Monday 21 October 1661
Early with Mr. Moore by coach to Chelsy, to my Lord Privy Seal’s, but have missed of coming time enough; and having taken up Mr. Pargiter, the goldsmith (who is the man of the world that I do most know and believe to be a cheating rogue), we drank our morning draft there together of cake and ale, and did make good sport of his losing so much by the King’s coming in, he having bought much of Crown lands, of which, God forgive me! I am very glad. At Whitehall, at the Privy Seal, did with Sir W. Pen take advice about passing of things of his there that concern his matters of Ireland. Thence to the Wardrobe and dined, and so against my judgment and conscience (which God forgive, for my very heart knows that I offend God in breaking my vows herein) to the Opera, which is now newly begun to act again, after some alteracion of their scene, which do make it very much worse; but the play, “Love and Honour,” being the first time of their acting it, is a very good plot, and well done. So on foot home, and after a little business done in my study and supper, to bed.
18 Annotations
First Reading
J A Gioia • Link
and so against my judgment and conscience ... to the Opera, which is now newly begun
'my name is sam, and i'm a theater-holic.'
Rex Gordon • Link
"he having bought much of Crowne lands"
L&M explain: Crown and church lands were now, after the confiscations of the revolution, restored to their legal owners without compensation to their purchasers. The goldsmith was John Pargiter, sen., who had purchased Crown lands in Buckinghamshire: S.J. Madge, Domesday of Crown lands, p. 403. He was several times fined by the Goldsmith's Company for bad workmanship, and in March 1668 his name was removed by the Court of Aldermen from the list of nominees for the office of alderman. He may have been the Pargiter prosecuted in 1669 for coin clipping: PRO, SP 29/256, no. 17. If he was, Sam's assessment of his business character was astute indeed.
Wim van der Meij • Link
'Love and Honour' is a tragi-comedy by Sir W. Davenant, first acted at the Blackfriars.
David A. Smith • Link
"I do most know and believe to be a cheating rogue"
Paste the smile in place, quaff the beer, then escape his presence, go home, close the door, and in quiet candlelit privacy let your feelings rip in precise encrypted shorthand.
We have all felt this way ...
David A. Smith • Link
"of which, God forgive me! I am very glad"
Here is why we love to read Sam:
Believing Pargiter to be a rogue, and having established that he was an opportunist who cheerfully capitalized on others' misfortune, Sam now quite understandably rejoices (silently) at the confiscation of Pargiter's treacherous profits.
And then, as if crossing himself before the padre, he interjects a "God forgive me!" with an exclamation point.
So we have scene, character, and the dichotomous nature of emotional doublethink -- all in nine words.
David Ross McIrvine • Link
*LOVE AND HONOUR*
According to T.W. Craik, in Volume V of *The Revels History of Drama in English*, Charles II lent his Coronation robes to Betterton for a performance of *Love and Honour*. Whether it was the performance Sam is at, I'm not sure, but as we know Betterton has already begun to perform at Lincoln's Inn Fields in August, when Sam saw *Hamlet*.
Pedro. • Link
On this day..
100 men who formed the Tangier Horse were paraded at St.George's Field in Southwalk. On return to England they became the 1st Royal Dragoons.
andy • Link
man of the world
......
what a phrase, that has survived centuries.
And I think we can allow Sam a few furtive vists to the theatre and opera!
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"At Whitehall, at the Privy Seal, did with Sir W. Pen take advice about passing of things of his there that concern his matters of Ireland."
L&M note these "matters" were a grant of c. 12,000 acres of land in co. Cork made to Penn under the terms of the Irish land settlement of November 1660, in compensation for the loss of the lands he had gained in the Cromwellian settlement of 1652 and which were now returned to their former owner, the Earl of Clancarty. Disputes over the grant continued until 1669. (Cf. the post by Rex Gordon above.),
Terry Foreman • Link
"Charles II lent his Coronation robes to Betterton for a performance of *Love and Honour*. Whether it was the performance Sam is at, I'm not sure,"
L&M note that Downes says it is. "John Downes (died ca. 1712) worked as a prompter at the Duke's Company, and later the United Company, for most of the Restoration period 1660—1700. His 'historical review of the stage', Roscius Anglicanus (1708), is an invaluable source for historians both of Restoration and of Stuart theater." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh…
Terry Foreman • Link
"we drank our morning draft there together of cake and ale"
Goodness knows what they actually had for a morning draft: "cakes and ale" was a proverbial phrase for the good things in life. Cf. "the remark of Sir Toby Belch to Malvolio in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Cakes and ale are also the emblems of the good life in the moral of the fable attributed to Aesop, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse": "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear."" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cak…
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
From Sandwich's log, at anchor in Tangier Bay:
October 21, Monday.
I sent the Gift away to Malaga to take the merchants there ready under his convoy and see them as far as the rock of Lisbon and then himself go into Lisbon and take 2 months' provisions from the Consul and sail for this bay again.
Copied from
The Journal of Edward Mountagu,
First Earl of Sandwich
Admiral and General-at-Sea 1659 - 1665
Edited by RC Anderson
Printed for the Navy Records Society
MDCCCCXXIX
Section III - Mediterranean 1661/62
@@@
The Gift -- AKA The Great Gift
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Malaga
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
Lisbon
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Consul at Lisbon
Thomas Maynard, English Consul at Lisbon, see the second letter at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Any locals around?
From this I'm guessing the Gift left the merchant ships in the Lisbon Roads, which is marked by a rock, to await word when there was room at the merchants' docks for them to be unloaded.
The Gift then sailed up the Targus to the English Consul's dock to take on provisions.
But I have no idea is there is any such place as Lisbon Roads.
Marie333 • Link
why does Samuel seem to think of the Opera as something so sinful and scandalous? he seems to go to the theatre quite often, and went to see a play a little over a week ago, yet those don't seem to be treated as such a guilty pleasure. When we think of Opera nowadays it's seen as a rather opulent and well-mannered occasion, was that not the case in the 1660s? The way he talks about it, you'd think he was going to see a peep show or something.
Phil C. • Link
I believe The Opera was the name of a theatre, in Lincoln Fields, and he went to see a play there.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Marie333 "the Opera" is in blue in the text. Click through, and you'll find out the theater was also known as The Duke's House. It was not a type of performance, as Phil C explained.
This ability is handy, or we'll be making the same annotations over and over again, which will kill the flow.
David G • Link
Marie333, Sam makes periodic vows to stop going to plays and he’s obviously referring in this entry to a vow that he made but didn’t record in the Diary (at least not that I could find with a word search). The vow must have been recent since he saw multiple plays the prior week.
Peter Johnson • Link
Re: "But I have no idea is there is any such place as Lisbon Roads."
Roadsteads or Roads
"The maritime term for a sheltered area of water near the shore where ships can safely anchor is a roadstead. Roadsteads can be natural or artificial, and are usually located in estuaries. In maritime law, a roadstead is described as a "known general station for ships". "
Thanks to Google
RLB • Link
@David G: the vow was not so much not to go to the theatre, as not to go to the theatre *on his own*. He's taken his wife, and friends, several times, but AFAICT this is the first time he's been there alone all this month.