Sunday 11 September 1664

(Lord’s day). Up and to church in the best manner I have gone a good while, that is to say, with my wife, and her woman, Mercer, along with us, and Tom, my boy, waiting on us.

A dull sermon. Home, dined, left my wife to go to church alone, and I walked in haste being late to the Abbey at Westminster, according to promise to meet Jane Welsh, and there wearily walked, expecting her till 6 o’clock from three, but no Jane came, which vexed me, only part of it I spent with Mr. Blagrave walking in the Abbey, he telling me the whole government and discipline of White Hall Chappell, and the caution now used against admitting any debauched persons, which I was glad to hear, though he tells me there are persons bad enough. Thence going home went by Jarvis’s, and there stood Jane at the door, and so I took her in and drank with her, her master and mistress being out of doors. She told me how she could not come to me this afternoon, but promised another time. So I walked home contented with my speaking with her, and walked to my uncle Wight’s, where they were all at supper, and among others comes fair Mrs. Margarett Wight, who indeed is very pretty. So after supper home to prayers and to bed. This afternoon, it seems, Sir J. Minnes fell sicke at church, and going down the gallery stairs fell down dead, but came to himself again and is pretty well.


18 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

"no Jane came"

A John did.

Pedro  •  Link

"Sir J. Minnes fell sicke at church, and going down the gallery stairs fell down dead, but came to himself again and is pretty well."

So the Reverend Ralph should take heart...

11 September... God good in the word, I had some apprehension it might be my last sermon.

Stephen  •  Link

I've known girls like Jane Welsh

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...the caution now used against admitting any debauched persons, which I was glad to hear, though he tells me there are persons bad enough."

I think Blagrave's on to you, Sam.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"So I walked home contented with my speaking with her, and walked to my uncle Wight's"

I'm assuming Sam doesn't see the irony here...?

"Sir J. Minnes fell sicke at church, and going down the gallery stairs fell down dead, but came to himself again and is pretty well"

Well! I guess "dead" had different meanings back then! Either that, or Sir John is more powerful than I imagined...

Bradford  •  Link

Positively Last Appearance, by Special Request.

Surely Jane wasn't assisting with barbering on a Sabbath afternoon? A sturdy attraction, to withstand wearying out three hours' cooling one's heels. Yet Sam, working on salary not by the hour, never thinks of sending in a little bill.

cape henry  •  Link

Irony? How 'bout this juxtaposition: "according to promise to meet Jane Welsh..." & "the caution now used against admitting any debauched persons, which I was glad to hear..."

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Yeah, but CH, this is the man who yesterday "saved the King 5000l. per annum, and yet got [himself] a hope of 300l. per annum without the least wrong to the King"! Sam is the master of justification...

ellen  •  Link

This is off today's subject, but has Sam ever mentioned Shakespeare's name when he talks about a play he has seen which we believe Shakespeare wrote?

Cum Salis Drano  •  Link

Dead Samuell will get into the OED : Samuell will get into the OED for this meaning at a later date.

A. adj. I. Literally, and in senses directly connected.

* Said of things that have been alive.

1. That has ceased to live; deprived of life; in that state in which the vital functions and powers have come to an end, and are incapable of being restored:

a. of men and animals.

b. Of persons: deathlike, insensible, in a swoon. Obs. Also of sleep, a faint.
c1369 C
1610 SHAKES. Temp. V. i. 230 We were dead of sleepe.

1610 P. BARROUGH Physick (1639) I. xx. 30 Coma..may be called in English dead sleep.

1666-7 PEPYS Diary 7 Feb. (D.), He was fallen down all along upon the ground dead..he did presently come to himself.

3. a. As good as dead in respect to (something); insensible to.
.............
12. Having lost its active quality or virtue. a. Of drink, etc.: That has lost its sharpness, taste, or flavour; flat, vapid, insipid. ? Obs.

1664 EVELYN Pomona Advt., It will not ferment at all, and then the Cider will be dead, flat, and soure.

1647 N. BACON Disc. Govt. Eng. I. lix. (1739) 114 He that is in a Monastery is dead to all worldly affairs.

etc. etc.................
Dead has been attached to many words so to modify in a deathly or deadly way.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Actually Janey seems to be dodging the famed Mr. Pepys' attentions brilliantly. "Oh, sorry sir, left here to manage, another time?"

One wonders if every lass in London is now well aware of Mr. Pepys and his modus operandi...Lewd songs sung, bawdy jokes told. "Did ye girls hear what the little bug-eyed rabbit was about yesterday?"

Bchan  •  Link

Mr. Pepys,

For shame! How do you sleep?

Y'r Ob't S'v't,

B-chan

Pedro  •  Link

"of White Hall Chappell, and the caution now used against admitting any debauched persons, which I was glad to hear, though he tells me there are persons bad enough."

I imagine a big lad at the door of the Chapel when Pepys arrives...

"Can you answer a few questions Sir?"

"Do you lead away from duty or allegience? Do you seduce or violate? Are you corrupt or profligate? Are you abandoned to vice or dissolute?"

"Most certainly not!"

"OK Pepys over on the left with the bad enoughs"

jeannine  •  Link

"Did Sam ever mention Shakespeare's name"

Ellen, He's mostly mentioned in the Wheatley footnotes but on 2 occasions which I could find, Sam did make mention of him

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

I could not tell whether to lay out my money for books of pleasure, as plays, which my nature was most earnest in; but at last, after seeing Chaucer, Dugdale's History of Paul's, Stows London, Gesner, History of Trent, besides Shakespeare, Jonson, and Beaumont's plays, I at last chose Dr. Fuller's Worthys, the Cabbala or Collections of Letters of State, and a little book, Delices de Hollande, with another little book or two, all of good use or serious pleasure: and Hudibras, both parts, the book now in greatest fashion for drollery, though I cannot, I confess, see enough where the wit lies.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Then our Committee for the Tangier victualling met and did a little, and so up, and I and Mr. Coventry walked in the garden half an hour, talking of the business of our masts, and thence away and with Creed walked half an hour or more in the Park, and thence to the New Exchange to drink some creame, but missed it and so parted, and I home, calling by the way for my new bookes, viz., Sir H. Spillman's "Whole Glossary," "Scapula's Lexicon," and Shakespeare's plays, which I have got money out of my stationer's bills to pay for.

JWB  •  Link

Ellen's query (which we believe Ellen wrote)

goto:Entertainment>Theatre>Plays in the Encyclopedia

Cum salis grano  •  Link

Never mentions the Bard except when purchasing written material, his reviews would be, if listened too, would have saved many a person time and frustration of remembering "to be or not to be" and would have never found out that the world be a stage and .... 4 visits which he thought well done.
http://www.shakespeare-1.com/Haml…

Second Reading

David G  •  Link

"Fell down dead": I wonder whether Sam uses it the way we might say that someone was "dead drunk"?

Louise Hudson  •  Link

"Fell down dead." Probably used to mean "as if he were dead" or "it looked as if he fell down dead." Maybe the witnesses thought he was dead until he started to revive. They didn't know about heart stimulation or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation then. A lot of people probably did die in Pepys' time who would be saved today.

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