Thursday 8 August 1661

Early in the morning to Whitehall, but my Lord Privy Seal came not all the morning. At noon Mr. Moore and I to the Wardrobe to dinner, where my Lady and all merry and well. Back again to the Privy Seal; but my Lord comes not all the afternoon, which made me mad and gives all the world reason to talk of his delaying of business, as well as of his severity and ill using of the Clerks of the Privy Seal. In the evening I took Mons. Eschar and Mr. Moore and Dr. Pierce’s brother (the souldier) to the tavern next the Savoy, and there staid and drank with them. Here I met with Mr. Mage, and discoursing of musique Mons. Eschar spoke so much against the English and in praise of the French that made him mad, and so he went away. After a stay with them a little longer we parted and I home.


35 Annotations

First Reading

A Hamilton  •  Link

Mornink

A day of ill humors.

Louis  •  Link

"my Lord comes not all the afternoon, which made me mad and gives all the world reason to talk of his delaying of business, as well as of his severity and ill using of the Clerks of the Privy Seal."

How would The World know---apart from a few disgruntled customers---unless the Clerks broadcast it? Ill humours, indeed.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...but my Lord Privy Seal came not all the morning...Back again to the Privy Seal; but my Lord comes not all the afternoon, which made me mad and gives all the world reason to talk of his delaying of business, as well as of his severity and ill using of the Clerks of the Privy Seal."

Geesh and after poor Mr. Moore went running to Sam last night to get him to be there on time...Ill using, indeed...Aristocratic jackass!

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"Mons Eschar" Last week it was Mr Whore
now we have Monsieur Eschar!Is he trying to be funny?

vicente  •  Link

"Mornink": & there be I, doth think that it was Bow Bells be in 'is speech.
souldier [soldier] separates the one who pushes doggedly on from the one that unites [solder] [metals of course]
No talk of saddle sores?

vicente  •  Link

London doth attract many from beyond Calais straits. Many a person doth like their title, be wot it may, and they doth insist that thee use it too, none of that equality clap trap by those fanatiques. As noted by Sam, The ferrignier did get in our Mr Mage's goat [throat] royally .

daniel  •  Link

Mornink

surely this is quite antiquated, no? I have not encountered this type of variant before in English.

Mary  •  Link

L&M reads 'morning' not 'mornink'

so the latter could be a mis-scanning error.

Matthew  •  Link

Mad:
this meaning of the word has largely, if not completely, died out in England.

Mary  •  Link

mad

This usage may have died out in certain areas or within certain age-groups, but is still commonly to be heard, at least in the south of England.

Anthony  •  Link

Mad = angry, presumably. Surely this is commonplace in UK and USA , not just southern England?

Bob T  •  Link

mad
This expression is in common every day use in North America, and has been for as long as I can remember.

Matthew  •  Link

Mad:
It seems I was too categorical, but a Google on "Mad" restricted to U.K. sites yielded no examples of this usage in the 1st 10 pages, whereas a search restricted to U.S. sites yielded 4.

David A. Smith  •  Link

"and in praise of the French that made him mad"
Regarding the question about whether it still means angry, to quote Peter Finch from Network, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more!!"
Following are the many derivations of mad=angry in common US parlance:

'Boiling mad'
'Hopping mad'
'So mad he can't see straight'
'Madder than a wet hen' (Language Hat, please analyze!)

And as for someone becoming mad when hearing speech against the English and in praise of the French ... well, Mr. Mage seems entirely well named!

Glyn  •  Link

"I'm mad about my flat"

In UK English - I'm delighted with my apartment.

In US English - I'm angry about my flat tire (tyre).

Glyn  •  Link

The shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives the definition of "mad" as:

Definition 3 "Carried away by enthusiasm, wildly excited, infatuated". Definition 4 "Beside oneself with anger, moved to uncontrollable rage, furious."

