to my office a while and then home, where I found Pembleton, and by many
circumstances I am led to conclude that there is something more than
ordinary between my wife and him, which do so trouble me that I know not
at this very minute that I now write this almost what either I write or am
doing, nor how to carry myself to my wife in it, being unwilling to speak
of it to her for making of any breach and other inconveniences, nor let it
pass for fear of her continuing to offend me and the matter grow worse
thereby. So that I am grieved at the very heart, but I am very unwise in
being so. There dined with me Mr. Creed and Captain Grove, and before
dinner I had much discourse in my chamber with Mr. Deane, the builder of
Woolwich, about building of ships. But nothing could get the business out
of my head, I fearing that this afternoon by my wife's sending every [one]
abroad and knowing that I must be at the office she has appointed him to
come. This is my devilish jealousy, which I pray God may be false, but it
makes a very hell in my mind, which the God of heaven remove, or I shall
be very unhappy. So to the office, where we sat awhile. By and by my
mind being in great trouble I went home to see how things were, and there
I found as I doubted Mr. Pembleton with my wife, and nobody else in the
house, which made me almost mad, and going up to my chamber after a turn
or two I went out again and called somebody on pretence of business and
left him in my little room at the door (it was the Dutchman, commander of
the King's pleasure boats, who having been beat by one of his men sadly,
was come to the office to-day to complain) telling him I would come again
to him to speak with him about his business. So in great trouble and
doubt to the office, and Mr. Coventry nor Sir G. Carteret being there I
made a quick end of our business and desired leave to be gone, pretending
to go to the Temple, but it was home, and so up to my chamber, and as I
think if they had any intention of hurt I did prevent doing anything at
that time, but I continued in my chamber vexed and angry till he went
away, pretending aloud, that I might hear, that he could not stay, and
Mrs. Ashwell not being within they could not dance. And, Lord! to see
how my jealousy wrought so far that I went softly up to see whether any of
the beds were out of order or no, which I found not, but that did not
content me, but I staid all the evening walking, and though anon my wife
came up to me and would have spoke of business to me, yet I construed it
to be but impudence, and though my heart full yet I did say nothing, being
in a great doubt what to do. So at night, suffered them to go all to bed,
and late put myself to bed in great discontent, and so to sleep.
27th. So I waked by 3 o'clock, my mind being troubled, and so took
occasion by making water to wake my wife, and after having lain till past
4 o'clock seemed going to rise, though I did it only to see what she would
do, and so going out of the bed she took hold of me and would know what
ailed me, and after many kind and some cross words I began to tax her
discretion in yesterday's business, but she quickly told me my own,
knowing well enough that it was my old disease of jealousy, which I
denied, but to no purpose. After an hour's discourse, sometimes high and
sometimes kind, I found very good reason to think that her freedom with
him is very great and more than was convenient, but with no evil intent,
and so after awhile I caressed her and parted seeming friends, but she
crying in a great discontent. So I up and by water to the Temple, and
thence with Commissioner Pett to St. James's, where an hour with Mr.
Coventry talking of Mr. Pett's proceedings lately in the forest of
Sherwood, and thence with Pett to my Lord Ashley, Chancellor of the
Exchequer; where we met the auditors about settling the business of the
accounts of persons to whom money is due before the King's time in the
Navy, and the clearing of their imprests for what little of their debts
they have received. I find my Lord, as he is reported, a very ready,
quick, and diligent person. Thence I to Westminster Hall, where Term and
Parliament make the Hall full of people; no further news yet of the King
of France, whether he be dead or not. Here I met with my cozen Roger
Pepys, and walked a good while with him, and among other discourse as a
secret he hath committed to nobody but myself, and he tells me that his
sister Claxton now resolving to give over the keeping of his house at
Impington, he thinks it fit to marry again, and would have me, by the help
of my uncle Wight or others, to look him out a widow between thirty and
forty years old, without children, and with a fortune, which he will
answer in any degree with a joynture fit for her fortune. A woman sober,
and no high-flyer, as he calls it. I demanded his estate. He tells me,
which he says also he hath not done to any, that his estate is not full
L800 per annum, but it is L780 per annum, of which L200 is by the death of
his last wife, which he will allot for a joynture for a wife, but the
rest, which lies in Cambridgeshire, he is resolved to leave entire for his
eldest son. I undertook to do what I can in it, and so I shall. He tells
me that the King hath sent to them to hasten to make an end by midsummer,
because of his going into the country; so they have set upon four bills to
dispatch: the first of which is, he says, too devilish a severe act
against conventicles; so beyond all moderation, that he is afeard it will
ruin all: telling me that it is matter of the greatest grief to him in the
world, that he should be put upon this trust of being a Parliament-man,
because he says nothing is done, that he can see, out of any truth and
sincerity, but mere envy and design. Thence by water to Chelsey, all the
way reading a little book I bought of "Improvement of Trade," a pretty
book and many things useful in it. So walked to Little Chelsey, where I
found my Lord Sandwich with Mr. Becke, the master of the house, and Mr.
