Friday 29 July 1664
At the office all the morning dispatching of business, at noon to the ’Change after dinner, and thence to Tom Trice about Dr. Pepys’s business, and thence it raining turned into Fleet Alley, and there was with Cocke an hour or so. The jade, whether I would not give her money or not enough; she would not offer to invite to do anything, but on the contrary saying she had no time, which I was glad of, for I had no mind to meddle with her, but had my end to see what a cunning jade she was, to see her impudent tricks and ways of getting money and raising the reckoning by still calling for things, that it come to 6 or 7 shillings presently. So away home, glad I escaped without any inconvenience, and there came Mr. Hill, Andrews and Seignor Pedro, and great store of musique we had, but I begin to be weary of having a master with us, for it spoils, methinks, the ingenuity of our practice.
After they were gone comes Mr. Bland to me, sat till 11 at night with me, talking of the garrison of Tangier and serving them with pieces of eight. A mind he hath to be employed there, but dares not desire any courtesy of me, and yet would fain engage me to be for him, for I perceive they do all find that I am the busy man to see the King have right done him by inquiring out other bidders. Being quite tired with him, I got him gone, and so to bed.
31 Annotations
First Reading
jeannine • Link
"Journal of the Earl of Sandwich" edited by R.C. Anderson (Appendix VI)
JAMES, DUKE OF YORK, TO SANDWICH
(Sandwich MSS., Letters from Ministers, etc. Vol. I, f. 33)
.....I have received your letter of the 27th instant and am by my Secretary informed of a question which you have put to him concerning the exacting from the Dutch fleet by a single ship (and that perhaps a small one) the striking their flag and topsails, in which the best is (as much as may be ) to avoid the occasion of the question so stated; but if it happens that such a case fall out, I hold it necessary that the commander of the single ship, how small soever, do exact it from them by the exchange of some shot, though I do not hold it a duty for him to be sunk upon such unequal terms, but judge it sufficient that by the exchange of some shot on both sides he hath made the command and they obstinately refused it....James
July 29th, 1664
jeannine • Link
"Journal of the Earl of Sandwich" edited by R.C. Anderson
29th. Friday. Afternoon blew hard at N.N.W. Sir Nic Crisp's man brought a certificate of our agreement of the Royal Company to pay him 5 per cent. out of our dividends until £20,000 be paid for his interest in Africa. Which paper I signed, Prince Rupert, the Lord Chancellor, Sir George Carteret having already put to their hands.
Patricia • Link
"The jade, whether I would not give her money or not enough; she would not offer to invite to do anything, but on the contrary saying she had no time, which I was glad of, for I had no mind to meddle with her, but had my end to see what a cunning jade she was, to see her impudent tricks and ways of getting money and raising the reckoning by still calling for things, that it come to 6 or 7 shillings presently."
Because Sam can get it for free from Betty Lane or, at most, for the price of a drink of beer, he is unwilling to pay this woman and wastes an hour of her time. Duh, Sam, she's a professional. This is how she makes her living. Good thing not everybody is so financially abstemious, or she'd starve.
Michael Robinson • Link
"The jade, whether I would not give her money or not enough; ..."
I suppose she was lucky not to be told, "I am the busy man to see the King have right done him by inquiring out other bidders."
A. De Araujo • Link
"and ways of getting money"
Well Sam, everybody likes money.
Miss Lizzy • Link
"...but I begin to be weary of having a master with us, for it spoils, methinks, the ingenuity of our practice.
So Sam prefers amateur music to professional for his own enjoyment? Or maybe he's using ingenuity to mean that he and his friends are more flexible and open to alternative ways of playing a piece of music - as in jam sessions - than masters, who want perfect performances in a classical manner.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...but had my end to see what a cunning jade she was, to see her impudent tricks and ways of getting money..."
That's our Sam, ever the scientific observer...
So good ole Cocke just sort of happened to be strolling by...?
"Now don' be leaving us ole Cocke...'Cause then we'd be...Capt'nless." cooing voices as the gallant Captain stumbles back from the portal of the den of Fleet Alley iniquity.
"Bring yer friend. He oughta be gettin' cold hangin' round there all night." chuckle from the fairest of the jaded fair, she leering from the open door. "C'mon, little one...Don't be keepin' a lass waitin'."
"Sam!"
"Ssssh! Here, Cocke. And call me 'Smith'." Hiss from corner.
"Right. Look, she only wants another 2 shillings, come on be a sport. And what the devil are you doing with those notes, Pe-er, Smith?"
"Patience, Cocke, patience. See here?"
"Hmmn. 'The Way to Riches' Chapter 75...'Learning from the Professional'..."
"'Liza, watch yerself." a man emerges from the house. "That little bloke in the bad wig over there's taking down everything you say."
