Monday 28 May 1660
Called up at two in the morning for letters for my Lord from the Duke of York, but I went to bed again till 5. Trimmed early this morning.
This morning the Captain did call over all the men in the ship (not the boys), and give every one of them a ducat of the King’s money that he gave the ship, and the officers according to their quality. I received in the Captain’s cabin, for my share, sixty ducats. The rest of the morning busy writing letters. So was my Lord that he would not come to dinner.
After dinner to write again in order to sending to London, but my Lord did not finish his, so we did not send to London to-day.
A great part of the afternoon at nine-pins with my Lord and Mr. Hetley. I lost about 4s.
Supped with my Lord, and after that to bed.
At night I had a strange dream of … myself, which I really did, and having kicked my clothes off, I got cold; and found myself all much wet in the morning, and had a great deal of pain … which made me very melancholy.
A. De Araujo Link to this
"At night I had a strange dream of-myself" very confusing!was it a wet dream? after all he had been away from Elisabeth for a while! but then why the pain? after effects of the surgery he had two years before?
Eric Walla Link to this
"A strange dream of--myself ..."
Yes, an interesting turn of phrase. Are there subconscious torments in the Pepys soul? Does he perhaps feel the strain of rising in rank so quickly, and on the back of an as-yet-shaky Restoration?
Or did he just dream he went out on deck and forgot to put on his trousers?
language hat Link to this
"A strange dream of -- myself ":
This sounds like a clear case of bowdlerization. Come on, L&M readers, give us the R-rated version!
Paul Brewster Link to this
At night I had a strange dream of bepissing myself, which I really did, and having kicked my clothes off, I got cold; and found myself all muck wet in the morning, and had a great deal of pain in making water which made me very melancholy
Per L&M. Another case of Mr Wheatley at work. Note that within the same sentence he indicates deletion both with a long dash (for "bepissing") and a long dash (for "in making water"). Ah, consistency. I think the much-muck translation made be a matter of interpretation.
Paul Brewster Link to this
Missed several other L&M differences in the same passage:
This night I had a strange dream of bepissing myself, which I really did, and having kicked the clothes off, I got cold and found myself all muck-wet in the morning, and had a great deal of pain in making water which made me very melancholy
sorry about that ...
Paul Brewster Link to this
Where would we be without L&M?
This passage is obviously almost incomprehensible with the deletions. The full text is very real and quite haunting. It is also quite wonderfully understated. For the first time that I can remember he doesn't fully reveal to the diary the nature of his feelings. An obvious surmise is a fear of the stone's return. Less obviously it may be a worry about some form of sexually transmitted disease.
Paul Brewster Link to this
I received in the Captain's cabin, for my share, sixty ducats
L&M etimates the value at 27L. Given the information elsewhere in their glossary (Ducket(t), Ducat: Spanish gold or silver coin worth 9s. 4d. and 3s. 6d. respectively) these must have been gold ducats. Note that SP was promised 30L just 2 days ago and doesn’t seem to feel he’s been shorted.
Brian McMullen Link to this
Being a 'fellow of the stones' the first thing that comes to mind is a recurrence of SP's urinary problems. If this were to happen to me I would be very melancholy as well! As to the possibility of a transmitted disease has SP given any indication that he has found sexual favor from other than his wife? I remember the reference to the Dutch lady from last week but nothing else.
Sam P Link to this
60 ducats or £30…. obviously just a highly variable or vague exchange rate!
Glyn Link to this
(Sam P? I suspect that that's an alias.)
Surely he is justifiably concerned that it might be a symptom of something serious to do with his old wound. But look at his irregular sleep pattern again: yesterday he went to bed late, was woken at 2am and then got up at 5am for a busy day's work.
With apologies to any younger readers for raising this, but would languagehat or any other expert explain if there is any difference in meaning between “be-p…ing myself” and simply “p…ing myself” – presumably there is. But I’d be beholden to you if you would tell me what it is.
And what exactly does the prefix “be-“ mean in English words – it seems to appear in a lot of medieval words but to be becoming more rare. I suspect that it is similar to suffixes such as “monger” (i.e. “seller) which are part of older words (fishmonger, costermonger) but not used to create new ones – you wouldn’t say computermonger or itmonger, for instance.