Creed at dinner, and I sat down with them, and very merry. After dinner
(Mr. Gibbons being come in also before dinner done) to musique, they
played a good Fancy, to which my Lord is fallen again, and says he cannot
endure a merry tune, which is a strange turn of his humour, after he has
for two or three years flung off the practice of Fancies and played only
fidlers' tunes. Then into the Great Garden up to the Banqueting House;
and there by his glass we drew in the species very pretty. Afterwards to
ninepins, where I won a shilling, Creed and I playing against my Lord and
Cooke. This day there was great thronging to Banstead Downs, upon a great
horse-race and foot-race. I am sorry I could not go thither. So home
back as I came, to London Bridge, and so home, where I find my wife in a
musty humour, and tells me before Ashwell that Pembleton had been there,
and she would not have him come in unless I was there, which I was ashamed
of; but however, I had rather it should be so than the other way. So to
my office, to put things in order there, and by and by comes Pembleton,
and word is brought me from my wife thereof that I might come home. So I
sent word that I would have her go dance, and I would come presently. So
being at a great loss whether I should appear to Pembleton or no, and what
would most proclaim my jealousy to him, I at last resolved to go home, and
took Tom Hater with me, and staid a good while in my chamber, and there
took occasion to tell him how I hear that Parliament is putting an act out
against all sorts of conventicles,
[16 Car. II., cap. 4, "An Act to prevent and suppresse seditious
Conventicles." It was enacted that anyone of the age of sixteen or
upwards present at an unlawful assembly or conventicle was to incur
fine or imprisonment. A conventicle was defined as an assembly of
more than five persons besides the members of a family met together
for holding worship not according to the rites of the Church of
England. The act was amended 22 Car. II., cap. i (1670), and
practically repealed by the Toleration Act of 1689, but the act 22
Car. II., cap. i, was specially repealed 52 Geo. III., cap. 155, s.
1.]
and did give him good counsel, not only in his own behalf, but my own,
that if he did hear or know anything that could be said to my prejudice,
that he would tell me, for in this wicked age (specially Sir W. Batten
being so open to my reproaches, and Sir J. Minnes, for the neglect of
their duty, and so will think themselves obliged to scandalize me all they
can to right themselves if there shall be any inquiry into the matters of
the Navy, as I doubt there will) a man ought to be prepared to answer for
himself in all things that can be inquired concerning him. After much
discourse of this nature to him I sent him away, and then went up, and
there we danced country dances, and single, my wife and I; and my wife
paid him off for this month also, and so he is cleared. After dancing we
took him down to supper, and were very merry, and I made myself so, and
kind to him as much as I could, to prevent his discourse, though I
perceive to my trouble that he knows all, and may do me the disgrace to
publish it as much as he can. Which I take very ill, and if too much
provoked shall witness it to her. After supper and he gone we to bed.
28th. Up this morning, and my wife, I know not for what cause, being
against going to Chelsey to-day, it being a holy day (Ascension Day) and I
at leisure, it being the first holy day almost that we have observed ever
since we came to the office, we did give Ashwell leave to go by herself,
and I out to several places about business. Among others to Dr. Williams,
to reckon with him for physique that my wife has had for a year or two,
coming to almost L4. Then to the Exchange, where I hear that the King had
letters yesterday from France that the King there is in a [way] of living
again, which I am glad to hear. At the coffee-house in Exchange Alley I
bought a little book, "Counsell to Builders," by Sir Balth. Gerbier. It
is dedicated almost to all the men of any great condition in England, so
that the Epistles are more than the book itself, and both it and them not
worth a turd, that I am ashamed that I bought it. Home and there found
Creed, who dined with us, and after dinner by water to the Royall Theatre;
but that was so full they told us we could have no room. And so to the
Duke's House; and there saw "Hamlett" done, giving us fresh reason never
to think enough of Betterton. Who should we see come upon the stage but
Gosnell, my wife's maid? but neither spoke, danced, nor sung; which I was
sorry for. But she becomes the stage very well. Thence by water home,
after we had walked to and fro, backwards and forwards, six or seven times
in the Temple walks, disputing whether to go by land or water. By land
home, and thence by water to Halfway House, and there eat some supper we
carried with us, and so walked home again, it being late we were forced to
land at the dock, my wife and they, but I in a humour not willing to daub
my shoes went round by the Custom House. So home, and by and by to bed,
Creed lying with me in the red chamber all night.
