Monday 31 March 1662

This morning Mr. Coventry and all our company met at the office about some business of the victualling, which being dispatched we parted.

I to my Lord Crew’s to dinner (in my way calling upon my brother Tom, with whom I staid a good while and talked, and find him a man like to do well, which contents me much), where used with much respect, and talking with him about my Lord’s debts, and whether we should make use of an offer of Sir G. Carteret’s to lend my Lady 4 or 500l., he told me by no means, we must not oblige my Lord to him, and by the by he made a question whether it was not my Lord’s interest a little to appear to the King in debt, and for people to clamor against him as well as others for their money, that by that means the King and the world may see that he do lay out for the King’s honour upon his own main stock, which many he tells me do, that in fine if there be occasion he and I will be bound for it.

Thence to Sir Thomas Crew’s lodgings. He hath been ill, and continues so, under fits of apoplexy. Among other things, he and I did discourse much of Mr. Montagu’s base doings, and the dishonour that he will do my Lord, as well as cheating him of 2 or 3,000l., which is too true.

Thence to the play, where coming late, and meeting with Sir W. Pen, who had got room for my wife and his daughter in the pit, he and I into one of the boxes, and there we sat and heard “The Little Thiefe,” a pretty play and well done.

Thence home, and walked in the garden with them, and then to the house to supper and sat late talking, and so to bed.


19 Annotations

First Reading

vicenzo  •  Link

"...who had got room for my wife and his daughter in the pit, he and I into one of the boxes..." privilege of the superior , eh! wot!

vicenzo  •  Link

"...The King to be attended with the Petition against Priests and Jesuits.
The Lord Chamberlain gave the House this Account: "That the Duke of Albemarle and himself have attended His Majesty, to know His Pleasure, when both Houses of Parliament should attend Him, to deliver the Petition against Jesuits and Romish Priests: And it is His Majesty's Pleasure, that both Houses wait upon Him this Afternoon, at Four of the Clock, in the Banqueting House at Whitehall..."

From: British History Online
Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 31 March 1662. Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11, ().
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Date: 01/04/2005
c Copyright 2003-2005 University of London & History of Parliament Trust

With this Atmosphere of changes of Service, lea[r]ning the Romish way, is enough to make one a bit jittery, especially if one’s convictions are of the medium sought. Surplice , incense [even insentient] and listen to only one version of Idiology, at the same time do not want to lose ones income, or be out of the Loop. One will have to sail close to the new Communion rail with great car

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"under fits of apoplexy"
ministrokes aka TIE transient ischemic episodes?

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "that in fine if there be occasion he and I will be bound for it."

It seems that Lord Crew is counseling Sam (rather wisely, I think) not to put Montagu in Carteret's debt, but to make an impession on the king that he's putting himself in debt for the king (and, by doing so, possibly shame the king into giving him a "raise"), but what does this last part of the sentence mean?

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "he and I did discourse much of Mr. Montagu's base doings, and the dishonour that he will do my Lord, as well as cheating him of 2 or 3,000l., which is too true”

If this is true, you’d think that the Montagu cousins would have had a major falling out. Instead, looking at the entries on Ned’s annotation page, doesn’t look as if this is the case. Strange…

JWB  •  Link

... but what does this last part of the sentence mean?
I take it to mean,in the end, that if Jemima needs cash, Sam & Lord Crew would take care of it.

BradW  •  Link

"under fits of apoplexy"
ministrokes aka TIE transient ischemic episodes?

I wondered that too, but then by what symptoms would he have detected that, if he calls them “fits”? “Fits” implies to me seizures or convulsions. So I’m thinking the differential diagnosis might be epilepsy (he may have misremembered it as “apoplexy”); or fits of convulsions could just mean violent chills, suggesting an infectious process, like “Breakbone Fever” or dengue hemorragic syndrome (wrong time of year for mosquito-borne disease in England, though); or maybe convulsions could really be a symptom of TIE’s. Though in that case I might also expect paralysis, paresthesias, or other weird neurological symptoms that would be more likely to be reported than simple convulsions. We’ll have to wait for the labs to come back, I guess!

Mary  •  Link

"he and I will be bound for it"

The suggestion is that Pepys and Crew should stand bond (i.e. surety) for Mountagu if necessary.

NB. Mountagu is already in bond to Sam for the sum of £1000, loaned to him by Thomas Pepys in 1658. See annotations for 24th January 1661/2

Alan Bedford  •  Link

"Apoplexy" does refer to stroke or cerebral hemorrhage (according to my Dorland's medical dictionary) so transient ischemic episodes may be an accurate assessment. Our 17th century observer may liken the sudden transient paralysis or "other weird neurological symptoms " to convulsive seizures.

On the other hand, Sir Thomas may be re-faced and agitated as a result of his illness, in which case we English majors might describe him as "apoplectic". Sam does not comment on any incoherence on Sir Thomas' part.

