Friday 1 April 1664

Up and to my office, where busy till noon, and then to the ’Change, where I found all the merchants concerned with the presenting their complaints to the Committee of Parliament appointed to receive them this afternoon against the Dutch. So home to dinner, and thence by coach, setting my wife down at the New Exchange, I to White Hall; and coming too soon for the Tangier Committee walked to Mr. Blagrave for a song. I left long ago there, and here I spoke with his kinswoman, he not being within, but did not hear her sing, being not enough acquainted with her, but would be glad to have her, to come and be at my house a week now and then.

Back to White Hall, and in the Gallery met the Duke of Yorke (I also saw the Queene going to the Parke, and her Mayds of Honour: she herself looks ill, and methinks Mrs. Stewart is grown fatter, and not so fair as she was); and he called me to him, and discoursed a good while with me; and after he was gone, twice or thrice staid and called me again to him, the whole length of the house: and at last talked of the Dutch; and I perceive do much wish that the Parliament will find reason to fall out with them. He gone, I by and by found that the Committee of Tangier met at the Duke of Albemarle’s, and so I have lost my labour. So with Creed to the ’Change, and there took up my wife and left him, and we two home, and I to walk in the garden with W. Howe, whom we took up, he having been to see us, he tells me how Creed has been questioned before the Council about a letter that has been met with, wherein he is mentioned by some fanatiques as a serviceable friend to them, but he says he acquitted himself well in it, but, however, something sticks against him, he says, with my Lord, at which I am not very sorry, for I believe he is a false fellow. I walked with him to Paul’s, he telling me how my Lord is little at home, minds his carding and little else, takes little notice of any body; but that he do not think he is displeased, as I fear, with me, but is strange to all, which makes me the less troubled. So walked back home, and late at the office. So home and to bed. This day Mrs. Turner did lend me, as a rarity, a manuscript of one Mr. Wells, writ long ago, teaching the method of building a ship, which pleases me mightily. I was at it to-night, but durst not stay long at it, I being come to have a great pain and water in my eyes after candle-light.


23 Annotations

First Reading

Australian Susan  •  Link

Is the full stop after "song"in line 6 an error? It reads much better without it.
Looks like Sam has found another female to admire in the songstress!
The D of Y shows Sam much attention today: I think this is the first recorded time of such long one-on-one discussions. And everyone full of supposed war with the Dutch. Rather like 1912, 1913 and the false war of 1937. Talk, talk and war mongering. And all over trade. (well, this war of the 1660s was).

Terry F  •  Link

Keen read, Australian Susan: L&M have no full stop after "song."

Michael Robinson  •  Link

a manuscript of one Mr. Wells,..., teaching the method of building a ship,

A Mss. now in the Pepysian library:-

The Fragments of Ancient English Shipwrightry is a collection of miscellaneous notes and incomplete plans of ships started by an English shipwright named Matthew Baker (1530-1613) in the 1570s, and continued with notes from one of his apprentices, John Wells, and annotations on mathematics.
http://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/…

For a detailed discussion of the manuscript and the significance of its contents see:-

MATHEW BAKER AND THE ART OF THE SHIPWRIGHT
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/staff/saj…

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...where I found all the merchants concerned with the presenting their complaints to the Committee of Parliament appointed to receive them this afternoon against the Dutch."

"'Ay, the Dutch stink!"

"Right..." Clerk of Parliament dutifully notes... "'The Dutch stink'. Yes. Was there anything else you wished to note?"

"Uh...No, no."

"Right...Next? Your name, trade, and complaint, sir?"

"Lawry, tar...I hate them wooden shoes! And they don't buy me tar for their ships at their higher rates! And...They stink!!"

"Right...Wooden shoes, won't let you sell out our navy, and another for stinking...Is that the general derogatory or a reference to actual odoriferous offense?"

"General derogatory, I'd say. Got nothing against their personal 'ygiene, so to speak."

"Right...Next?"

***

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...but would be glad to have her, to come and be at my house a week now and then."

I'll just smile and let that one sit a half-second. Thanks for the comma, Sam.

Ok, now...

"but would be glad to have her,"

"Sir? Mr. Pepys, sir? Sir?"

"Hmmn? Hewer? Oh, yes...Just let me finish this note...Yes."