"'ey, Milton! I charge for lessons too, ya know."
cape henry • Link
"...the ingenuity of our practice." It would seem to me that Miss Lizzy has summed it up neatly.
Robert Gertz • Link
Within the den of Fleet Alley iniquity...Into which our hero has been led astray by his roguish companion.
"So could you tell me, Miss...Mrs..."
"Eliza..." sigh.
"Ah. You know, my wife name is Elisabeth. Ummn...Anyway, I was wondering if there was any systematic order to your work."
"Eh?"
"Well, I mean. When you...Lead a man on, as it were...Is there a set of rules, a system you follow?"
"Pepys?!" Bang on door... "How are you getting on in there?!"
"We're fine, Cocke! Done in a bit!"
"Well, hurry it along will you?! They charge by the hour, you know."
"Sorry, Mrs...?"
"Lets keep it Eliza, Mr. 'Smith', sir."
"Of course. Is that a rule of the house by the way?"
"They prefer we don't give out names, yes."
"Ah, I see...Yes. Probably very wise."
"Sir, will you be writing everything down the whole time, sir?"
"Just a few notes for my own gratification, Eliza. So, are you given any special training in the arts of seduction?"
"Just tries to be friendly to the fellow, sir...Though now you mention it, we do have ole Bill tell us how to get the bloke started by lookin' away from him when he first ganders us. Like I did with you, sir."
"And very successfully, Eliza...So now tell me, is that thing with sliding your shawl about on the shoulders...?"
"Sir...Are you plannin' to get yer money's worth tonite, sir?"
"Uh...Well, as to that...And meaning no offense to you, beautious one... You see. Cocke was so insistent...And I was curious about your place and all."
"I see. Still full charge, sir."
"Naturally, naturally. You don't seem that surprised, Eliza."
"No, sir. Lots of the fellows just want to talk, sir. Not many of them want to write, though."
Robert Gertz • Link
Within the den of Fleet Alley iniquity...Into which our hero has been led astray by his roguish companion.
"So could you tell me, Miss...Mrs..."
"Eliza..." sigh.
"Ah. You know, my wife's name is Elisabeth. Ummn...Anyway, I was wondering if there was any systematic order to your work."
"Eh?"
"Well, I mean. When you...Lead a man on, as it were...Is there a set of rules, a system you follow?"
"Pepys?!" Bang on door... "How are you getting on in there?!"
"We're fine, Cocke! Done in a bit!"
"Well, hurry it along will you?! They charge by the hour, you know."
"Sorry, Mrs...?"
"Lets keep it Eliza, Mr. 'Smith', sir."
"Of course. Is that a rule of the house by the way?"
"They prefer we don't give out names, yes."
"Ah, I see...Yes. Probably very wise."
"Sir, will you be writing everything down the whole time, sir?"
"Just a few notes for my own gratification, Eliza. So, are you given any special training in the arts of seduction?"
"Just tries to be friendly to the fellow, sir...Though now you mention it, we do have ole Bill tell us how to get the bloke started by lookin' away from him when he first ganders us. Like I did with you, sir."
"And very successfully, Eliza...So now tell me, is that thing with sliding your shawl about on the shoulders...?"
"Sir...Are you plannin' to get yer money's worth tonite, sir?"
"Uh...Well, as to that...And meaning no offense to you, beautious one... You see. Cocke was so insistent...And I was curious about your place and all."
"I see. Still full charge, sir."
"Naturally, naturally. You don't seem that surprised, Eliza."
"No, sir. Lots of the fellows just want to talk, sir. Not many of them want to write, though."
Paul Chapin • Link
Robert, according to the link, and also the sense of the text, Cocke is the lady's name. The captain of the same name is not on the scene.
Paul Chapin • Link
"having a master with us"
I would take a different slant on this from Miss Lizzy. Having participated in musical sessions where there was a wide variation in the abilities of the participants, I can testify that it's less fun for everybody involved, even with good will on all sides. The less skilled feel intimidated by the pro, and the pro has to restrain himself or herself from running away with the piece. I'm not quite sure how Sam's word "ingenuity" fits into the picture, but I think I understand what he's saying.
Mary • Link
ingenuity.
This noun can derive its form from both 'ingenious' and from 'ingenuous'
In this particular instance, it would look as though the latter derivation is the one in question and, according to OED sense 3, could mean 'freedom from reserve, openness, candour'.
In other words, Pepys is saying that the group feels under some restraint when the Master of Music is with them.
andy • Link
with Cocke
I read it differently...i.e. controlled by his
Michael Robinson • Link
"...but on the contrary saying she had no time, which I was glad of ..."
L&M read:-
... but the contrary, saying she had them; which I was glad of, ...