In contrast the British version of the Encarta World English Dictionary transposes them in order of most common use: Definition 1: "Very angry, affected by great displeasure or anger." and only Definition 8 as: "Passionate about something, very fond of, enthusiastic or interested in something" (e.g. golf-mad). So perhaps the most common usages are changing.

In practice Brits use the term for both meanings, hence the old joke "I say, I say, I say I shot my dog yesterday." "Was he mad?" "Well he wasn't very happy about it."

Pedro.  •  Link

In defence of English Musick.

As Mr.Mage is a member of the King's Musick, why did our Sam not back him up, and say that the French guitar musick is (pony and trap as Vincente may say) rubbish?

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Jesse  •  Link

"...of musique Mons. Eschar spoke so much against the English"

From a short biography of English composer John Jenkins (1592-1698) "during the Commonwealth of Cromwell [there was an] absence of much competition or orgainised music-making".
http://www.free-definition.com/Jo…

Given the recent history, perhaps there wasn't much Sam could say.

john lauer  •  Link

Webster: eschar
n ... (1543): a scab formed esp. after a burn.

Mary  •  Link

Tight-lipped Sam.

IF Mons. Eschar is the same person as Mons. Esquier ( tentatively suggested by L&M Companion), then Sam's failure to argue on Mage's behalf may simply be politic, as Esquier was servant to Edward Montagu

jean-paul buquet  •  Link

- Are you mad? - I'm furious!
Who can forget Rowan Atkinson's play on the double meaning of "furious" in his legendary sketch 'Fatal Beatings'. Atkinson plays an English school principal who breaks the news to a pupil's father that he personally administered a fatal beating to the boy (for taking out library books without library cards!):
- (to the father) I wondered then as I wonder now if he might not have turned out to be a very different boy indeed if you had administered a few fatal beatings early on.
- (father in disbelief) Are you MAD?
- (Atkinson morally outraged) I’m FURIOUS!!! - in order to accomodate the funeral, I had to cancel afternoon school on Wednesday

and you don’t want to miss the punchline of the sketch. We are not straying too far from Pepys hopefully. By the way, what would have been considered extremely funny in the London of the 1660s? Did they have “humour noir” back then? Does anybody have a good 17th-century joke - and did Pepys ever tell one in his diaries?

Pedro.  •  Link

"funny in the London of the 1660's"

I'm sure someone can enlighten us, but the term "Restoration Comedy" springs to mind.

See also Background for Plays..

http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Nigel Pond  •  Link

I use "mad" in both meanings cited by Glyn and have done since I was a kid growing up in Manchester. It didn't even cross my mind that either usage may be uncommon depending on one's locale...

Nigel Pond  •  Link

I just thought of a US example of "mad" with the UK meaning: the sitcom "Mad About You". At least I had always assumed it was that meaning...

Ruben  •  Link

Errata:
John Jenkins (1592-1678)

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"Mad"
You are all invited to a Mad Hatter tea party...

vicente  •  Link

Don't forget Mr Butler: aka Mons. l'Impertinent; nomen mimicus was, is ,and will be forever. Man will give nom[e]’s deplume [or nom de guerre] for the outrageous and other non standed ‘umans: beside the Chalkies , Dusties, Jumbos and other monikers, the better sort did like to use the latinised or foreign appellations.

Pat stewart Cavalier  •  Link

Either it's a mis scan or it's a scanning error.
Mad : in the concise Oxford English dictionary it gives the 4th meaning as (informal) : very angry

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

MAD, deprived of Reason, furious.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Sense 6.b is the right one here; I post the others to show the subtle distinctions that the OED makes throughout. It has:

‘mad adj. . .
. . 2. Of a person, action, disposition, etc.: uncontrolled by reason or judgement; foolish, unwise . .
1608 T. Middleton (title) A mad world, my masters.
a1616 Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. ii. 392, I draue my Sutor from his mad humor of loue to a liuing humor of madnes.
1743 J. Bulkeley & J. Cummins Voy. to South-seas Pref. 14 Our Attempt for Liberty in sailing..with such a number of People, stow'd in a Long Boat, has been censur'd as a mad Undertaking.