"...have her, to come and be..."

(Though either way Bess will kill him when she reads it...)

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...I perceive do much wish that the Parliament will find reason to fall out with them."

"I don't know about this one, Jamie...This Dutch war business seems so potentially...exhausting." sigh...

"Charlie, what are you worried about? They're the Dutch...Cromwell beat them. And with our new Navy we'll shock and awe them like that." finger-snap.

Hmmn...

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...wherein he is mentioned by some fanatiques as a serviceable friend to them, but he says he acquitted himself well in it, but, however, something sticks against him, he says, with my Lord, at which I am not very sorry, for I believe he is a false fellow."

And one who knows where all the bodies are buried...Which may be of more concern to milord than any 'fanatique' leanings.

Would be interesting though if it ever turns out Creed was playing something of a larger double game than merely looking out for himself.

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

We've bin afronted! Dishononored
Resolution of the Lords and Commons against the Dutch. ; The King's Answer.
About this time, the Dutch growing out of favour at Court, it was represented in the House, that by the Advances they had lately made in Trade; our own was become in danger; which gave place to the following Resolution both of Lords and Commons, viz. 'That the Wrongs, Dishonours, and Indignities done to his Majesty by the Subjects of the United Provinces, by invading his Rights in India, Africa, and elsewhere; and the Damages, Affronts, and Injuries done by them to our Merchants, are the greatest Obstructions of our foreign Trade: and that the same be humbly and speedily presented to his Majesty; and that he be most humbly mov'd to take some speedy and effectual Course for Redress thereof, and all other of the like nature, and for prevention of the like in future: And in prosecution thereof, they will, with their Lives and Fortunes, assist his Majesty against all Oppositions whatsoever.' Upon this Occasion both Houses waited upon his Majesty at the Banquetting House on the 27th of April, and the next day received this following Answer in Writing: 'His Majesty, having consider'd the Address made to him by his two Houses of Parliament, is very well pleas'd with the great Zeal they have express'd for the Advancement of the Trade of this Kingdom, and removing all Obstructions which may hinder the same; being wholly convinc'd, That it is that which contributes most to the Honour and Glory of the Nation, and the Prosperity of his People: And therefore his Majesty will examine and peruse the particular Complaints which have been represented to his Parliament; and thereupon, according to their Advice, appoint his Minister at the Hague to demand speedy Justice and Reparation from the StatesGeneral, and also use his utmost Endeavours to secure his Subjects from the like Violences for the future: In the prosecution of which, or upon the Denials of Justice, he depends upon the Promises of both Houses to stand by him, and returns them his hearty Thanks for their frank Declaration therein.' For which Royal Assurance, both Houses return'd their humble and hearty Thanks; and here was the Foundation, and the first Step towards the first Dutch War.

From: 'The second parliament of Charles II: Fourth session - begins 16/3/1664', The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons : volume 1: 1660-1680 (1742), pp. 72-80. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 02 April 2007.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"they will, with their Lives and Fortunes, assist his Majesty"
It's interesting to see this phrase here, which is echoed a century plus later in the final words of the American Declaration of Independence: "we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." It leads me to wonder if this was a somewhat standard formulation in matters of great moment during that era.
Thanks to CSG for posting the text of this resolution.

Pedro  •  Link

"appoint his Minister at the Hague to demand speedy Justice and Reparation from the StatesGeneral,"

The English envoy at the Hague being George Downing.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

George Downing's observation to his own government in 1664...

"You have infinite advantages upon account of the form of government of this country (United Provinces) which is such a shattered and divided thing; and though the rest of the provinces give Holland their votes, yet nothing is more evident or certain than that Holland must expect to bear the burden. Even Zeeland can do very little, for that is very poor, and the other provinces they neither can nor will."

(Boxer...The Dutch Seaborne Empire)

Bradford  •  Link

Imagine trying to read a manuscript written, with some sort of dip pen, in any of the various scripts common to the period just before Shakespeare & Co. (see the famous "Thomas More" ms. as a sample). And then imagine that you are trying to read it even by the light of several of the best beeswax candles. My eyes water to think of it.

tel  •  Link

I was at it to-night, but durst not stay long at it, I being come to have a great pain and water in my eyes after candle-light.
Is this the first mention of Sam's trouble with his eyes through reading in bad light? As we know, it eventually caused him to give up his diary, sadly.