Nix Link to this
I'm no languagehat, but a quick check of OED gives the following as one of several uses of the prefix "be-" (bepiss is about two-thirds of the way down):
"4. Making verbs transitive, by adding a prepositional relation: primarily "about," as in BE-SPEAK, speak about (or for, to), BE-MOAN, moan about (or over); which sense can usually be detected under the various against, at, for, to, on, upon, over, by, etc. required by modern idiom: {dag}bebark, to bark around or at; {dag}becack, to deposit ordure on; bechatter, to environ with chattering, etc.; {dag}bechirm, to chirm (as birds) around; {dag}bechirp, to chirp about; beclang, beclatter; {dag}becrave (OE. becrafian), to crave for; becrawl, to crawl all over; becroak, to croak round or at; {dag}becry, to cry at, accuse; bedin, to fill with din or noise; bedribble, to dribble upon (e.g. as a dog); bedrivel; bedrizzle; {dag}bedwell, to dwell in or around; {dag}befleet, to flow round; {dag}befret, to fret or gnaw away; befuddle, to make stupid with tippling; begaze, to gaze at; {dag}beglide, to slip away from, escape; {dag}beglitter, to irradiate; begroan, to groan at; {dag}begruntle, to make uneasy; behoot, to hoot at; bejuggle, to get over by jugglery, to cheat; {dag}belag, to make to lag; {dag}beleap, to leap on, "cover"; {dag}bemew, {dag}bemoult, to mew or moult upon; bemurmur, to murmur at or against; {dag}bemute (of birds), to mute or drop dung on; beparse, to plague with parsing; bepiss, to piss on, wet with urine; bepreach, to preach at; bereason, to reason with, overcome by reasoning; {dag}bireme, to cry out upon; beride (OE. ber?dan), to ride beside, to override; {dag}berow, to row round; {dag}bescumber, to scumber on; beshine (OE. besc?nan), to shine on; beshit(e (OE. besc?tan) = becack (Obs. in polite use, but common in ME. and early mod.E. literature); beshout, to shout at, applaud; {dag}beshriek, to shriek at; {dag}besigh, to sigh for; {dag}besmell, to smell out; besmile, to smile on; {dag}bespew, to spew on; bestare, to stare at, to make staring; bestraddle, to straddle across, bestride; bestream, to stream over; beswarm, to swarm over; {dag}beswelter; beswim, to swim upon; bethunder; {dag}betipple, to muddle by tippling; betravel, to travel over, to overrun with travellers: bevomit, to vomit all over; bewhisper, to whisper to; bewhistle, to whistle round.”
The usage examples of bepiss in this entry are:
“1481 CAXTON Reynard (Arb.) 6 There he hath *be-pyssed my chyldren where as they laye. 1658 FORD Witch of Edm. IV. i, Ready to bepiss themselves with laughing. 1764 T. BRIDGES Homer Travest. (1797) II. 16 Ye all bepiss’d yourselves for fear.”
language hat Link to this
Well done, Nix.
Yes, in this case it basically transitivizes the verb; the same happens with (be)shit.
Jenny Doughty Link to this
Regarding the 'be' form of a verb - about the only contemporary example I can think of is to 'bespeak' something, and that is quite archaic now and seems only to live on in the form of a 'bespoke' suit. Am I right in thinking this verb form is connected with our linguistic heritage from Anglo-Saxon?
Tina Link to this
How about beholden?...
As in "he doesn't want to feel beholden to anyone over this".
Jenny Doughty Link to this
Hmm - didn't think that one through, did I? Should have used a dictionary...
sorry Link to this
no wonder the bard had to ask "to be..."
jamie yeager Link to this
These ducats and the earlier 30 pounds
These ducats, at about 27 pounds value, and the earlier 30 pounds, mean Sam has more than doubled his last reported net worth of 40 pounds by his service on this voyage alone...
Linda Camidge Link to this
Just in case jenny Doughty is still out there, I think Anglo-Saxon equivalent is the prefix "ge", with a hard "g" so a simialr sound
Jenny Doughty Link to this
Jenny Doughty is still out here, so thank you Linda.
language hat Link to this
I don't know what Linda means by "hard g," but the g in the ge- prefix was pronounced like y, which is why it's disappeared. Also, it wasn't the "equivalent" of be-, they were two different Old English prefixes, with different meanings.
Mary Link to this
OE, ME, ModE prefixes.
Many thanks, LH. You're absolutely right, but I'm feeling far too jet-lagged to ferret through Campbell, Mitchell and Dobson to provide germane examples.