Tuesday 22 August 1665

Up, and after much pleasant talke and being importuned by my wife and her two mayds, which are both good wenches, for me to buy a necklace of pearle for her, and I promising to give her one of 60l. in two years at furthest, and in less if she pleases me in her painting, I went away and walked to Greenwich, in my way seeing a coffin with a dead body therein, dead of the plague, lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme, which was carried out last night, and the parish have not appointed any body to bury it; but only set a watch there day and night, that nobody should go thither or come thence, which is a most cruel thing: this disease making us more cruel to one another than if we are doggs.

So to the King’s House, and there met my Lord Bruncker and Sir J. Minnes, and to our lodgings again that are appointed for us, which do please me better to day than last night, and are set a doing. Thence I to Deptford, where by appointment I find Mr. Andrews come, and to the Globe, where we dined together and did much business as to our Plymouth gentlemen; and after a good dinner and good discourse, he being a very good man, I think verily, we parted and I to the King’s yard, walked up and down, and by and by out at the back gate, and there saw the Bagwell’s wife’s mother and daughter, and went to them, and went in to the daughter’s house with the mother, and ‘faciebam le cose que ego tenebam a mind to con elle’, and drinking and talking, by and by away, and so walked to Redriffe, troubled to go through the little lane, where the plague is, but did and took water and home, where all well; but Mr. Andrews not coming to even accounts, as I expected, with relation to something of my own profit, I was vexed that I could not settle to business, but home to my viall, though in the evening he did come to my satisfaction. So after supper (he being gone first) I to settle my journall and to bed.


18 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Notes

"lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme" - close = "enclosed field" (L&M Large Glossary)

***
"our Plymouth gentlemen" - sc. Lanyon and Yeablsey, whose Tangier victualing contract Denis Gauden was taking over. (L&M note).

***
"I to the King's yard, walked up and down, and by and by out at the back gate, and there saw the Bagwell's wife's mother and daughter, and went to them, and went in to the daughter's house with the mother, and 'faciebam le cose que ego tenebam a mind to con elle' [I did whatever I had a mind to with her], and drinking and talking, by and by away, and so walked to Redriffe, troubled to go through the little lane, where the plague is, but did and took water and home, where all well."
( Duncan Grey translation modified) http://www.pepys.info/bits2.html

CGS  •  Link

not close as from the verb close , fermez
but
meaning >.could be 3b too?
close
[a. F. clos: L. clausum closed place, enclosure. Pronunciation and spelling as in the adj.]

I. 1. gen. An enclosed place, an enclosure.
1297[ \
b. in close: in a closed place; in confinement, closed up, shut up.
c1340

c. Law. breaking one's close (law L. clausum frangere): see quot.
[1465 Year Bk. 4 Edw. IV, 8. 9 Quare vi et armis clausum fregit.] 1817 W. SELWYN Law Nisi Prius II. 1216 The land of every owner or occupier is enclosed and set apart from that of his neighbour, either by a visible and tangible fence..or by an ideal invisible boundary.. Hence every unwarrantable entry upon the land of another is termed a trespass by breaking his close.

2. In many senses more or less specific: as, An enclosed field (now chiefly local, in the English midlands); spec. (with capital initial), at certain schools, the name given to a school playing-field.
c1440

1564 HAWARD Eutropius I. 9 Seized of a close or field.

1712 ARBUTHNOT John Bull (1755) 55 We measured the corn fields, close by close.

3. An enclosure about or beside a building; a court, yard, quadrangle, etc. a. gen. Obs.
c1440

b. A farm-yard. Now in Kent, Sussex, Scotl.
c1386

c. The precinct of a cathedral. Hence sometimes = The cathedral clergy.
1371 ....
c1630 RISDON Surv. Devon §107 (1810) 109 The church yard, called the Close, for that they are inclosed by certain gates.

d. The precinct of any sacred place; a cloister.
c1449

4. An entry or passage. Now, in Scotland, esp. one leading from the street to dwelling houses, out-houses, or stables, at the back, or to a common stair communicating with the different floors or ‘flats’ of the building. Also variously extended to include the common stair, the open lane or alley, or the court, to which such an entry leads.
c1400

b. Hence, close-head, -mouth.
1818

c. A short street closed at one end, a cul-de-sac. Often in proper names of such streets.
1723 DEFOE Life Col. Jacque (ed. 2) 70, I..cut into Little-Britain, so into Bartholomew-Close, then cross Aldersgate-street.

