Monday 14 March 1663/64

Up, and walked to my brother’s, where I find he hath continued talking idly all night, and now knows me not; which troubles me mightily. So I walked down and discoursed a great while alone with the mayde, who tells me many passages of her master’s practices, and how she concludes that he has run behind hand a great while and owes money, and has been dunned by several people, among others by one Cave, both husband and wife, but whether it was for —[See April 6th]— money or something worse she knows not, but there is one Cranburne, I think she called him, in Fleete Lane with whom he hath many times been mighty private, but what their dealings have been she knows not, but believes these were naught, and then his sitting up two Saturday nights one after another when all were abed doing something to himself, which she now suspects what it was, but did not before, but tells me that he hath been a very bad husband as to spending his time, and hath often told him of it, so that upon the whole I do find he is, whether he lives or dies, a ruined man, and what trouble will befall me by it I know not.

Thence to White Hall; and in the Duke’s chamber, while he was dressing, two persons of quality that were there did tell his Royal Highness how the other night, in Holborne, about midnight, being at cards, a link-boy come by and run into the house, and told the people the house was a-falling. Upon this the whole family was frighted, concluding that the boy had said that the house was a-fire: so they deft their cards above, and one would have got out of the balcone, but it was not open; the other went up to fetch down his children, that were in bed; so all got clear out of the house. And no sooner so, but the house fell down indeed, from top to bottom. It seems my Lord Southampton’s canaille —[sewer]— did come too near their foundation, and so weakened the house, and down it came; which, in every respect, is a most extraordinary passage.

By and by into his closet and did our business with him. But I did not speed as I expected in a business about the manner of buying hemp for this year, which troubled me, but it proceeds only from my pride, that I must needs expect every thing to be ordered just as I apprehend, though it was not I think from my errour, but their not being willing to hear and consider all that I had to propose.

Being broke up I followed my Lord Sandwich and thanked him for his putting me into the Fishery, which I perceive he expected, and cried “Oh!” says he, “in the Fishery you mean. I told you I would remember you in it,” but offered no other discourse. But demanding whether he had any commands for me, methought he cried “No!” as if he had no more mind to discourse with me, which still troubles me and hath done all the day, though I think I am a fool for it, in not pursuing my resolution of going handsome in clothes and looking high, for that must do it when all is done with my Lord. Thence by coach with Sir W. Batten to the city, and his son Castle, who talks mighty highly against Captain Tayler, calling him knave, and I find that the old Boating father is led and talks just as the son do, or the son as the father would have him.

‘Light and to Mr. Moxon’s, and there saw our office globes in doing, which will be very handsome but cost money. So to the Coffee-house, and there very fine discourse with Mr. Hill the merchant, a pretty, gentile, young, and sober man.

So to the ’Change, and thence home, where my wife and I fell out about my not being willing to have her have her gowne laced, but would lay out the same money and more on a plain new one. At this she flounced away in a manner I never saw her, nor which I could ever endure. So I away to the office, though she had dressed herself to go see my Lady Sandwich. She by and by in a rage follows me, and coming to me tells me in spitefull manner like a vixen and with a look full of rancour that she would go buy a new one and lace it and make me pay for it, and then let me burn it if I would after she had done it, and so went away in a fury. This vexed me cruelly, but being very busy I had, not hand to give myself up to consult what to do in it, but anon, I suppose after she saw that I did not follow her, she came again to the office, where I made her stay, being busy with another, half an houre, and her stomach coming down we were presently friends, and so after my business being over at the office we out and by coach to my Lady Sandwich’s,. with whom I left my wife, and I to White Hall, where I met Mr. Delsety, and after an hour’s discourse with him met with nobody to do other business with, but back again to my Lady, and after half an hour’s discourse with her to my brother’s, who I find in the same or worse condition. The doctors give him over and so do all that see him. He talks no sense two words together now; and I confess it made me weepe to see that he should not be able, when I asked him, to say who I was.

I went to Mrs. Turner’s, and by her discourse with my brother’s Doctor, Mr. Powell, I find that she is full now of the disease which my brother is troubled with, and talks of it mightily, which I am sorry for, there being other company, but methinks it should be for her honour to forbear talking of it, the shame of this very thing I confess troubles me as much as anything.

Back to my brother’s and took my wife, and carried her to my uncle Fenner’s and there had much private discourse with him. He tells me of the Doctor’s thoughts of my brother’s little hopes of recovery, and from that to tell me his thoughts long of my brother’s bad husbandry, and from that to say that he believes he owes a great deal of money, as to my cozen Scott I know not how much, and Dr. Thos. Pepys 30l., but that the Doctor confesses that he is paid 20l. of it, and what with that and what he owes my father and me I doubt he is in a very sad condition, that if he lives he will not be able to show his head, which will be a very great shame to me.

