Saturday 10 February 1665/66
Up, and to the office. At noon, full of business, to dinner. This day comes first Sir Thomas Harvy after the plague, having been out of towne all this while. He was coldly received by us, and he went away before we rose also, to make himself appear yet a man less necessary. After dinner, being full of care and multitude of business, I took coach and my wife with me. I set her down at her mother’s (having first called at my Lord Treasurer’s and there spoke with Sir Ph. Warwicke), and I to the Exchequer about Tangier orders, and so to the Swan and there staid a little, and so by coach took up my wife, and at the old Exchange bought a muffe, and so home and late at my letters, and so to supper and to bed, being now-a-days, for these four or five months, mightily troubled with my snoring in my sleep, and know not how to remedy it.
18 Annotations
First Reading
Australian Susan • Link
"...mightily troubled with my snoring in my sleep, and know not how to remedy it...."
Speaking as one who slept next to a snorer for years, I'd say Sam is troubled secondhand: it's Bess poking him awake to hiss "Stop it!" into his ear that is the trouble. Snorers happily gargle and harrumph away indifferent to the tense sleeplessness happening next to them - until sharply reminded. It will be interesting to see what remedies Sam comes up with over the next few days (tennis ball sewn into back of nightshirt?)
By the way, I still sleep next to the same person - but he is cured.
Lawrence • Link
I'm also, someone who sleeps next to a snorer, would love to know the cure, but I know we all do it from time to time? and no one likes to be a snorer! Sam's obviously been told by his wife and servant's, that he rattles the floor boards at night, "well at least it's kept the plague away from him!
Margaret • Link
It's not true that all snorers sleep away happily, blissfully unaware of what's happening. Some of them are chronically short of sleep because their snoring keeps waking them up in the night.
cape henry • Link
"He was coldly received by us, and he went away before we rose also, to make himself appear yet a man less necessary." The tension in this scene must have been enormous and Sir Thomas obviously reacts in a way that further discounts him in the eyes of Pepys and crew. This would be harsh for any man to endure, but for a Gentleman, it would have been a humiliation. Still, I have to give it to Pepys for this superb line "...yet a man less necessary." The concision of the image is brilliant.
cgs • Link
time waits for no man?
"... and so to the Swan and there staid a little, and so by coach took up my wife,..."
Australian Susan • Link
Maragret: yes, 'tis true: my sleeping partner was diagnosed with sleep apnoea which was cured by a breathing machine, but he was able to dispense with that by losing 50kg. Now, our Sam is not morbidly obese, so I wonder what's causing the snoring?
Robert Gertz • Link
In my case, a deviated septum largely blocking one nostril...And any sinus infection. My poor wife invented her own sleeping earphones as a result.
I agree, it's Bess letting Sam know. Perhaps Dad Alex will have a bright idea...
"Bess!!! Why did you pour cold water on me?! At 2 am?!!!"
Hands book...
Hmmn... "A. Marchant's Guide to the Cure of Chronic Snoring"
"See the dedication on the inside?" Bess beams...
"'Pour the relief de ma chere Elisabeth' Nice..." Turns page "...'From that inhumane, heart-dead scoundrel of a...' Bess!!"
"Papa is still angry about your refusing to help him find funding for his perpetual motion machine, Sam'l. But look..."
"'Chapter one...The Shock Cure'" frowning, thumbs on...
"Ridiculous... 'Cold water may have the desired effect but will certainly bring some relief to the sufferer.' I don't feel better."
"I am the sufferer, Sam'l...See..." Points, grinning. "And I do feel a little better now."
Sam thumbs...Hmmn...Whoa...
"You might have tried Chapter Five... 'Application of the Arts of Love...'"
"Tomorrow night..."
Robert Gertz • Link
"By God, Hollier, once again I turn to you...My last hope..."
"But, Mr. Pepys...Snoring?"
"Else he is a dead man..." Bess grimly notes. Dark circles under eyes, wildly haggard expression...
"Surely you have something..." Sam suggests nervously.
"I do sir...But you must understand, Mr. Pepys... If you thought the operation for the stone was a death-defyingly big deal..."
"He'll take the chance." Bess, flatly.
Michael Robinson • Link
"... mightily troubled with my snoring in my sleep, and know not how to remedy it."