29th. This day is kept strictly as a holy-day, being the King's
Coronation. We lay long in bed, and it rained very hard, rain and hail,
almost all the morning. By and by Creed and I abroad, and called at
several churches; and it is a wonder to see, and by that to guess the ill
temper of the City at this time, either to religion in general, or to the
King, that in some churches there was hardly ten people in the whole
church, and those poor people. So to a coffee-house, and there in
discourse hear the King of France is likely to be well again. So home to
dinner, and out by water to the Royall Theatre, but they not acting
to-day, then to the Duke's house, and there saw "The Slighted Mayde,"
wherein Gosnell acted Pyramena, a great part, and did it very well, and I
believe will do it better and better, and prove a good actor. The play is
not very excellent, but is well acted, and in general the actors, in all
particulars, are better than at the other house. Thence to the Cocke
alehouse, and there having drunk, sent them with Creed to see the German
Princess,
[Mary Moders, alias Stedman, a notorious impostor, who pretended to
be a German princess. Her arrival as the German princess "at the
Exchange Tavern, right against the Stocks betwixt the Poultry and
Cornhill, at 5 in the morning . . . ., with her marriage to
Carleton the taverner's wife's brother," are incidents fully
narrated in Francis Kirkman's "Counterfeit Lady Unveiled," 1673
("Boyne's Tokens," ed. Williamson, vol. i., p. 703). Her
adventures formed the plot of a tragi-comedy by T. P., entitled "A
Witty Combat, or the Female Victor," 1663, which was acted with
great applause by persons of quality in Whitsun week. Mary Carleton
was tried at the Old Bailey for bigamy and acquitted, after which
she appeared on the stage in her own character as the heroine of a
play entitled "The German Princess." Pepys went to the Duke's House
to see her on April 15th, 1664. The rest of her life was one
continued course of robbery and fraud, and in 1678 she was executed
at Tyburn for stealing a piece of plate in Chancery Lane.]
at the Gatehouse, at Westminster, and I to my brother's, and thence to my
uncle Fenner's to have seen my aunt James (who has been long in town and
goes away to-morrow and I not seen her), but did find none of them within,
which I was glad of, and so back to my brother's to speak with him, and so
home, and in my way did take two turns forwards and backwards through the
Fleete Ally to see a couple of pretty [strumpets] that stood off the doors
there, and God forgive me I could scarce stay myself from going into their
houses with them, so apt is my nature to evil after once, as I have these
two days, set upon pleasure again. So home and to my office to put down
these two days' journalls, then home again and to supper, and then Creed
and I to bed with good discourse, only my mind troubled about my spending
my time so badly for these seven or eight days; but I must impute it to
the disquiet that my mind has been in of late about my wife, and for my
going these two days to plays, for which I have paid the due forfeit by
money and abating the times of going to plays at Court, which I am now to
remember that I have cleared all my times that I am to go to Court plays
to the end of this month, and so June is the first time that I am to begin
to reckon.
30th. Up betimes, and Creed and I by water to Fleet Street, and my
brother not being ready, he and I walked to the New Exchange, and there
drank our morning draught of whay, the first I have done this year; but I
perceive the lawyers come all in as they go to the Hall, and I believe it
is very good. So to my brother's, and there I found my aunt James, a
poor, religious, well-meaning, good soul, talking of nothing but God
Almighty, and that with so much innocence that mightily pleased me. Here
was a fellow that said grace so long like a prayer; I believe the fellow
is a cunning fellow, and yet I by my brother's desire did give him a
crown, he being in great want, and, it seems, a parson among the
fanatiques, and a cozen of my poor aunt's, whose prayers she told me did
do me good among the many good souls that did by my father's desires pray
for me when I was cut of the stone, and which God did hear, which I also
in complaisance did own; but, God forgive me, my mind was otherwise. I had
a couple of lobsters and some wine for her, and so, she going out of town
to-day, and being not willing to come home with me to dinner, I parted and
home, where we sat at the office all the morning, and after dinner all the
afternoon till night, there at my office getting up the time that I have
of late lost by not following my business, but I hope now to settle my
mind again very well to my business. So home, and after supper did wash
my feet, and so to bed.