Stolzi  •  Link

"under fits of apoplexy"

Obviously Sir Thomas should be bled pronto! Even modern medicine, I believe, says this is one of the few conditions which bleeding could actually help.

Nix  •  Link

Apoplexy --

Given the state of medical sophistication in the 17th century, I am reluctant to make the automatic equation of Crew's "apoplexy" with a stroke. OED gives a somewhat broader definition (below). Despite the somewhat similar sound, apoplexy and epilepsy do not seem to be etymologically related -- different Greek roots.

a. Fr. apoplexie, ad. L. apopl{emac}xia (occas. used in Eng.), a. Gr. {alenis}{pi}{omicron}{pi}{lambda}{eta}{xi}{giacu}{alpha} name of the same malady, f. {alenis}{pi}{omicron}{pi}{lambda}{ghacu}{sigma}{sigma}-{epsilon}{iota}{nu} to disable by a stroke, f. {alenis}{pi}{goacu} off, (in comb.) completely + {pi}{lambda}{ghacu}{sigma}{sigma}-{epsilon}{iota}{nu} to strike.]

1. A malady, very sudden in its attack, which arrests more or less completely the powers of sense and motion; it is usually caused by an effusion of blood or serum in the brain, and preceded by giddiness, partial loss of muscular power, etc.

c1386 CHAUCER Nun's Pr. T. 21 Napoplexie [v.r. nepoplexie] ne shente nat hir heed. 1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. III. xv. (1495) 59 Apoplexia is a euyll that makith a man lese all maner feling. 1552 LYNDESAY Monarche IV. 5117 Sum ar dissoluit suddantlye Be Cattarue or be Poplesye. 1597 SHAKES. 2 Hen. IV, I. ii. 126 This Apoplexie is (as I take it) a kind of Lethargie, a sleeping of the blood, a horson Tingling. 1748 THOMSON Cast. Indol. lxxvii. 692 Whilst Apoplexy cramm'd Intemperance knocks Down to the ground at once, as butcher felleth ox. 1861 HULME Moquin-Tandon I. ii. 11 Frequent apoplexies would be the result.

b. in Falconry.

1614 MARKHAM Cheape Hvsb. (1623) 163 The Apoplexie or falling euill in Hawkes. 1725 BRADLEY Fam. Dict., Apoplexy..a Disease that seizes the Heads of Hawks, commonly by reason of two much Grease and Store of Blood.

2. transf. or fig.

1589 Pasquil's Return Biiijb, His disease is the very Apoplexie of the Donatistes. 1678 Yng. Man's Call. 52 Foolishness: it is the souls apoplexy, wherein all the noble faculties of the mind are cast into a dead sleep. 1866 MOTLEY Dutch Rep. VI. iii. 824 The country was without a centre. There was small chance of apoplexy where there was no head.

3. Also applied by some to the effusion of blood in other organs.

1853 MAYNE Exp. Lex., Apoplexy cutaneous, a singular term employed by certain French writers for a great and sudden determination of blood to the skin. 1880 Syd. Soc. Lex., Apoplexy retinal, effusion of blood in the retina from rupture of its vessels.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam takes the first opportunity possible after Lent to go to the Play this Monday afternoon! How long did his self-imposed prohibition last?

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

I note that there hasn't been any mention of April Foolery. Is this a more recent innovation, does anybody know?

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"He hath been ill, and continues so, under fits of apoplexy"

APOPLEXY, a Disease that suddenly surprizes the Brain, and takes away all manner of Sense and Motion.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘fit n. . . 3. a. A paroxysm, or one of the recurrent attacks, of a periodic or constitutional ailment. In later use also with wider sense: A sudden and somewhat severe but transitory attack (of illness, or of some specified ailment).
. . a1616 Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) i. ii. 122 He had a Feauer..And when the Fit was on him, I did marke How he did shake.
1667 D. Allsopp in 12th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1890) App. v. 8 Taken with a fit of the collicke.
1691 Blair in W. S. Perry Hist. Coll. Amer. Colonial Church: Virginia (1870) I. 6 The Bishop of London..was..taken..with a fit of the stone.
. . 1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker I. 2, I expect to be laid up with another fit of the gout.
1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. iv. 76 A violent fit of coughing . . ‘

Mary K  •  Link

This sort of apoplexy also sounds similar in appearance to some manifestations of epilepsy.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and by the by he made a question whether it was not my Lord’s interest a little to appear to the King in debt, and for people to clamor against him as well as others for their money, that by that means the King and the world may see that he do lay out for the King’s honour upon his own main stock, which many he tells me do"

L&M: The reference here is for perhaps principally to the expenses of Sandwich's embassy to Portugal: cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Log in to post an annotation.

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