Todd Bernhardt

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Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Monday 11 January 1668/69

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "my guard"

Funny how Sam tends to insert phrases like this in the Diary after he's had a fight with Elizabeth (see yesterday) and is (presumably) feeling the weight of her yoke a bit more...

About Friday 25 September 1668

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"I’m guessing our back-and-forth is boring and irritating other commenters."

As someone who's fallen woefully behind in my Diary reading and is now taking the opportunity to catch up while I wait at an airport for my flight, I must say I found the back-and-forth tremendously amusing! :-)

About Friday 18 September 1668

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True, Andrew. Interesting that someone who made such a bad king could be -- in this instance, anyway -- such a good judge of character.

Again, it's becoming more obvious why Sam stuck with James even when things fell apart for him.

About Sunday 13 September 1668

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Yet, as Mary has pointed out, James has already clearly made up his mind, and for him, Sam's the Man.

One more reason why Sam showed so much loyalty to him later, I think.

About Friday 11 September 1668

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Who better to write the reply than the man who wrote the original letter? (Actually, I'm surprised that the other officers are allowing him to do this, if they suspect Pepys is the true author. Maybe they don't know he's taken it upon himself to reply...?)

About Thursday 13 August 1668

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"So to the Office again all the afternoon till night, very busy, and so with much content home"

Sounds as if those tubes are really helping! First time we've seen this in a while.

About Wednesday 12 August 1668

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"and all our Office changed; only they are in dispute whether I shall continue or no, which puts new thoughts in me, but I know not whether to be glad or sorry."

As Jenny points out, reorgs are a perennial issue, as is the ambivalence of the "survivor" that Sam is feeling...

About General resources

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Sam and the Diary feature prominently in this interesting examination by Michael Quinion (author of several books on the English language and of the excellent World Wide Words site) about "messes in pots" (which looks at the history of pottages, gravies, soups, etc.):

http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/…

About Saturday 9 May 1668

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"and she is indeed very pretty, but I think a notable talking woman by what I heard to others there."

Meaning she can't be relied to be discrete, and so better not to try to steal a kiss (or more)...?

About Tuesday 21 April 1668

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Sam's boldness in a coach with others in it continues to astound me. Must have been mighty dark!

(Phil, you'll want to change the link above to Henry Brouncker, not William.)

About Friday 10 April 1668

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How interesting to see Sam's rough notes -- the musical equivalent would be listening to his demo ... just enough of the idea there for him to flesh out later.

About Friday 3 April 1668

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re: Cholique

Alan, Sam has written before how lack of eating and an empty belly brings on bouts of "wind" for him, so that is most likely his meaning here.

About Monday 30 March 1668

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"and there resolve for Hales to begin Harris’s head for me, which I will be at the cost of"

I know the annotations say that Harris was Sam's friend, but I'm not sure why he's willing to pay for his portrait ... did I miss some flowering of friendship between the two?

About Wednesday 18 March 1667/68

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"and there bought Montaigne’s Essays, in English"

Guess I was wrong in my assumption on March 17th! The English translation it is...

That's quite the late Valentine's Day present, Sam.

About Tuesday 17 March 1667/68

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"This must have been Florio’s translation, as Cotton’s was not published until 1685."

Not necessarily? My understanding of Sam's language skills is that his French would have been strong enough to read the original essays. He's mentioned reading other French "literature," oui? ("L’escholle des filles" comes to mind... :-)

Terry, thanks for the Irish reference on St. Patrick's Day!