After this I went in to my aunt and my wife and Anthony Joyce and his wife, who were by chance there, and drank and so home, my mind and head troubled, but I hope it will [be] over in a little time one way or other.

After doing a little at my office of business I home to supper and to bed.

From notice that my uncle Fenner did give my father the last week of my brother’s condition, my mother is coming up to towne, which also do trouble me.

The business between my Lords Chancellor and Bristoll, they say, is hushed up; and the latter gone or going, by the King’s licence, to France.


33 Annotations

First Reading

andy  •  Link

his sitting up two Saturday nights one after another when all were abed doing something to himself, which she now suspects what it was, but did not before

amateur surgery?

Sad that Mrs T has got infected too.

Go Bess!

Chris  •  Link

".. to have her have her gowne laced"

Oh, I love english :)

Pedro  •  Link

"my mother is coming up to towne, which also do trouble me."

At least we know that Mrs P's heart is in the right place.

Martin  •  Link

I rather suspect 'Boating' here should be 'doating'.

GrahamT  •  Link

Jane Turner:
Although Pepys says "I find that she is full now of the disease which my brother is troubled with..." She lives until 1686, according to the Encyclopedia, so apparently it is a survivable illness.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...his sitting up two Saturday nights one after another when all were abed doing something to himself, which she now suspects what it was..."

Poor Tom, what a sad joke. Accused of bearing a "shameful" disease when he apparently can't find a companion.

***
Graham I think Sam means Jane T couldn't stop talking about Tom's illness and he was embarassed. And, (spoiler) thank God for poor Tom's reputation's sake she remains so curious about it.

***

"I confess..."

A suggestion that Sam has indeed been deeply troubled by Tom's illness but manly stout fellow our boy is felt it would shame him to admit his sorrow even to himself?

***

In fairness to Sam Bess could find a better day to rage about her gown. An indication that milady Pepys is sometimes not all that sympathetic to her husband's troubles?

jeannine  •  Link

"but whether it was for --[See April 6th]-- money or something worse she knows not"
This reference is to the upcoming April 6 entry. Just a slight spoiler (nothing revealed here) -there will be mystery afoot for Sam to unravel as he starts looking "behing the scenes of Tom's life" so this reference speaks to that. My advice -don't jump ahead (like I did-ugh!) -more fun not knowing!

Rex Gordon  •  Link

"...s he believes they were naught."

L&M's glossary defines "naught" as "worthless; bad in condition or quality; sexually wicked." I think the last is the meaning here.

language hat  •  Link

"she is full now of the disease"

I'm pretty sure this means it's all she can talk about, not that she herself has it.

The link for "Mr. Delsety" goes to "De Critz, Emanuel"; can this be right?

Rex Gordon  •  Link

Delsety - De Cretz

L&M have "De Cretz" in the text and identify him as Emanuel De Critz, a painter.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

"methinks it should be for her honour to forbear talking of it, the shame of this very thing I confess troubles me as much as anything."

I agree Mrs. T "is full" of talk, not of disease, and this subsequent passage seems to indicate that she and Sam think Tom's trouble is a venereal disease ("the pox," apparently meaning syphilis); I suspect the talk is of the symptoms she's observed. The doctor's view isn't given but his silence suggests that he also thinks the pox is a possible explanation. I wonder how the eventual diagnosis of tuberculosis was finally arrived at? By autopsy?

Its an edgy day for Sam, alarmed by his brother's state and estate, not getting his way on the hemp deal, and My Lord's apparent slighting of him. So it isn't surprising to me that he falls into a quarrel with Beth, who may well have been amazed and offended by the way he dismissed her proposal to have lace added to her gown.

But these emotional stresses don't keep Sam from recording the story of a house collapsing, the "like father like son" encounter with the Battens and many other details in a striking entry.

GrahamT  •  Link

"she is full now of the disease ... and talks of it mightily"
I, like andy, had taken this all too literally. The "and" made me think she had the disease and talked about it too.

The pox was the latter-day equivalent of AIDS, it being a killer disease until half way through the last century. (my grandfather died of it in 1935)
I would have thought the chancres and ulcers that characterise syphilis, would have been easily differentiated from the spots of smallpox, and the coughing up of blood that indicates T.B.
As a prime witness, Sam's diagnosis (especially as he is talking to Tom's doctor) is probably quite trustworthy.

