Todd Bernhardt

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Todd Bernhardt has posted 946 annotations/comments since 8 January 2003.

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First Reading

About Saturday 23 September 1665

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"and among other things took out all my gold to carry along with me to-night with Captain Cocke downe to the fleete, being 180l. and more, hoping to lay out that and a great deal more to good advantage."

"Ready money" for future treasure ... Sam, how appropriate that you live in the City. Can I interest you in some MBS? They can be had cheap...

About Friday 22 September 1665

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"and that, whatever he was, I did always love the King."

Innnteresting. Sandwich does indeed seem to be playing with our boy a bit, and our boy, in his enthusiasm and ambition, seems to be missing it.

About Tuesday 19 September 1665

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"At noon by invitation to my Lord Bruncker’s where we staid till four of the clock for my Lady Batten and she not then coming we to dinner and pretty merry but disordered by her making us stay so long."

They may be spending way too much time together, but this strikes me as pretty patient -- I would have rung the dinner bell no later than 1:30, I think...

About Sunday 17 September 1665

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Jesse, Sam often castigates Mennes for being a "doting fool" and other such things, especially when it comes to business (he has a higher regard for some of his other gifts, such as those in the literary area) ... he generally had a low regard, for various reasons, for Mennes, Penn and Batten. Seems Sam was, to his mind, the only one in his immediate office who really knew how to run things.

About Friday 1 September 1665

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re: irony/sarcasm

I dunno, Graham, I can't think of other instances in the Diary where Sam does this. I think he's pretty literal in his writing...

About Friday 1 September 1665

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"And thus I believe twelve times Sir P. Howard answered him a “damn me,” which was a fine way of rhetorique to persuade a Quaker or Anabaptist from his persuasion."

Why?

I love when Samuel transcribes actual dialog of the day ... it brings that time so much closer.

About Monday 28 August 1665

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"just as I was fitting myself, comes W. Hewer and shows me a letter which Mercer had wrote to her mother..."

Is Will intercepting Mercer's mail as an agent of Elizabeth and Sam? Or did he do it on his own initiative? Did Mercer ask him (and trust him) to mail it, and he got out the 17th century equivalent of ye olde steame kettle to open it and read it without her permission or knowledge? Interesting social dynamic here...

About Friday 11 August 1665

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"(which I cannot do alone, having no love to eating, but my mind runs upon my business)"

What a fantastic insight into Sam's nature. Yes, he's a sensualist, but only in certain areas, and ultimately he's a social animal. Can't see our boy staying home drinking alone, for example -- after all, there's work to be done. And once that's done, there's time for play. And play, of course, usually involves another (or others)...

About Monday 24 July 1665

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"L&M have no ——— , and have periods where Wheatley had semi-colons, yielding four sentences."

Terry, could you please supply this? I'd love to see their take on it. Thank you!

About Sunday 23 July 1665

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Wow, tough day at the office today for our Sam ... Coventry "too great now to expect too much familiarity with"; a pointless meeting with the Duke; no dinner invitation from the Duke, Coventry or the other "executives" at the "firm" (has to settle for a vendor invitation instead); a largely wasted afternoon waiting for his turn at the next meeting, which forces him to miss his ride home. His good humor and ability to find bright spots throughout this entry (a good sermon, Lely at lunch, a good supper at a "neat inne") is encouraging. I'll have to remember this next time I'm having a tough day at work.

Love the final description of the time -- "too late and too soon to go home to bed"!

About Monday 3 July 1665

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Funny how Sam slips into French here, when his activities are pretty innocent, compared to what he's done in the past.

And also funny, as others have pointed out, how thoughts of sex and death seem to co-mingle and even drive each other on. Eat, embrassez les femmes and be merry, for tomorrow we may die! Oh, and put your papers in order, lest others think thee a slacker.

About Friday 2 June 1665

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So, it seems that Sam has convinced that "impertinent fool" Colvill to take some of the tallys after all ... I wonder what made the difference?

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Sam's energy continues to astound me. What a day. Running on adrenaline and the buzz you get from being a Power Player, I guess.

About Friday 26 May 1665

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"which makes me wish with all my heart that I had never anything to do with this business of Tangier"

As CGS noted in yesterday's annotations, it's that damned credit crunch again. Some things never change ... plenty of people nowadays who wish they'd never had anything to do with this business of mortgage-backed securities...

(Of course, for Sam, free-flowing credit still wouldn't do anything about the weather!)

About Wednesday 24 May 1665

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Pedro, take a closer look at the sentence, and you'll see that Sam's calling Colvill an impertinent fool, not Povy (in this instance!)

About Thursday 25 May 1665

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May 4th, 6th, 20th, and now the 25th ... he's almost got a template for how he writes about the daily grind ... except today, he doesn't even talk about how weary he is, or satisfied about knocking out a bunch of work. Wonder if it's getting to him at all...

About Thursday 18 May 1665

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"but, Lord! to see how fraile a man I am, subject to my vanities, that can hardly forbear, though pressed with never so much business, my pursuing of pleasure"

What temptations prompted this sentence? Do tell, Samuel! In any case, it looks as if he resisted ... for now.

Love "we shall stand a tug for it." How tempted I am sometimes to work these expressions into everyday life, but knowledge of the puzzled looks I'd get keeps me from it.