Saturday 5 March 1663/64

Up and to the office, where, though I had a great cold, I was forced to speak much upon a publique meeting of the East India Company, at our office; where our own company was full, and there was also my Lord George Barkeley, in behalfe of the company of merchants (I suppose he is on that company), who, hearing my name, took notice of me, and condoled my cozen Edward Pepys’s death, not knowing whose son I was, nor did demand it of me. We broke up without coming to any conclusion, for want of my Lord Marlborough.

We broke up and I to the ’Change, where with several people and my uncle Wight to drink a dish of coffee, and so home to dinner, and then to the office all the afternoon, my eye and my throat being very bad, and my cold increasing so as I could not speak almost at all at night. So at night home to supper, that is a posset, and to bed.


21 Annotations

First Reading

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... hearing my name, took notice of me,..."

Even though SP did not lay out any extra cash on mourning clothes it appears the escutcheons over the house and the funeral procession at the end of December had the desired effect:

" and so through all the City and Shoreditch, I believe about twenty coaches, and four or five with six and four horses. Being come thither, I made up to the mourners,..."

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

deepfatfriar  •  Link

..."dish of coffee..."

Twice in two days! OED: 3. As a term of quantity more or less indefinite. a. As much or as many as will fill or make a dish when cooked. b. A dishful, a bowlful or cupful.

1679 Trials of Green, Berry, etc. 65, I will go to the Coffee-house, and drink a Dish of Coffee.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

The Coffeehouse...

"Maes...Maes?" Wight hisses to a disguised Iuduco slipping in, nervously eyeing the various parties at tables.

"Mr. Wight...Mr. Pepys. So good..."

"Enough of that. Did you bring...It?" Wight asks. Sam staring...Hmmn?

"Enough for the whole place." Maes pulls out a sachel and opens to the concealed display of the two.

"Sugar?" Sam sticks a finger. Hmmn...Yes, sugar. Rather good sugar, actually.

"Nephew, quiet. We must proceed cautiously." Wight raises a hand carefully. "Bringing this rare item to town has proven costly in more ways than money."

"Poor Roderigo..." Maes sighs...

"But Uncle?...All this for..."

"The stuff dreams are made of, nephew...The purest sugar in the world today. About to be issued to the public in the place most fitting. At a potential profit...Well, heh-heh...There's no telling how high it may go."

"But, uncle..."

"Maes...If you would do the honors."

Maes, eyes shifting about the room, drops a handful of the white crystals into Sam's dish of coffee...

"Try it, nephew."

"My God!..." Sam starts. "This...This is some nectar of the gods. Why, I thought coffee alone was an entertaining stimulant but this...More, please..."

"Ha, ha...By Gad, nephew. You see now. Soon all of England will be craving our product. Yes...The essential ingredient to make coffee...And what is that Chinese stuff, Maes?"

"Tea, Mr. Wight, sir."

"Yes...Tea...To make them both the greatest addictions of mankind the world over. And I, I, William Wight, shall be master of the trade. You may begin, Maes."

"Till the big boys muscle in..." Sam notes. Maes heading off to the owner's table, offering a sample to several tables along the way...

"No one will be bigger that Wight, sir. No one in England! Europe!! The World, sir!!" fist on the table.

"One lump or two...?" Maes asks.

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

"...We broke up and I to the 'Change, where with several people and my uncle Wight to drink a dish of coffee, ..."
The OED did not use S. Pepys for citation but used the above for cooling the hot burning liquid.
along with these
3. As a term of quantity more or less indefinite. a. As much or as many as will fill or make a dish when cooked. b. A dishful, a bowlful or cupful.
b. 1596 SHAKES. 1 Hen. IV, II. iii. 35 Such a dish of skim'd Milk.
1662 J. DAVIES tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 171 He had taken off two or three Dishes of Aquavitæ.

1711 ADDISON Spect. No. 57 Per. IV. vi. 160 My dish of chastity.
1605 Tryall Chev. I. iii. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 278, I know him as well as the Begger knowes his dish.

1634 MILTON Comus 391 Who would rob a hermit of..his beads, or maple dish?

1708 MOTTEUX Rabelais V. vii. (1737) 24 Roger..had a Dish of Chat with her.
A term for of measurement corn, tin mining,lead mining and then

1667 PRIMATT City & C. Build. 7 A Horse load..is nine dishes.. weighing about Four hundred and Fifty pound.

I wonder if eached dipped a spoon in to the liquid like consomme soup, then slurped.

andy  •  Link

to drink a dish of coffee

at least they drank it. Nowadays city slickers would probably snort the grains.

Xjy  •  Link

Can't recall Sam having to speak "in public" like this before. Academic exercises and court cases, and interviews with superiors/royals, yes. Still, he survives, and he is "noticed" by a fat cat, even if it's only a bit perfunctory.

