Todd Bernhardt

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Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Wednesday 12 March 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: Sam did not mind working for Downing initially

I dunno about that, Monsieur Vincente ... I remember having the distinct impression during the early days that Sam disliked his boss, and did indeed make comments about his duplicitous/grumpy/demanding nature. (I'm too pressed for time to find entries to back me up ... maybe someone can help out?)

About Wednesday 5 March 1661/62

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re: "I hope he trudges them down to the House of Office."

Pauline, in the absence of a shredder, this would certainly be an effective way of discouraging prying eyes!

About Thursday 6 March 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "I thank God I am well pleased with it, and hope I shall continue of that temper"

How many of us wish we could say the same about our jobs? Sounds like Sam is really growing into his position.

And Glyn, though I see your point, the thing that struck me (perhaps as an American, living in our Litigious Society) is how civil Sam's relationship is with his relatives, legal disagreements notwithstanding. "I've got to get to a lunch appointment, but please stay and have something to eat with my fair wife" ... wouldn't today's attorneys frown on such fraternization with the "other side"?

About Monday 3 March 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: hearth tax/license fee

Not to worry, E, it seems as if what you consider the modern-day hearth tax might be on its way out, courtesy of the 'net:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/arti…

As a Yank, all I can say is that I wouldn't mind a license fee if it did something to stem the tide of "reality" TV shows currently sweeping the nation's airwaves ... what I see of the BBC over here is usually heads and shoulders above the crap on American TV and its race for the bottom.

About Monday 3 March 1661/62

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re: Oysters

Chris, you can find more info here:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

And Pauline, I agree -- would be interesting to read Sam's oath and proposed punishment. I can't parse from the sentence whether or not he did it in the presence of others, though. Looks as if it might have been simply between him and God.

About Saturday 1 March 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "I am resolved to go no more to see the first time of acting, for they were all of them out more or less."

Sounds like Sam's had some bad opening-night experiences...

It also sounds as if theater companies may have had less-stringent quality standards for an opening? As Daniel implies, this sounds more like a pre-Broadway opening on the road than a polished premiere.

About Thursday 27 February 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: The site's search engine

Ruben, click the Help link next to the search box. Though I agree that things are getting harder to find as we get more content on the site, you can use Boolean expressions, or look for exact phrases, and that should help focus your results. (Type "rome" in Google and see how many results you get there! :-)

About Friday 28 February 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: Spare the child, spoil the rods

Pauline, good point -- perhaps Will's empathy for the boy influenced his choice of rods.

Sam's tense when writing about the effects of the whipping on his arm ("which I am already, within a quarter of an hour, not able to stir almost") leads me to believe that he wrote the diary entry immediately after the whipping, and is thus predicting (rather than reflecting on) his supper and bedtime. Does anyone else see it that way?

re: the map of Tangier ... folks with access to L&M, is there any note that talks about whether or not this map is still around?

About Thursday 27 February 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "They wouldn't be just the ordinary constraints of counterpoint ('Avoid consecutive fifths'), since they had to do with setting texts."

I dunno about that, B-man. I think Sam and Berkenshaw were simply following the convention of the day in setting popular verse to music ... it gave them something to focus on, and saved them the trouble of writing their own verse. (Other reasons: It could have been homage to the poet, or maybe an indication -- by virtue of which verse they chose to set -- of their literacy, sensitivity, etc.)

In any case, I think the rules may very well have been on the level of avoiding parallel fifths, etc. From what little I've been able to read about B's method, it doesn't look as if it's specifically tied to setting verse to musique.

Mary, thanks for clarifying the troubling passage.

About Thursday 27 February 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Sam cracks me up!!

"I could not persuade him to grant wherein they were somewhat lame, we fell to angry words"...

As a musician who's played in many bands, and co-written many songs, all I can say is, 'twas ever thus!

"Dude, c'mon, admit it, music is about *breaking rules,* you know? Your attempts at constraining the Muse are somewhat lame, my man."