Bradford  •  Link

One of those days when all the news is bad, both at home and at large, and like Sam your sole consolation is "it will [be] over in a little time one way or other," and new matters and cares will take their place.

Definitely a man who would pick up a penny in the street. Were no one looking.

Terry F  •  Link

"My Lord's apparent slighting of him."

Apparent to Our Man, I think, Andrew, who, his heart on his sleeve, seeks some reaffirmation, thing stabilizing, from M'Lord, so, chased after him and "thanked him for his putting me into the Fishery, which I perceive he expected" -- probably not, for M'Lord is busy, on the way out -- "and cried 'Oh!' says he, 'in the Fishery you mean. I told you I would remember you in it,' but offered no other discourse." His mind already was already elsewhere.

--

"Go Bess"?
Is she in the dark as to what is going on? Young and self indulgent, methinks.

Terry F  •  Link

"they deft their cards above"

L&M have "they left their cards above".

---

"saw our office globes in doing"

Nice phrase.

Glyn  •  Link

putting Sam into the Fishery; no, in the Fishery

Is Sandwich making a very small witticism here, about Sam going into a department, not the nearest river?

Cactus Wren  •  Link

Sam is told that Tom "hath been a very bad husband as to spending his time" -- I take it this is in the sense of "husbanding one's resources"?

Poor Sam. I suspect that he might not have kept Bess completely up to speed on his brother's illness (the whole situation being, in Sam's eyes, as shameful as it is) -- and also he's frazzled and on edge, hence the argument with her about the gown. I'm glad they made it up. As foolish as it might seem, I find myself caring about these people.

And I was intrigued by the sequence about the family's house falling down -- "a most extraordinary passage" indeed, and even more disastrous then, in days when there was no homeowners' insurance, than now. Is there any way for them to get some sort of compensation from my Lord Southampton?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...get some sort of compensation from my Lord Southampton?"

"Compensation? You mean as in I should give them something? Because their house got in the way of my new sewer?"

"They say they shall complain to the King, my Lord."

"Oh? Well tell them the Lord Treasurer already has. Why my sewer will be delayed a week."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Neither Bess nor Sam at their best today. I wonder if mutual nerves given Tom. While we don't know if Bess' relationship to him was friendly or aloof, she has been mentioned going to him during his illness, helping in the matrimonial campaign, Sam coming to meet her at Tom's. It suggests, vaguely, that she might have had a little better relationship with him than the other members of the family. And it's not hard to picture a lonely fellow like Tom rather taken with his pretty sis-in-law.

jan  •  Link

Bess finds him again in the office but Sam is busy and she has to wait around for a half hour. By then "her stomach" has come down? I take it this phrase means she has calmed down?

Firenze  •  Link

The stomach seems to be the seat of courage, spirits, temper - 'I have the heart and stomach of a king' - if you have no stomach for the fight etc.

Bess is now less combative.

Pedro  •  Link

"but there is one Cranburne, I think she called him, in Fleete Lane with whom he hath many times been mighty private, but what their dealings have been she knows not, but believes these were naught,"

FLEET MARRIAGES

These marriages, rather unlicensed than clandestine, seem to have originated with the incumbents of Trinity Minories and St. James's, Duke's Place, who claimed to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop of London, and performed marriages without banns or license, till Elliot, rector of St. James, was suspended in 1616, when the trade was taken up by clerical prisoners living within the Rules of the Fleet, and who, having neither cash, character, nor liberty to lose, became the ready instruments of vice, greed, extravagance, and libertinism.

G. R.--At the true chapel, at the old Red Hand and Mitre, three doors up Fleet Lane, and next door to the White Swan, marriages are performed by authority by the Rev. Mr. Symson, educated at the university of Cambridge, and late chaplain to the Earl of Rothes.--N.B. Without imposition.'

http://www.thebookofdays.com/mont…

cgs  •  Link

naught see OED: popular meaning be hanky panky

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"with Sir W. Batten to the city, and his son Castle, who talks mighty highly against Captain Tayler, calling him knave"

John Taylor, shipbuilder, was associated with Batten's friend Wood in the supply of New England masts over which there was now dispute, but was prepared to accept Pepys's verdict: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (L&M footnote)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"The business between my Lords Chancellor and Bristoll, they say, is hushed up; and the latter gone or going, by the King’s licence, to France."