3. a. Of a person: carried away by or filled with enthusiasm or desire; wildly excited; infatuated. With about, after, for, †of, on (chiefly Brit.), over, †upon, with.
. . a1616 Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) v. iii. 263 He loued her, for indeede he was madde for her.
. . 1678 T. Rymer Trag. Last Age 7, I cannot be perswaded that the people are so very mad of Acorns, but that they could be well content to eat the Bread of civil persons.
. . 1692 Dryden Cleomenes Pref. sig. A4, The World is running mad after Farce, the Extremitie of bad Poetry . .

4. a. Of a person: insane, crazy; mentally unbalanced or deranged; subject to delusions or hallucinations; (in later use esp.) psychotic.
. . 1665 S. Pepys Diary 25 Jan. (1972) VI. 21 He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been and is—and once at Antwerp, was really mad . .

6. a. Of a person: beside oneself with anger; moved to uncontrollable rage; furious.

b. Angry, irate, cross. Also, in weakened sense: annoyed, exasperated (with †against, at, with, etc.). Now colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.) and Brit. regional.
. . 1611 Bible (A.V.) Acts xxvi. 11 And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue ii. 155 Whereat the merchant was so mad, and so transported with passion, that he knew not what to say . .

P1. like mad: (literally) in the manner of one who is mad; (hence) furiously, with excessive violence or enthusiasm; now often (colloq.) in weakened sense, as an intensifier: greatly, to a high degree. Also †like any mad, †for mad.
. . 1663 S. Pepys Diary 13 June (1971) IV. 182 Thence by coach with a mad coachman that drove like mad . .

mad-humoured adj.
1665 S. Pepys Diary 6 Dec. (1972) VI. 321 Knipp, who is..the most excellent mad-humourd thing; and sings the noblest that ever I heard.'

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

And there's this:

'Mad About The Boy Lyrics

I met him at a party just a couple of years ago,
He was rather over-hearty and ridiculous
But as I'd seen him on the screen he cast a certain spell.
I'd basked in his attraction
For a couple of hours or so.
His manners were a fraction too meticulous,

If he was real or not, I couldn't tell,
But like a silly fool I fell
Mad about the boy,
I know it's stupid
To be mad about the boy.
I'm so ashamed of it

But must admit
The sleepless nights
I've had about the boy.
On the silver screen
He melts my foolish heart
In every single scene.

Although I'm quite aware
That here and there
Are traces of the cad about the boy.
Lord knows I'm not a fool girl,
I really shouldn't care.
no I'm not a schoolgirl

In the flurry of her first affair.
Will it ever cloy
This odd diversity of misery and joy
I'm feeling quite insane
And young again
And all because

I'm mad about the boy.
It seems a little silly
For a girl of my age and weight
To walk down Piccadilly in a haze of light.
It ought to take her a good deal more
To take a bad girl down.

I should've been exempt for my particular kind of fate
As taught me such contempt for every phase of love
And now I've been and spent my love torn crown
To weep about a painted clown.
Mad about the boy,
It's pretty funny

But I'm mad about the boy.
He has a gay appeal that makes me feel
There's maybe something sad about the boy.
Walking down the street
His eyes look out at me from people that I meet.
I can't believe it's true,

But when I'm blue, in some strange way
I'm glad about the boy.
I'm hardly sentimental,
Love isn't so sublime.
I have to pay my rental
And I can't afford to waste much time.

If I could employ a little magic
That would finally destroy
This dream that pains me and it shames me
But I can't because I'm mad about the boy.

Noel Coward, 1932'

http://www.metrolyrics.com/mad-ab…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my Lord comes not all the afternoon, which made me mad and gives all the world reason to talk of his delaying of business"

Cf. Clarendon (Life, ii. 23): 'To shew his extraordinary talent, [Robartes] found a way more to obstruct and puzzle business than any man ib that office had ever done before.' (L&M note).

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