Todd Bernhardt

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

Comments

First Reading

About Monday 10 August 1663

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "Can he really be writing this with a straight face?"

Do as I say, not as I do ... my Lord.

And thanks to Robert and all others for clearing up the meaning of "husband" in this context...

About Monday 10 August 1663

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"for which I am sorry, and though late am resolved to get up betimes before the season of rising be quite past"

What a great glimpse into a time when the seasons and the availability of natural light determined the span and rhythms of people's lives...

("The Season of Rising" deserves to be a song or book title, I think...)

About Monday 10 August 1663

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Remember, Sam's criteria for being a "better husband" are far different than ours ... neither he, nor many other men (or, I daresay, even some women) of the time would have given a second thought about the wife's point of view when it comes to their marital relations. The stunning thing about Sam and this Diary is his frank explanations (and, as far as he is able, his examinations) of his actions and underlying thoughts.

About Saturday 8 August 1663

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I thought Sam got his ruler yesterday ... if so, why would he repeat himself? Did he get a second? Did he only call on Brown yesterday looking for it, but only got it today? (Yet that would go against his behavior at Deptford yesterday, where he "amused" the measurer.)

Something tells me John won't be eager to visit again soon...

About Thursday 6 August 1663

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

My thoughts precisely, Aussie Sue. Sam seems to shrug it off, whereas if it had been "My Lady," he would have been much more concerned (and no doubt would have stopped to talk). I think Phil's link there is correct (especially given, as the link says, that "at this time she and her sister, Mrs. Ann, seem to have been living alone with their maids in London, and Pepys’s duty was to look after them").

About Thursday 6 August 1663

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re: Lady Jem

Robert, I don't think this is "My Lady," but is instead her daughter. If your other theories are correct, perhaps the older Jem is staying at home to keep her husband from visiting Brampton too often? :-)

About Thursday 6 August 1663

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re: "I’m guessing that black refers to complexion (i.e. humor) rather than hair color. Otherwise why not black, [and] well-shaped and modest?"

Jesse, I'm guessing that Sam prefers women with hair of lighter color ... so far, the word as we've encountered it here has, as L&M have said, meant "brunette, dark in hair or complexion."

About Thursday 6 August 1663

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Lots of kissing today! I wonder how innocent these really are ... would he have kissed the ladies as much if Elizabeth had been with him?

Also, interesting to see how, even in the middle of all this merriment, Sam remains a political creature ("I thinking it convenient to keep in with the Joyces against a bad day, if I should have occasion to make use of them").

About Wednesday 5 August 1663

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"who should meet us but my lady Jemimah, who saw me lead her but said nothing to me of her, though I ought to speak to her to see whether she would take notice of it or no"

Better be more careful, Sam. The last thing you need is a teenager with this kind of power over you...

About Monday 3 August 1663

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"(my riding Coate not being to be found I fear it is stole)"

No doubt, given the events of the day, Mr. Gertz will enlighten us about the true fate of Sam's riding Coate...

About Saturday 1 August 1663

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

DrCari's annotation of 27 July ("Sam’s swelling in the perianal region is likely inflammation of his old incision") seems borne out by the fact that Sam is ready to get back in the saddle again. Had the swelling that was the "bigness of the bag of a silkworm" been a hemorrhoid, he'd most likely still be in a lot of pain...

About Sunday 26 July 1663

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re: “to turn up one’s tail”

Thanks, LH. But wouldn't "and the women in their quarters the like" work against that theory? 'tis a puzzlement...

About Sunday 26 July 1663

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re: Does anyone know anything of this Mrs Hely?

Tomalin (Pepys biographer) gives only today's entry as any evidence of her, so apparently not...

About Sunday 26 July 1663

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"it being very pleasant to see how everybody turns up his tail, here one and there another, in a bush, and the women in their quarters the like"

Given Terry's annotation yesterday about the purgative properties of the waters, *please* tell me this doesn't mean what I think it does...

About Friday 24 July 1663

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"and then in my dining room walked, talking of several matters of state till 11 at night, giving him a glass of wine"

What, no supper? Must have been all them cheesecakes, tarts, custards, and such like...

And how big is Sam's dining room, that they can do the room circuit while sipping a glass of wine?

About Friday 24 July 1663

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"which I do to give them occasion of speaking well and commending me in some company that now and then I know comes to their shop"

Even as he's carousing with the ladies, Sam's a political creature. How many birds is he killing with this stone...?

About Saturday 18 July 1663

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re: "can we really trust the diarist here?"

Tom, I think we can. If he were trying to hide something, why would he admit to the acts he does describe?

About Saturday 18 July 1663

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We are shocked, and scold
Yet it is such things that help keep this Diary from getting old
In Sam we see the Human Condition
Too often we've been in his position!

Sam loves da Bettys. (Betties?) And who can blame him? It's this very lust for life -- and his frankness about it -- that makes the Diary such interesting reading.

And besides, we shouldn't be too hard on Sam, or on Betty Lane, for that matter. It's obviously Betty Howlett/Mitchell's fault for getting him so riled up ("I could love her very well").