Bristol, who had attempted to impeach Clarendon, was now in hiding in Wimbledon, not in France. Cf. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (L&M footnote)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"but there is one Cranburne, I think she called him, in Fleete Lane with whom he hath many times been mighty private, but what their dealings have been she knows not, but believes these were naught,"

Fleet Marriages

The link Pedro posted is well-worth scrolling down to read:
http://www.thebookofdays.com/mont…

Since his post a Wikipedia article about such a marriage has appeared online:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fle…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"he believes he owes a great deal of money, as to my cozen Scott I know not how much, and Dr. Thos. Pepys 30l., but that the Doctor confesses that he is paid 20l. of it, and what with that and what he owes my father and me I doubt he is in a very sad condition, that if he lives he will not be able to show his head, which will be a very great shame to me."

Tom's debts (c. £307 all told) are set out in the papers Pepys collected on his brother's death: Rawl. A 182, esp. ff. 301+. Benjamin Scott was an attorney and administered the estate, but does not appear as a creditor. Dr Thomas Pepys was owed £8, Pepys himself £87 (which probably includes the debt of his father). Cf. also http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
(L&M note)

Bill  •  Link

“and her stomach coming down we were presently friends”

Pride, haughtiness, only used now as a quotation.

"He was a man
Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes."
Shakespeare, Henry VIII., act iv., sc. 2.

---Wheatley, 1904.

STOMACH, ... also Choler or Passion; a testy and refractory Humour.
STOMACHFUL, that has a great Spirit, dogged, peevish, loath to submit.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

jude cooper  •  Link

Do we have any idea what Pepys actually called his wife, Elizabeth? Lizzie? Bess? Beth? Elisa? It would be great to know. And is there any evidence that Sam was called Sam and not Samuel by his friends and family?

Tonyel  •  Link

" money or something worse she knows not, but there is one Cranburne, I think she called him, in Fleete Lane with whom he hath many times been mighty private, but what their dealings have been she knows not, but believes these were naught,"

Is it possible that poor Tom was secretly homosexual? It might account for some of his problems and also for Sam's fear of embarrassment. What, if anything, was the attitude to homosexuality in those times? Was it even admitted? I have read somewhere that Queen Victoria later signed an Act to make it illegal but refused to include lesbianism as she did not believe that women could do that sort of thing.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

"so they deft their cards above" Does this refer to the playing cards? Why this detail and what does it mean?

"canaille" sewer? Meaning I found refers to dogs. What sort of sewer would this be? Surely not pipes.

Clark Kent  •  Link

One suspects that Tom spent (heh) his Saturday nights religiously boxing the bishop.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . what their dealings have been she knows not, but believes these were naught . . ’

‘naught, pron., n., adj., and adv. < Old English . .
. . 2. a. Wickedness, evil, moral wrong . .
1627 R. Sanderson Ten Serm. 411 From doing nothing proceede to doing naught . . ‘
……………...
Re: ‘ . . It seems my Lord Southampton’s canaille —[sewer]— did come too near their foundation . . ‘

This is not:
‘canaille, n.< Middle French . .

1. With the: the common people; the mob or masses. Also (without article): common people collectively; rabble.
. . 1679 W. Penn Addr. Protestants i. 26 This Shameful Impiety..has not only prevailed with the Populace, the Cannale, the Vulgar.’

but a misspelling of:
‘canal, n. < classical Latin. A conduit or drain for liquid. Obs.

a1576 Bp. J. Pilkington Godlie Expos. Nehemiah (1585) (iii. 7) f. 44v, The sinkes, Canals, and conduits, did wash and conuey away al the sweepings and filth of the streetes into the Brooke Cedron . . ‘

…………...
Re: ‘ . . I had not hand to give myself up to consult what to do in it . . ‘

‘hand, n. < Germanic . .
. . 17. Capacity of doing something with the hands, and hence of adeptness or ability more generally; skill, ability, knack; a particular skill or talent.

IV. Senses relating to skill or dexterity in the use of the hands, or to actions performed using the hands.
. . 1708 P. A. Motteux Wks. F. Rabelais v. xx, I have no hand at making of Speeches.
1791 A. Radcliffe Romance of Forest I. ii. 68, I had always a hand at carpentry.
1859 W. G. Simms Cassique of Kiawah xx. 193 He's got a hand for a-most anything . . ‘
………………….
Re: ‘ . . her stomach coming down we were presently friends . . ‘

‘stomach, n. < Old French . .
. . 6. a. Used (like ‘heart’, ‘bosom’, ‘breast’) to designate the inward seat of passion, emotion, secret thoughts, affections, or feelings. Now rare.
. . 1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. iii. 180 This said, his grief to anger turn'd, Which in his manly stomack burn'd.
1707 J. Addison Rosamond ii. 16 My Stomach swells with secret Spight, To see my fickle, faithless Knight..So little his own Worth to know . . ‘
………………….

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