Terry F  •  Link

Pepys's eyesight

tel, this is his second complaint. I have so far failed to track down the first, which I believe was last year.

Douglas Robertson  •  Link

Pepys's first complaint about his eyesight
dates from 19 January 1663/64, Terry F (last year Old Style, this year New):

"I to my office till very late, and my eyes began to fail me, and be in pain which I never felt to now-a-days, which I impute to sitting up late writing and reading by candle-light."

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Nix  •  Link

"Mrs. Turner did lend me, as a rarity, a manuscript" --

"A Mss. now in the Pepysian library" --

So Samuel was one of those bastards who borrow books and never return them?

Well, I suppose if he had, the manuscript would now be centuries lost.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Re: "but would be glad to have her, to come and be at my house a week now and then."

Robert, it brought a smile to my face, too, but remember -- all punctuation was added by the editors (I wonder if this comma is not in L&M at all, as we found w/Aussie Sue's full stop).

"but that he do not think he is displeased, as I fear, with me, but is strange to all, which makes me the less troubled"

Oh, it's ALL about you, isn't it, Sam? Your patron -- without whom you never would have been able to save that £900 (a good bit of which is lent to lil' ol' card-playing him, remember!) -- is "strange to all" and "minds his carding and little else," but as long as he's not mad at you particularly, all is well...

Lurker  •  Link

Paul Chapin: Numerous phrases from American constitutional and other legal documents have direct lineage back to English law. One of the more obvious is the phrase "Cruel and unusual", which is taken straight from the English Bill of Rights Act, which in turn comes from some other document (I've not forgotten).

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

L&M transcribe: " -- but would be glad to have her to come and be at my house a week now and then."

Shrewd guess, Todd Bernhardt!

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" the merchants concerned with the presenting their complaints to the Committee of Parliament appointed to receive them this afternoon against the Dutch."

L&M note the committee had been constituted on 26 March: for its report see
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

This is a way the war-drums start beating.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" Mrs. Turner did lend me, as a rarity, a manuscript of one Mr. Wells, writ long ago, teaching the method of building a ship"

Regarded, as L&M note, as Mathew Baker's manuscript christened Fragments of Ancient English Shipwrightry when it was acquired and preserved by Samuel Pepys. http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/staff/saj…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... Creed has been questioned before the Council about a letter that has been met with, wherein he is mentioned by some fanatiques as a serviceable friend to them, but he says he acquitted himself well in it, but, however, something sticks against him, he says, with my Lord, at which I am not very sorry, for I believe he is a false fellow."

Does anyone know which Council would be looking for nonconformists at this time?

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Sarah - I suspect it was the Privy Council, of which Sandwich was a member. And of course Creed was his treasurer on the Portugal trip. M'Lord would not have been pleased about this kind of question rearing its ugly head: it would have been rather more compromising than a bit of petty corruption!

Creed's brother Richard had been a Fifth-Monarchist, and a servant of Major-General Thomas Harrison the Regicide. Creed eventually married Sandwich's niece, Elizabeth Pickering, daughter of Northhamptonshire neighbour Sir Gilbert, the regicide for whom Sandwich had obtained a pardon.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . minds his carding . . ‘
‘carding, n.2 < . . Greek χάρτης . .
. . 1654 J. Trapp Comm. Job xxxi. 22 In Carding and Dicing he had often wished himself hanged if it were not so and so . . ‘
……………
Re: ‘ . . to come and be at my house a week now and then. . .’

‘now, adv., < Germanic . .
. . P.4 . . b. now and (also †or) then: occasionally, intermittently, at intervals.
. . 1623 N. Byfield Expos. Epist. Coloss. ii. v. 16 Tis not enough to doe good now or then, by flashes.
. . 1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 130. ¶3 These Gypsies now and then foretold very strange things . .

c. Similarly ‘every now and then’ (also ‘ . . again’).

1684 E. Ravenscroft Dame Dobson iv. ii. 45 Every now and then fancying a Noise, she'd say—Oh we are undone!
1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 326. ¶2, I shall every now and then have a saucy Rascal ride by reconnoitring (as I think you call it) under my windows . . ‘

Nowadays only used in sense c.
……………
(OED)

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