Robert Gertz • Link
Alternate existence, Paul...(Nice to have an easy out)And more fun with the captain. Though the other leads to the barest possibility of an interesting social occasion...
"Pepys, Mrs. Pepys...My wife, Eliza."
Pepys and the Missus Cocke eye each other...Uh...
"Very nice to meet you, Mrs. Cocke." "You, too, Mr. Pepys."
"Amazing isn't it what she's done with the place on a poor captain's salary? Eliza, how do ye do it?"
"Oh, just careful with the household budget, dear...And of course I do a little on the side. Ummn, sewing, I mean."
"Well, I must bring you some trade...We have plenty of unmet...Sewing...Needs." Sam notes, beaming.
"I sew very well." Bess, slight frown.
"Just for when you're not in the mood, busy, or away, dearest."
"I'm sure your needs are too small for me, Mr. Pepys." Eliza, frowning.
"Very small. And as the son of a prick-louse you'd find him very particular about his sewing requirements I'm sure." Bess, a bit miffed, and catching something in the wind.
"Heh,heh...Well we can see as to my needs for sewing later. Now my dear Mrs. Cocke...Shall we to it? Er, to dinner?" hastily to her startled expression...
Why do all my dinner guests get so odd about Eliza's sewing? Cocke ponders as the group makes for the dining room. Admiral Sir Will Penn was just the same last month when he came...
***
Ruben • Link
A)..."Because Sam can get it for free from Betty Lane"...
B)..."having a master with us"...
A) Ms Cocke is a professional and will not waste time with our boy, after she understands that no money is involved in his interest for her.
B) You do not expect Seignor Pedro, a famous musician, to play for nothing. He expects to be payed in due time.
Conclusion: In both cases Pepys does not like to have a professional around him: it may cost him money!
Robert Gertz • Link
"Conclusion: In both cases Pepys does not like to have a professional around him: it may cost him money!"
Pretty much nail on the head...I would just suggest- until he is master of a larger estate. Sam will not hesitate to spend for first-rate work when he feels relatively secure financially.
Seignor Pedro • Link
So away home, glad I escaped without any inconvenience, and there came Mr. Hill, Andrews and Seignor Pedro, and great store of musique we had, but I begin to be weary of having a master with us, for it spoils, methinks, the ingenuity of our practice.
Now come on Pepys I know what you're thinking. This ugly slovenly fellow sees that Hill and Andrews are picking it up quicker than you. Idle Master eh, as far as music is concerned I could knock you into a Cocked hat!
Australian Susan • Link
"ingenuity of our practice"
The image that came to my mind was Pepys and his pals getting along with the melody, but being constantly pulled up to go over a particular phrase to get it right, so the flow of the piece is forever being fractured.
Bradford • Link
Note the leitmotif of today's three encounters: Pepys wearies of Signor Pedro, tires of Mr. Bland, and escapes without inconvenience from Cocke---indicating some gentle sport on the part of the Comic Cosmic Novelist.
Terry F • Link
"I perceive they do all find that I am the busy man to see the King have right done him by inquiring out other bidders."
Samuel Pepys, quintessential agent for the King. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agen…
Xjy • Link
Nothing quite right today... music, not so ingenious... harlotry, too expensive and embarrassing (so thank god she had them...)... being sucked up to, not flattering enough...
All these favourite pastimes spoilt by some missing ingredient... wonder what it could be?
Methinks Sam is empty without Liz's energy to parasite off. She fills him without him knowing it, and he rides high and patronizes her. He gets his kicks from his pastimes because he doesn't need so much, being satisfied emotionally (say, half-full) thanks to Liz.
Now he's running empty and needs more from his frolics, without realizing the how or why of it. He's lucky Betty can come to his emotional rescue some of the time, but he finds it hard to fill the intervening vacuum.
Men! (Anyone know a good smiley for "ptui!"?)
Robert Gertz • Link
Without Bess, an actor facing a mostly empty theater... That (edited and abridged) epic drama, "The Life of Pepys" playing to a few largely uncomprehending groundlings wandering in. Though Betty at least knows some of the right places to applaud at.
Robert Gertz • Link
It would be something to see an ordinary dinner at the Pepys' now...No special guests just the spectacle of Sam relishing and basking in the attention and interest Bess and the maids bestow, obviously the high point of his day, disrupted and leaving him feeling somewhat lost right now. Still, in fairness to Sam, Bess gets a great deal from his energy and spirit, his most attractive features. On good days when his joy in life is most evident he must carry the whole household along with him and on such days when he offers some degree of partnership and sharing to Bess the Diary glows. But who fully realizes what joy he or she has when they have it?
andy • Link
raising the reckoning by still calling for things,
I was told in about 1978 that the main business of a house of ill repute was extracting cash from the punter, in stages:_
1. Admission fee to House
2. Contribution to House overheads
3. Fee for introduction to the girl
4. Payment per minute while with the girl (payable on exit)
5. (with girl) cash deposit to hear her "menu"
6. Contribution to her health checks
7. Washing facilities - compulsory, fee
etc etc
Evidently this was the practice in Sam's day, and doubtless since Jezebel was girl.
pepf • Link
"...for I had no mind to meddle with her, but had my end to see what a cunning jade she was..."