About Sunday 23 February 1661/62

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re: Colds and Estates

Do we know that a "cold" back in Sam's day meant the same thing that it did today? Or could it encompass a wider variety of ills?

As for Wim's comment about an estate being essential to Sam's happiness, I think it's a matter of him simply saying "my prospects are good," which is a reason for his optimism. Remember, this was a time when a comfortable retirement was by no means assured, and building an "estate" (which I assume does not necessarily involve land, but could also mean ample money in the bank/under the mattress) was the sole responsibility of the potential retiree (unless they got lucky in marriage, had a rich relative who remembered them, etc.)

About Tuesday 27 March 1660

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More on "scuttlebutt"

Michael Quinion addressed the origins of this phrase this week in his excellent weekly newsletter, World Wide Words. Here's what he had to say:

Q. My friend and I have been trying to figure out the origin of the word "scuttlebutt". Do you have any thoughts on this? [Clair Merritt]

A. The second half is easy enough - a butt is just the old word for a large cask. The first half appears in the language in several senses with different origins, so we have to be sure we've got the right one. It's not the flattish open container, made of wickerwork at one time, whose name survives in "coal scuttle"; that's Old English, from Latin "scutella" for a dish or platter (its first sense in English). Nor is it the one that means to move with short quick steps, perhaps like a spider; that comes from an old English dialect word.

The sense we want is the one of a hole cut in a ship's timbers. That's been around since the fifteenth century, when sailors called any smallish hatchway or opening in the deck a scuttle, especially if it was covered with a lid of some sort; it was the usual term for an opening to let in light or air. It's of uncertain origin, but might be from the Old French "escoutille", meaning a hatchway.

The verb "to scuttle" dates from the mid 17th century, at first in the sense of sinking a ship specifically by cutting holes in it - today we use it for doing so by any means.

It was usual to have a water cask on deck so that the crew had easy access to drinking water during the day. To make it easier to scoop the water out with a tin pot or dipper, the head of the cask would be removed. So it became known as the scuttlebutt - the cask with a hatch in it. Fresh water was so precious that a guard was often posted by the scuttlebutt to ensure that water was only taken to drink and not, for example, to wash clothes with.

It was the one place where members of the crew on duty in various parts of the ship could meet and talk during the working day. This is how Herman Melville put it in White Jacket; or The World in a Man-of-War of 1850: "There is no part of a frigate where you will see more going and coming of strangers, and overhear more greetings and gossipings of acquaintances, than in the immediate vicinity of the scuttle-butt, just forward of the main-hatchway, on the gun-deck." Today's office water coolers have pretty much the same ambience.

Real scuttlebutts have long since passed into naval history and the word has shifted its meaning to the rumour and gossip itself rather than the place where one exchanged it.

About Friday 21 February 1661/62

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: Dinner before noon

Remember, as Vincent pointed out in the annotations to the previous day's entry, Sam is writing for himself, and thus bends the rules a bit. Going by Lord Crew's for "dinner" may have meant stopping by the household kitchen, where he surely was well known, to grab a quick bite to eat before his noontime meeting. Just because it's called dinner, it doesn't have to be a formal affair ... it's just what he calls the midday meal, no matter when he actually eats it (there have been lots of examples lately where he eats dinner well after noon).

About Thursday 13 February 1661/62

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re: "an exact conversion of the diary"

Vicenzo -- may I call you Vincent? -- isn't that what the L&M version is? I thought it was the authoritative and complete version of the diary.

Or are you simply trying to distract us from the Grammar Wars? ;-)

About Tuesday 11 February 1661/62

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re: Clerks

Why is Mr. Turner "much troubled at" Sam's activities surrounding his clerks? You'd think that Sam's efforts to settle things "to the advantage of [his] clerks" would please Turner, unless Sam's stepping on his toes in some way ... is Turner supposed to manage the clerks?