5. A mountain defile or pass. Obs.
?a1400

II. 6. An enclosing line, boundary, circuit, pale. Obs.
c1330

David Goldfarb  •  Link

In case it's not obvious, "faciebam le cose que ego tenebam a mind to con elle" means "I did the thing that I had a mind to with her". I have to say, I'm finding this Latin-Spanish-English-French word salad stuff rather grating.

tg  •  Link

This Bagwell affair is getting a little out of hand. Last week it was Mr. Bagwell's father (if I'm not mistaken and I may be) and now it is Mrs Bagwell's mother who is facilitating the liason. It seems that the whole extended family is banking on our man for some extras in exchange for whatever he has a mind to do with Mrs. Bagwell. And what are the favours that they receive? Does Mr. Bagwell ever get a promotion? And what of Mrs. Bagwell's intentions?

Australian Susan  •  Link

"....in my way seeing a coffin with a dead body therein, dead of the plague, lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme, which was carried out last night, and the parish have not appointed any body to bury it; but only set a watch there day and night, that nobody should go thither or come thence, which is a most cruel thing: this disease making us more cruel to one another than if we are doggs......"

Before we get too smug about being more sensitive than 17th century people, have a look at this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/w…

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

Bagwell’s wife’s mother and daughter

I think we are in the usual problem of arbitrary punctuation again. My guess is that it was his wife and daughter that Sam met - otherwise, three generations pimping the wife would surely trouble even Sam's sensitivity?

andy  •  Link

the Bagwell’s wife’s mother and daughter, and went to them, and went in to the daughter’s house with the mother

shades of Alan Clark's diaries here.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... and there saw the Bagwell’s wife’s mother and daughter, and went to them, and went in to the daughter’s house with the mother, and ‘faciebam le cose que ego tenebam a mind to con elle’, and drinking and talking, by and by away... "

Very probably a simple and anachronistic response, but the whole business strikes me as just enormously sad for everybody involved.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

For a moment I feared it was Mrs. Bagwell's sister-in-law being offered as well but I agree Sam probably is referring to his standard mistress. One can hope Mum and Dad actually knew nothing and Sam simply did a quick grab and feel with the lady in some back room or corner. Otherwise perhaps we have found the model John Gay used for the Peachums.

Hmmn...You know the composer for the BO was Johann Christoph Pepusch.

Remember that fine classic Star Trek episode...

"I am Brahms..."

"And DaVinci."

"Yes. And a hundred other names most of whom you would not know."

***
"You know Pepusch. It's always amazing to me how much you resemble that portrait of the Secretary over at the Admiralty office. Odd that your names are so similar, too. If you weren't obviously in your thirties...You could be the man. And he was a lover of music and a composer in his spare time, I understand."

"Ja?" Pepusch looking a bit nervous...Releasing arm from about pretty tapster's daughter's waist.

"Yes. Strange thing about that fellow, an old medical friend told me he was attending at the man's mother's deathbed and she babbled on to him about Pepys not really being her son until the father quieted her."

"What? Ach, I mean...Ja?"

CGS  •  Link

"...lying in an open close belonging to Coome farme,..."
Coom farm could have been once a forge, note that it has the meaning of soot also for a coffin?
the situation of the coffin could be a bit of irony
Coom
1. Soot, esp. that which forms about a fireplace, or settles as smuts from a smoky atmosphere. smithy coom: the hard granular soot that forms over a blacksmith's fire. (But see also 2.) Now Sc. or north Eng.

1587 L. MASCALL Govt. Cattle, Horses (1627) 126 The coame aboue the Smithes forge.

1610 MARKHAM Masterp. II. xxxvi. 273 The coame about the Smithes forge. 1691
2. Coal dust or refuse, small coal, slack: cf. CULM.
1611 Vestry Bks.
\

2. ‘The lid of a coffin, from its being arched’ (Jam.).
In quot. 1537, it seems to be used for the coffin as a whole.
1537

2. ‘The lid of a coffin, from its being arched’ (Jam.).
In quot. 1537, it seems to be used for the coffin as a whole.
1537
to coom:
2. (See quot.) Obs.
1664 EVELYN Sylva 103 Small-coals are made of the spray and brush-wood..which is sometimes bound up into Bavins for this use; though also it be as frequently charked without binding, and then they call it cooming it together.