Spoiler It could be an indication of the start of problems that are to follow. SP later describes suffering from what sounds like chronic rhinosinusitis, described in a memo with other ailments Nov 7th. 1677 'The Present Ill State of My Health'
"Never free at this day from spitting and spawling in wet weather, falling down from my head as I infer from its making its way through the nostrils as well as through the mouth by retching it up through my throat. ... but always under some degree of retching and spitting every morning as soon as I am out of my bed, and at all other times upon my coming out of a warm place into a cold ... that I have in some degree more or less the same pain at my rising every morning till I have drained my head by spitting ... that upon my drinking more liberally at one time more than another ... I have the same pain and, till I have soundly drained my head as before, the pain continues. And that in all these cases, the discharging my head of this moisture removes the pain ..."
For transcribed complete text, Bryant, 'Years of Peril', 1943. pp. 405-13, @ p 405-6, 408.
adamw • Link
Snoring
Catching up on Pepys between patients in my sleep apnoea clinic, the real and online worlds seem to be merging.
Weight loss always helps, but you don't have to be morbidly obese to snore, and gaining/losing just a few pounds can make the difference between tolerable and intolerable. Looking at our man's portrait above, there is a hint of a double chin which puts him firmly in the 'at risk' camp. A few convivial nights with wine will contribute too - alcohol is a very effective way to disrupt a night's peaceful breathing.
Rob • Link
Snoring can be a curse for both snorer and partner. I have been driving my wife insane with my snoring. What's more, I have been chronically tired for the past 10 years. Only last year I have had surgery that has solved this problem. (Nose and throat tonsils removed and further surgery to the throat, very very painfull)
As Robert Gertz says
" I do sir…But you must understand, Mr. Pepys… If you thought the operation for the stone was a death-defyingly big deal…”
“He’ll take the chance.” Bess, flatly."
language hat • Link
My wife snores, and she is not in the least obese. She often complains that it wakes her up. Me, I wear earplugs.
Todd Bernhardt • Link
I'm quite fit, yet I was just fit (because my wife was fit, to be tied) with a dental "sleep device" that forces my lower jaw forward and keeps me from snoring (it's not nearly uncomfortable as it sounds -- it's kind of like an enhanced bite guard). I must say, I am sleeping better (so's my wife) and waking more refreshed.
All this after taking a sleep test several years ago, being diagnosed with mild sleep apnea, and trying to endure a CPAP machine (but couldn't take sleeping like an astronaut -- hence the dental device). I also have a slightly deviated septum, and had had my tonsils removed several years before the apnea diagnosis, to help quell chronic sinusitis, so I can empathize with Future Sam, as reported on by Michael.
And now, the health news for wombats...
adamw • Link
Rob, you are a lucky man if surgery has successfully treated both the snoring and the tiredness. The only guaranteed outcome of throat surgery for snoring is pain.
Ruben • Link
First time today that annotations look like an internet consultation clinic.
Now, myself, was expecting Samuel, after his left thumb-hammer encounter 3 days ago, to have a Tetanus shot. Spoiler? he will get no shot and he will get no Tetanus! Maybe Mrs. Turner's balsam was good after all.
In Samuel's portrait by Hayls http://www.npg.org.uk/collections… painted in March this year of 1666, we can see Samuel's left thumb completely exposed and holding the music he composed for "beauty, retire".
I strained my eyes to find some blemish in this, the only finger exposed, but I presume the artist had better ideas and "retouched" reality. Or maybe damage was not that great.
I remember years ago annotating something like that the position of the hand is as strained as the position of the neck and that the thumb looks more like a right hand thumb than a left one. Now maybe we have the reason...
DiPhi • Link
What are Bess and Sam's sleeping habits? They each have their own bedrooms, but do they spend the nights together whenever they are both at home?
cgs • Link
Now we have a clue why this journal be popular , to-day supplies the clue to the common thread.
Second Reading
Robert Harneis • Link
Snoring
Losing weight helps but a good cure is to learn to play the didgeridoo. Didgerdoo breathing techniques strenghen the muscles concerned and I am reliably informed stop the snoring. For those for whom this would be too much of a musical challenge the alternative is, if not to actually become an opera singer, to practice the breathing excercises they do. That helps as well apparently.