Edith Lank

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Edith Lank has posted 40 annotations/comments since 26 September 2013.

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Second Reading

About Friday 12 August 1664

Edith Lank  •  Link

A propos the case to keep his kidney stone in --
Years ago I spoke on Sam Pepys at our local English-Speaking Union, and a man in the back of the room got up to say he'd seen that stone, in a museum in London.

About Saturday 16 April 1664

Edith Lank  •  Link

Another of those days when I wish I could give Sam a cell phone to keep track of where everyone is -- save him all that fruitless walking.

About Thursday 31 December 1663

Edith Lank  •  Link

Hi there. I'm 90 years old, first read Pepys when those new translations were being published year by year. Enjoying the discussions. Happy New Year to all and to all a good night.

About Thursday 6 August 1663

Edith Lank  •  Link

These Anglo-Saxons seem to prefer blondes altogether, with "black" a synonym for "ugly" -- in the folk song the young lady says of her handsome winsome Johnny that "some say he's black, but I say he's bonnie".

About Tuesday 28 July 1663

Edith Lank  •  Link

Could have fooled me...did, in fact. I was sure those long detailed entries must have been written hot from the happening. Those must have been great notes Sam took over several days. Don't you wish we had a sample of them?

About Saturday 25 July 1663

Edith Lank  •  Link

888 words. It's easy to see which days Sam enters later from note he's taken, and which ones he enjoys re-living in the wee small hours.

About Saturday 25 October 1662

Edith Lank  •  Link

"I say it's spinach, and the hell with it" is the punch line from a cartoon back in the 1930s -- okay, maybe the 40s. I wonder if Bradford is still alive -- he or she made that comment in 2005.

About Sunday 5 October 1662

Edith Lank  •  Link

Sam will be delightfully detailed about most of his romantic adventures, but not when his wife is the subject. What do you think "Lay long in bed with my wife" indicates when it ends with "we were friends again."?

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Edith Lank  •  Link

Thanks for the link; I immediately ordered the Sam'l Pepys mouse pad and am seriously considering the coffee mug.
Not much more than a hundred years later, Jane Austen's writing desk was a portable affair that sat upon a table -- if that's any help, mouse-wise.

About Tuesday 17 June 1662

Edith Lank  •  Link

In winter I get up at night
and dress by yellow candlelight.
In summer quite the other way
I have to go to bed by day...
--Robert Louis Stevenson

About Wednesday 26 March 1662

Edith Lank  •  Link

Giving a talk about Pepys (to the English-Speaking Union here) I mentioned his celebration of anniversaries of being cut for the stone -- that he had a special box made to hold said stone etc.
when a man in the audience said he'd seen that stone. I can't remember where he said it's kept, but it was in London. Anyone know if that's true?

About Thursday 23 January 1661/62

Edith Lank  •  Link

Laura -- you'd like to know what the women think -- here's the start of The Diary of Mrs. Pepys, by Sara George:

31st December 1659

I have resolved to keep a journal, and it will be private. I shall keep it hidden, and it will be mine alone and I shall say whatever I like. So that on days and nights like this it will be company of a sort....

About Monday 11 November 1661

Edith Lank  •  Link

Sam's official salary is only part of his income. There may be additional fees for some of his services, and he has no objection to gifts and downright bribes. The fact that they must be mildly undercover probably adds a bit of zest.

About Saturday 26 October 1661

Edith Lank  •  Link

Nix -- when I clicked on the web address I got the Hudson Review but I couldn't get to the article. Is the problem on my end? -- I don't understand these things too well.

About Thursday 24 October 1661

Edith Lank  •  Link

I've always assumed that those brief summaries of the day's events mark times when Samuel reconstructed the day later. He tells us, every now and then, that he's been bringing the diary up to date, and we know he jotted notes along the way. Those, it seems to me, are likely to be "where I was that day" records, as opposed to the more delightful entries penned in the heat of the moment.

About Monday 14 October 1661

Edith Lank  •  Link

Some time in the 1980s I found myself in a bookstore in London, and found that year's just-released volume of the Diary, which hadn't been available yet in the States -- (you're hearing from an old lady, vague on specifics). What I do remember is that the store had a poster, a blow-up of Pepys' portrait, and they said yes, I could have it. They offered to mail it to my hotel, I said I was leaving the next day, they said no problem, it'd arrive on time for me to pack it -- and it did. It's a bit battered, but still on the wall in my office.