CGS  •  Link

"...being importuned by my wife and her two mayds, which are both good wenches,..."

the naughty meaning was not noted until

OED b. To solicit for purposes of prostitution.
1847

[a. F. importune-r (1512 in Godef. Compl.) =
It. importun{amac}re (Florio),
Sp. importunar (Percivall),
med.L. import{umac}n{amac}r{imac}, -{amac}re,
f. import{umac}nus: see prec.]

1. trans. To burden; to be troublesome or wearisome to; to trouble, worry, pester, annoy.
1578
1661 EVELYN Mem. (1857) III. 136, I shall, whenever..it may least importune his privacy, make the inventory of particulars.
2. To press, urge, impel. Also absol. Obs.
1603 SHAKES. Meas. for M. I. i.
3. To solicit pressingly and persistently; to ply or beset with requests or petitions.
1530
1676 HOBBES Iliad (1677) 298 ‘My friends’, said he, ‘importune me no more To eat or drink before we go to fight’.

4. To ask for (a thing) urgently and persistently; to crave or beg for.
1588 SHAKES. L.L.L. II. i. 32
5. a. intr. To make urgent solicitation; to be importunate.
1548

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"All the finest ladies and even most of the lesser ones have one, Mr. P."

"Mrs. Pepys looks so underdressed in the society in which you both now move without one, Mr. Pepys."

"The Carteret-Montague wedding to which you never lifted a finger to get me invited never happened, Sam'l...Or at least, I'll have been blinded by the gleam of my new necklace."

60Ls? The equivalent of a very good year's salary for a rising young clerk. Wouldn't Bess be better off with painting supplies and some new dresses?

(My Gay says for me to duck. Can't imagine why.)

dirk  •  Link

From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Edward Shepley to Sandwich

Written from: Salisbury
Date: 22 August 1665

Has conferred at Salisbury with Mr Justice Wyndham and with Mr Thomas Wyndham (Grand Equerry to the King), in order to the arrangement of a meeting between Lord Hawley, Mr Attorney, Sir John Warren [?Warre], and Mr T. Wyndham, [with reference as it seems, for a projected marriage for Lord Hinchinbrooke]. The meeting cannot be had, until my Lord Hawley's return form York.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Bagwelliana

I was inclined to think the father was innocent of pimping, but now the mother too, if the meaning (not clear)means the mother of Mrs. Bagwell? I'm beginning to think Mrs B's family is in on the secret, and takes the position that her being the mistress of Pepys is good for the family. Mrs. B. clearly thinks so.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Pepys's peregrinations

Like Ralph Berry and Glyn I am impressed by how much Pepys is out and about, and how hardy he is. I can't calculate the mileage, but it seems impressive.

Aug. 16-19, by yacht to Sheerness and Chatham then by carriage and waterman back home at 3 AM.
Aug. 19-20, by horse to near Windsor (rescuing his lost guide by knowing the direction and orientation of the moon, arriving in the dark, finding a ladder in the construction muddle and climbing up to Carteret's window) and back again next day to Stanes and Brainford by horse, then to Queenhithe by water and an hour of walking home by 10 PM;
Aug. 21-22, walks to the Park and back, crosses river to Rotherhithe, walks to Greenwich and then on to Woolwich arriving in the dark; then in the morning walks Woolwich to Greenwich to Deptford to Redriffe, across the river and home.

Whew

CGS  •  Link

Pepys’s peregrinations:
Like the falcon he goes to pick his carrion.
At that age SP be like many a modern go getter,now it would be in his falcon, or his Daimler covering the width and length of the emerald isle, Scilly Isle to John of Groats checking out all those wayward naval locations.

Della Lessels  •  Link

Well very impressive I love reading Samuel Pepys dairy!!

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"importuned by my wife and her two mayds, which are both good wenches, for me to buy a necklace of pearle for her, and I promising to give her one of 60l. in two years at furthest, and in less if she pleases me in her painting"

L&M: On 30 April 1666 she bought one costing £80.

Log in to post an annotation.

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