He's an old hypochondriac. Must be psychosomatic. All that suppressed evil coming back to haunt him, like a bad meal giving him acid regurgitation. God knows what the rest of them looked like inside without even Sam's minimal conscience and rudimentary sense of right and wrong.

Oh the joys of being a careerist Puritan Republican in a Restoration Monarchy :-)

On a Freudian note - I wonder if there's any correlation between his interest in the masts and his upright libido? Does it slacken after a tousling tussle with Betty, or just get firmer?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Wonder what Sam said, anyway? Laid out the naval situation in the East Indies and what Charlie's boys were ready to do to reassert the flag? Or merely what the Navy could offer the Company in terms of trading contracts?

Bardi  •  Link

The annotations are in a tiny font, on the left side of the screen, one or two words to a line. I clicked on 'this file' but only a block of letters and numbers came up.
I am not at all computer-savvy, and will content myself with being able to read Sam's daily entries - for which, my sincere thanks!

jeannine  •  Link

"so as I could not speak almost at all at night"
Bet the servants are popping champagne bottles open over this one!

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Coffee and other exotic foods that started to circulate at this period of time in the shops of drink; tea, cacao and Yemen's finest could help to explain the growth of thinking, leading to a rash of diversive projects, covering a wide range of endevers.
History would like to put the emphasis on one person or subject, when in reality it be the comingling of thougths and reactions that set the stage, the person that recorded this got the credit.
For example, Newton gets the credit for his 3 laws, but by reading other earlier works, others had stated these concepts, but Newton said them more elegantly and got the blessing of peers [not necessarily Lords].
So why the expansion of Anglo wealth? I doth think it be the range of new foods that upset the brain and its workings.

The Mollusc  •  Link

Surely the 'dish' of coffee merely refers to drinking from a bowl rather than a cup or tankard?

When visiting France in the 1980s (and staying in youth hostels), I recall coming downstairs for breakfast, and being given a biggish bowl of coffee or hot chocolate, accompanied by some excellent French bread, butter, jam, ham and/or cheese etc.

Various 18-19th century references likewise refer to drinking a 'dish of tea'...

Bradford  •  Link

Why, haven't you ever poured your hot tea from the cup into the saucer and blown on it before drinking? If not, you cannot call yourself a country cousin!

Bardi, go to "Recent Activity" where, near the bottom, on Site Design Updates &c., help is available.

Australian Susan  •  Link

At this time and until into the 18th c, tea and coffee were drunk from little bowls without handles. Here is a reproduction of Richard Collins's picture of a family taking tea (and some notes about artefacts associated with tea:
http://www.ascasonline.org/artico…
Colour reproduction of the picture on p 6 of this newsletter
http://rca.ac.uk/csdi/newsletters…

Australian Susan  •  Link

"a great cold"
Deary, deary me! Bet Elizabeth got fed up with this! But then, he really is quite sweet when she is ill with her gynae. problems.

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Re: many a time shared a cup of Joe Lyons best coffee and splitting it 4 ways, using the best saucers in the house, The Waiting lass did Luv us so.
Waste bowl now rendered as slops Bowl.
Teh fine porcelain China of Queen annes time was so delightful, never a stain when thee had to empty thy cold slops into the fine silver bowl.
Oh! how we have changed, a tool or vehicle for every deed.
So much protocol to get a sip of fine brew.
The difference between Bowl and Dish be the height of the sides and bottom surface, bowl be deeper and easier to sip from sitting on a tri ped, and dish have a large flat bottom.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Elisabeth!!!! Jane!!!!!"

"Jane...What does his Lordship want now?"

"Beggin' yor pardon, mum. He's wants another of them posset things and some of his books."

"Fine, let him have..."

"He was askin' that you bring 'em, mum."

Grrr...It was sweet the first couple of times but after six summonses...

"Bess!!!!! Jane!!!!!!!"

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Today, March 5th …

Today is a special day for everyone who loves pasties, for it is the feast day of St Piran, the patron saint of Cornwall. The problem today then, is to clarify just what distinguishes a meat pie from a pasty – is it form, function, or filling? A second problem is to determine what defines a Cornish pasty from any old pasty.

There is an old myth – oft-repeated, so skip this sentence if you know it – that the Devil never crossed the Tamar River into Cornwall, for fear of ending up in a pasty. The implication is that the contents of a pasty may include anything and everything, including some very sinister things indeed..... http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2007/…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I was forced to speak much upon a publique meeting of the East India Company, at our office; where our own company was full, and there was also my Lord George Barkeley, in behalfe of the company of merchants"

The meeting was held at 9 a.m. to end the dispute about freightage. Lord Berkeley (of Berkeley, the 9th baron) was a member of the Committee of the Company and became Governor of the Levant Company in 1673.
(Per L&M footnote)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my Lord George Barkeley, in behalfe of the company of merchants (I suppose he is on that company), who, hearing my name, took notice of me, and condoled my cozen Edward Pepys’s death"

Pepys recorded receiving word of Edward Pepys's death last December:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.