31st (Lord's day). Lay long in bed talking with my wife, and do plainly
see that her distaste (which is beginning now in her again) against
Ashwell arises from her jealousy of me and her, and my neglect of herself,
which indeed is true, and I to blame; but for the time to come I will take
care to remedy all. So up and to church, where I think I did see
Pembleton, whatever the reason is I did not perceive him to look up
towards my wife, nor she much towards him; however, I could hardly keep
myself from being troubled that he was there, which is a madness not to be
excused now that his coming to my house is past, and I hope all likelyhood
of her having occasion to converse with him again. Home to dinner, and
after dinner up and read part of the new play of "The Five Houres'
Adventures," which though I have seen it twice; yet I never did admire or
understand it enough, it being a play of the greatest plot that ever I
expect to see, and of great vigour quite through the whole play, from
beginning to the end. To church again after dinner (my wife finding
herself ill . . . . did not go), and there the Scot preaching I slept
most of the sermon. This day Sir W. Batten's son's child is christened in
the country, whither Sir J. Minnes, and Sir W, Batten, and Sir W. Pen are
all gone. I wonder, and take it highly ill that I am not invited by the
father, though I know his father and mother, with whom I am never likely
to have much kindness, but rather I study the contrary, are the cause of
it, and in that respect I am glad of it. Being come from church, I to
make up my month's accounts, and find myself clear worth L726, for which
God be praised, but yet I might have been better by L20 almost had I
forborne some layings out in dancing and other things upon my wife, and
going to plays and other things merely to ease my mind as to the business
of the dancing-master, which I bless God is now over and I falling to my
quiet of mind and business again, which I have for a fortnight neglected
too much. This month the greatest news is, the height and heat that the
Parliament is in, in enquiring into the revenue, which displeases the
Court, and their backwardness to give the King any money. Their enquiring
into the selling of places do trouble a great many among the chief, my
Lord Chancellor (against whom particularly it is carried), and Mr.
Coventry; for which I am sorry. The King of France was given out to be
poisoned and dead; but it proves to be the measles: and he is well, or
likely to be soon well again. I find myself growing in the esteem and
credit that I have in the office, and I hope falling to my business again
will confirm me in it, and the saving of money which God grant! So to
supper, prayers, and bed. My whole family lying longer this morning than
was fit, and besides Will having neglected to brush my clothes, as he
ought to do, till I was ready to go to church, and not then till I bade
him, I was very angry, and seeing him make little matter of it, but
seeming to make it a matter indifferent whether he did it or no, I did
give him a box on the ear, and had it been another day should have done
more. This is the second time I ever struck him.
DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.
JUNE
1663
June 1st. Begun again to rise betimes by 4 o'clock, and made an end of
"The Adventures of Five Houres," and it is a most excellent play. So to
my office, where a while and then about several businesses, in my way to
my brother's, where I dined (being invited) with Mr. Peter and Dean
Honiwood, where Tom did give us a very pretty dinner, and we very
pleasant, but not very merry, the Dean being but a weak man, though very
good. I was forced to rise, being in haste to St. James's to attend the
Duke, and left them to end their dinner; but the Duke having been
a-hunting to-day, and so lately come home and gone to bed, we could not
see him, and Mr. Coventry being out of the house too, we walked away to
White Hall and there took coach, and I with Sir J. Minnes to the Strand
May-pole; and there 'light out of his coach, and walked to the New
Theatre, which, since the King's players are gone to the Royal one, is
this day begun to be employed by the fencers to play prizes at. And here I
came and saw the first prize I ever saw in my life: and it was between one
Mathews, who did beat at all weapons, and one Westwicke, who was soundly
cut several times both in the head and legs, that he was all over blood:
and other deadly blows they did give and take in very good earnest, till
Westwicke was in a most sad pickle. They fought at eight weapons, three
bouts at each weapon. It was very well worth seeing, because I did till
this day think that it has only been a cheat; but this being upon a
private quarrel, they did it in good earnest; and I felt one of their
swords, and found it to be very little, if at all blunter on the edge,
than the common swords are. Strange to see what a deal of money is flung
to them both upon the stage between every bout. But a woful rude rabble
there was, and such noises, made my head ake all this evening. So, well
pleased for once with this sight, I walked home, doing several businesses
by the way. In my way calling to see Commissioner Pett, who lies sick at
his daughter, a pretty woman, in Gracious Street, but is likely to be
abroad again in a day or two. At home I found my wife in bed all this day
. . . . I went to see Sir Wm. Pen, who has a little pain of his gout
again, but will do well. So home to supper and to bed. This day I hear at
Court of the great plot which was lately discovered in Ireland, made among
the Presbyters and others, designing to cry up the Covenant, and to secure
Dublin Castle and other places; and they have debauched a good part of the
army there, promising them ready money.
[This was known as "Blood's Plot," and was named after Colonel
Thomas Blood, afterwards notorious for his desperate attack upon the
Duke of Ormond in St. James's Street (1670) and for his robbery of
the crown jewels in the Tower (1671). He died August 24th, 1680.]
Some of the Parliament there, they say, are guilty, and some withdrawn
upon it; several persons taken, and among others a son of Scott's, that
was executed here for the King's murder. What reason the King hath, I
know not; but it seems he is doubtfull of Scotland: and this afternoon,
when I was there, the Council was called extraordinary; and they were
opening the letters this last post's coming and going between Scotland and
us and other places. Blessed be God, my head and hands are clear, and
therefore my sleep safe. The King of France is well again.