Just an innocent exercise in haggling, honing his service capability. We all know his delight in learning from the experienced, be they now Ms or Captain Cocke.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... Mr. Bland to me, sat till 11 at night with me, talking of the garrison of Tangier and serving them with pieces of eight. A mind he hath to be employed there, but dares not desire any courtesy of me, and yet would fain engage me to be for him, for I perceive they do all find that I am the busy man to see the King have right done him by inquiring out other bidders. Being quite tired with him, I got him gone, ..."
What nerve! Can you imagine stopping by someone's house to ask employment/business favors late at night (nothing about it being "by appointment")? And then being so clueless and boring your host is forced to get you gone after 11 p.m.? It's not like they are best buds.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Sir Nic Crisp's man brought a certificate of our agreement of the Royal Company to pay him 5 per cent. out of our dividends until £20,000 be paid for his interest in Africa."
Does this mean Sandwich and the other shareholders in the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading in Africa (also known as the Guinea Company) are agreeing to pay Nicholas Crispe at a 5 percent rate out of their dividends until Crispe gets back his 20,000 pound investment in the company?
Crispe had been promoting the "Africa Corp." in one way or another for 50 years, so he probably wants to retire.
Anyways, that's my guess ... any other takes?
Louise Hudson • Link
"The jade, whether I would not give her money or not enough; she would not offer to invite to do anything, but on the contrary saying she had no time, which I was glad of, for I had no mind to meddle with her, but had my end to see what a cunning jade she was, to see her impudent tricks and ways of getting money and raising the reckoning by still calling for things, that it come to 6 or 7 shillings presently."
Sam becomes very much a blue stocking when it's a girl plying her trade, but when Sam himself engages in "impudent tricks and ways of getting money" in his Navy dealings, it suddenly becomes perfectly right and moral. Funny how that works.
San Diego Sarah • Link
George Downing's letter to Lord Clarendon, July 29, 1664. — Lister's Life of Clarendon, vol. iii., p. 331. -- Wheatley, 1904:
“The plague grows mightily among them, both at sea and land. ...
"There died this last week at Amsterdam 730, but they fear an increase this week; and the plague is scattered generally over the whole country, even to Little Dorps and Villages; and it is got to Antwerp and Bruxells, so that they will not suffer any ships or vessels of Holland or Zeland to come to Antwerp; and 2 severall ships are returned out of Spain for that they would not suffer them to have any trade at all there"
@@@
This article is about an exhibit opening at the Rijksmuseum called SLAVERY. I add it here because one of the paintings dates from 1664 and was painted in Amsterdam:
‘Another story in the exhibition … is that of Oopjen Coppit, the widow of Marten Soolmans, whose father owned Amsterdam’s largest sugar refinery, processing crops harvested by enslaved men and women in South America.
‘... she is a personification of the wealth generated for a privileged few by enslaved workers. In a full-length portrait painted in 1664 by Rembrandt van Rijn, she wears a long black, lace-trimmed dress accessorized a pearl necklace and earrings.
‘“That we’re able to use Rembrandt to speak about the history of slavery is exciting and new,” Smeulders said.
[I would add it might also shows something about the response of Amsterdam’s wealthy residents to the plague. How many portraits are there of wealthy Londoners or the Court at Oxford during 1665? But I digress ...]
‘Oopjen’s second husband, Maerten Daey, ... served as a soldier with the Dutch West India Company in Brazil, where he kidnapped and raped an African woman called Francisca, fathering a daughter in 1632, according to church records cited in the exhibition.
‘“The lives of Marten, Oopjen, and Maerten are intertwined with the history of slavery,” Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbits says in an audio tour of the exhibition. “They owed their wealth to the slave labor in Brazil. It is an example of how the history of slavery and the history of the Netherlands are bound together.”’
https://www.afar.com/magazine/sla…
DNA results from the Mary Rose show there were Black sailors in Henry VIII’s navy, so I’m wondering about the racial make-up of the English, Dutch, Spanish and French navies in the 1660’s.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sm…
In 1664 English slavery was a matter or Christian-or-not ... the definition by skin color on English plantations in what is now the USA didn't come about until 1682.
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/…