Monday 5 May 1662
My arme not being well, I staid within all the morning, and dined alone at home, my wife being gone out to buy some things for herself, and a gown for me to dress myself in. And so all the afternoon looking over my papers, and at night walked upon the leads, and so to bed.
16 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"My arme not being well"
Probably the arme were he underwent the blood letting;I hope he doesn't get blood poisoning and dies.
daniel • Link
"My arme not being well"
I do believe that he survives unscathed, De Araujo. Though his comment makes one wonder.
Cumgranissalis • Link
The extra commissioner of the Navy Mr. Wm. Coventry did present a bill in the House and after due discussion, it was approved.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Jesse • Link
"looking over my papers"
A quiet day at home. No visitors? He couldn't have been that indisposed. Catching up on the domestic(?) paperwork, I wonder if it was just sorting and filing or were there replies to be written and bills to be paid?
Miss Ann • Link
Typical bloke - a small hole in his arm and he thinks he's dying! Times have certainly not changed.
Xjy • Link
"not being well"
I think he just needs to recover from all the excitement with Mrs Pierce and her friend those two evenings in Portsmouth. Must have got his humours all skew-whiff. Too much testosterone pumping around and filling his brain. So drain some blood, decongest the parts, spend a quiet day at home... send the wife out shopping...
Bascule • Link
Surely his arm injury is a strategy for avoiding a long and boring shopping trip with the missus? The significant point was that she had gone to buy some "things for herself". Better to dine alone than endure the tedium of an extended shopping trip.... a politick move on Sam's part.
Clement • Link
Shopping
...And he's avoiding the opportunity for spending requests beyond whatever funding he sent her off with, assuming she's not buying on his credit. However that's the kind of surreptitious intent he usually confides in his diary--though perhaps not as of late.
A. Hamilton • Link
"not being well"
A man of many strategems.
serafina • Link
Alittle off topic, but bear with me; With regard to the typical ladies dress that Elizabeth may be buying, how long do you think it would take to create one of these intricate fashionable numbers? And what about cost? As a seamstress, I have often wondered about the strength of the seams etc on these garments, as they would be using fine cottons for sewing presumably, and the garments being very heavy would put quite a strain on the seams.
Mary • Link
strain on the seams.
Not many women's outer garments were made 'all-in-one'. Petticoats were separate from overskirts, bodices separate from skirts and busks; upper and lower garments tended to be tied together with tabs (largely to keep them in place) and so the strain on individual seams was minimised.
BradW • Link
Bodice Rippers
Serafina--there are historical reenactors for just about every period of history these days. With some luck you might be able to find a company or individual who specializes in recreating garments from that era, who has research on materials and methods. I have seen a catalog from one such company, that covered from Pharoanic Egypt up to World War II, and whole lot in between. As an (American) Civil War reenactor I can tell you the "Stitch Nazi's" among us demand historical accuracy in every observable detail of clothes. No doubt there are Cavalier/Round Head units in England that can show you exactly how to recreate such garments.
Pizza Face the Poet • Link
Sam Pepys vs. Mr. Potato Head (a prophetic dream of Admiral de Ruyter,
delivered in broadside form a la pyrate shantie. first published 1881, from an old ms. used to stop up a defunct rag-shop's broken glass window._)
Sam Pepys
Dining alone at home
Falls asleep over his 'sparagus omelette
dreams a dream
In which Mister Potato Head
sails up the Thames
to deliver ranting and levelling tracts
to the City of London.
The tracts are old and musty.
Mister Potato Head has a pirate moustache stuck to his face
Some idiot is trying to translate drama into French.
The real political subtleties of this are unknown? Or not? Oh for a man of gret acutoritee, large in holdings and of the best counsel, to educate Sam--over a beer and fries.
*fin*
Second Reading
Louise Hudson • Link
Serafina and Mary, notice he said his wife is shopping for a gown for him, not herself--probably some sort of nightshirt for wearing to bed, or a dressing gown.
John York • Link
Louise, Yesterday (Sunday) - “my wife and I walked to Grays Inn, to observe fashions of the ladies, because of my wife’s making some clothes”
Today (Monday) - “my wife being gone out to buy some things for herself”
Yes and a gown for Sam, but I think there is enough here to assume that she is buying clothes or materials for her own clothes.
Louise Hudson • Link
Yes. Few women would go on a shopping trip for one thing at a time, then or now.