dressed and had my head combed by my little girle, to whom I confess ‘que je sum demasiado kind, nuper ponendo mes mains in su des choses de son breast, mais il faut que je’ leave it lest it bring me to ‘alcun major inconvenience’."
Approx: "had my head combed by my little girle to whom I confess that I am too friendly, recently often putting my hands in the two things of her breast; but I had to stop it lest it bring me to some major inconvenience" (presumably ejaculating in his pants).
Polylingual: Latin, Spanish, French -- ah, the eros of having one's head combed!
Patricia • Link
Do we know how old this little girl is?
Robert Gertz • Link
I'm picturing Sam at the table with Roger and Don during the oyster/martini lunch in "Mad Men". He would definitely fit right in at Stirling-Cooper.
CGS • Link
if she is the little girle that came frome the ophanage, and she was put out to work, then she be 13 to 15, and been brain washed by SP for two years to get rid of the fleas before they do damage.
This be good subject for many to write a thesis on where should the young get their life's education .
CGS • Link
Survival of the fittest, those that have protection of wealth and those that have to fend for themselves.
Every body be fodder for the other 'tis the jungle of life.
Just the other day the story of a young " melawd ' be wanting to peek at what be going on behind the closed curtains, expecting the the proverbial shenanigans and got the frit of his young life.
Terry Foreman • Link
CGS, what is the evidence that "she is the little girle that came frome the ophanage"? We are told "at home I find my girl [Jinny] that run away brought by a bedel of St. Bride’s Parish, and stripped her and sent her away, and a newe one come, of Griffin’s helping to, which I think will prove a pretty girl. Her name, Susan" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
William Griffith (sic) -- either the doorkeeper/housekeeper to the navy office or Batten's ward -- seems not to have a connection with an orphanage. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… ??
andy • Link
mais il faut que je’ leave it lest it bring me to ‘alcun major inconvenience’
Lovely grasp of Franglais, Sam!
Robert Gertz • Link
Sounds more like survival of the luckiest and the privileged. Birth and chance as much as ability made Montagu, Sam even more so, thought both had the ability to exploit what came their way. Another girl of no more survival ability might well end up with a less exploitive (less insecure, less selfish) man, say Rev. Ralph, and live happily to womanhood without the joys of such attentions. Little has changed of course, at least on the global scale-And we're no less arrogant about our luck of being born in the developed world than Sam about his in having a Montagu connection to pull him up. Lord help us if it really were survival of the fittest.
Chris Faulkner • Link
I suspect Sam is more worried about getting her pregnant (than having an 'accident'), his other dalliances are all married women, or at least not of his household. A pregnant maid would be more difficult to explain away, and would cost him some of his hard won money.
jeannine • Link
"Polylingual: Latin, Spanish, French — ah, the eros of having one’s head combed"...
That mixed with his drooling all over the page as he was thinking about the poor little girl--(ugh)--make it especially hard to translate!
CGS • Link
Maids where do they come from.
Maids be those that have been schooled [trained] in the art of keeping and mistress comfy ,
if not trained , then they come from organisations that get stuck with the unwanted then at the aged of 11 be sent out to good? people to have clean up the nightly mess.
Even today many a lass gets drafted into servitude at early age of seven, many are from families that are on lifes edge and given over for cash.
Samuel's mayde situation is always in state of flux, they have many opportunities to get better situations as the economy is booming in spite of the fleas. The population is growing and there are many new faces of the middling sort as well as those with more baronial estates requiring armies of service workers to do back breaking work now done by cheap energy devices.
Little Susan has served Samuel Pepys for more than 23 months, Samuel always writes in praise of his little girle Susy.
Others have come and gone.
I find my girl that run away brought by a bedel of St. Bride’s Parish, and stripped her and sent her away, and a newe one come, of Griffin’s helping to, which I think will prove a pretty girl. Her name, Susan,
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
In the last 8 months Sam has not mentioned her,until to day.
"...and Susan, a little girle, having neither man nor boy,..."
31 dec 63.
"... our little girl Susan is a most admirable Slut and pleases us mightily, doing more service than both the others and deserves wages better...."2/2/64
"...and the little girl Susan, the best wenches to our content that we can ever expect...." apr 30 64
su comments on cooke mayde may 27 64
. ..."I do now live very prettily at home, being most seriously, quietly, and neatly served by my two mayds Jane and the girle Su, with both of whom I am mightily well pleased...."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
"... At which I am very well contented, for then I hope we shall be settled, but I must remember that, never since I was housekeeper, I ever lived so quietly, without any noise or one angry word almost, as I have done since my present mayds Besse, Jane, and Susan came and were together. Now I have taken a boy and am taking a woman, I pray God we may not be worse, but I will observe it...."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
"...and so home, where the little girle hath looked to the house well, but no wife come home, which made me begin to fear [for] her, the water being very rough, and cold and darke..."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
worried they [Sue and maydes ]get drowning wet. Oct 29 64
nov 10 gets sicke , well again next day
dec 31 Sam be Happy with his entourage,Mercer, Besse, the little girl Susan and lad Tom Edwards and wife.
then silence ? until The flea picking.
Stacia • Link
Spoiler:
We see Susan's mother May 3, 1666, so she's not an orphan.
CGS • Link
Stacia Ta ever so.
CGS • Link
maid 1670 sketch by Charles Beale of Susan Gill page pg 252c The unequalled [sic] self Claire Tomalin
Michael Robinson • Link
"... had my head combed ..."
Isn't the girl combing and searching to remove lice?
Is this another SP 'first' (? only): written "insectoerotica?" Would SP be happy to know they reproduce by sexual reproduction?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
'Approx: "had my head combed by my little girle to whom I confess that I am too friendly, recently often putting my hands in the two things of her breast; but I had to stop it lest it bring me to some major inconvenience" (presumably ejaculating in his pants)."
This is Lord's Day!
Marquess • Link
More like Sam's fondling day, than the Lord's Day.
David G • Link
Not likely that the maid was combing for lice since Sam shaved his head when he started wearing a wig. Maybe she was arranging the wig?