Todd Bernhardt

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

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First Reading

About Thursday 26 November 1663

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"though in the general acceptation it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it"

Huh? Could someone help parse this? Thanks.

About Wednesday 25 November 1663

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re: insuring the hempe ship

Could someone provide some insight into this? I'm not sure why this continues to be a concern for Sam ... do they think that the ship could be lost on its way from Newcastle? Or is there another reason?

"This methinks- was very sudden and extraordinary and do please me mightily"

Careful, Sam. Sounds as if you could be getting buttered up...

Still, it's interesting to see him talking about the people he sees as the foundations for his career. Explains a bit about his loyalty to James later in life.

About Sunday 22 November 1663

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Pepys the junior partner

Sam really gets played by Montagu in this entry (which *is* superb, LH!) ... I'm a bit surprised that Sam hadn't anticipated these questions and techniques from him, but then again we're talking about a younger man who's still learning from men like Creed the tactics of politiques...

About Thursday 19 November 1663

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"home to supper and to bed, not knowing how to avoid hopes from Mr. Moore's words to-night, and yet I am fearful of the worst"

Good plan, Sam. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

"However, it will be managed with great tenderness to him"

Great. At least Gauden gets dinner and a movie before getting...

About Monday 16 November 1663

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Jeannine, shouldn't that be "many planks"? ;-)

(You have my planks as well, Bryan. This info should be added to the Encyclopedia, but the question is, where? Under Government and Law --> Naval Equipment --> Masts? Money and Business --> Financial Transactions? Thoughts, anyone?)

About Wednesday 18 November 1663

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And the die is cast...

Having read about this letter in Tomalin's biography, I was prepared for some real fireworks in this letter, but I've got to say (despite the run-on sentences ... Sam's and my own), it seems pretty discrete and sensitive to me. And now we'll see how Sam reacts to Montagu's reaction...

About Monday 16 November 1663

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"and that this was only Sir W. Batten's report in this business, which he says he did ever approve of, in which I know he lies"

Can anyone help me parse this? Sam thinks Carteret is lying, I think ... but about what? Something to do with Batten, obviously, or the greater matter of the masts, but the "which he says he did ever approve of" throws me.

About Monday 16 November 1663

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"and so I must do it, poor wretch, for her."

Who better than you, Sam, who can empathize with the anguish and pain caused by an operation in the nether regions?

Poor Elizabeth. This is going to be painful and embarrassing.

About Thursday 12 November 1663

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"he being come to advise her about her hollow sore place"

Poor Elizabeth. I hope your husband nurses you half as well as you attend to him and his ills...

About Tuesday 10 November 1663

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"But among other things I am come to an end with Mr. Moore for a 32l., a good while lying in my hand of my Lord Privy Seal's which he for the odd 7l. do give me a bond to secure me against, and so I got 25l. clear."

Could anyone help parse this? Thanks.

About Sunday 8 November 1663

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re: Sleeping to the sound of the Scot

What I'd like to know is, how does he seem to slip into slumber so easily, when the pews I've seen from that time period are anything but comfortable?

And what if his head bobs a bit too far to the side, causing Perriwig Slippage? *That* might cause the church members to "cast their eyes all upon" him...

About Sunday 25th October 1663

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re: "reading my vowes to myself"

Or, Terry, it's possible that the phrase means he read them out loud to himself. Hard to say.

Love the image of the maids scurrying around to get the washing done, knowing that they'll earn their freedom (and a free ride) by doing so...

About Wednesday 21 October 1663

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Bradford, I believe it was also Paul who counseled, "Mix not the hops and the grape, for thy head shall ake mightily afterward..."

Or maybe not.

And Bob T, glad to see I'm not the only one in the group with a dirty mind...

About Wednesday 21 October 1663

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"and my belly being full of small beer, I did all alone, for health's sake, drink half a pint of Rhenish wine at the Still-yard, mixed with beer"

Sounds absolutely foul ... still, if it's "for health's sake," then our boy is justified in breaking his vows, I suppose...

About Tuesday 20 October 1663

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"I did give him a good cuff or two on the chops, and seeing him not oppose me, I did give him another"

HAHAHAHA ... that's our Sam! Our pragmatic pugilist, for whom discretion is the better part of valor, etc....

About Tuesday 20 October 1663

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"She tells us that the Queen's sickness is the spotted fever; that she was as full of the spots as a leopard"

Could the queen have the measles?

About Monday 19 October 1663

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"because the flea, though he kill none..."

If they only knew...
("and that the plague is got to Amsterdam, brought by a ship from Argier; and it is also carried to Hambrough")