Autumnbreeze Movies

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Autumnbreeze Movies has posted 26 annotations/comments since 22 April 2014.

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Second Reading

About Mr Shepley

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'Goodfellowship' probably meant that Mr Sheply liked drinking in alehouses and that it may have affected his work. The idiom of ‘good fellowship’ in alehouse culture included financial obligations, such paying for your share of the ‘pot’ and physical obligations, such as the expectation that you would be able to keep up with and match the drinking capacity of your companions. Old Mr Shepley may not have been able to keep up with such requirements.

(From: Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England
Mark Hailwood
Martlesham, Boydell and Brewer, 2014, ISBN: 9781843839422; 266pp.; Price: £60.00)

About Saturday 17 March 1659/60

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Am I wrong in thinking that English would've been the native language of Elizabeth Pepys's Irish mother and so it was also Elizabeth's native language, as well as French after her father and her stay in France?

About Sunday 5 February 1659/60

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Book of Tobit; it was part of the 'Apocrypha' (from the Greek apokrypha [ajpovkrufo"], meaning 'things that are hidden, secret') refers to two collections of ancient Jewish and Christian writings that have affinities with the various books of the Old Testament and New Testament but were not canonized by Christians as a whole, and although the Old Testament Apocrypha are viewed as canonical by some Christians, the New Testament Apocrypha are not.
The Old Testament Apocrypha is a collection of Jewish books that are included in the Old Testament canons of Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians, but not of Protestants. Most of the books were composed in Hebrew before the Christian era, but they never were accepted by the Jews as part of the Hebrew canon. Translated into Greek, they came to be used by Christians at the end of the first century A.D. They were eventually included in Christian copies of the Greek Old Testament and, later, the Latin Vulgate. The Protestant reformers allowed that the books of the Apocrypha were useful for reading. Over time, however, the Apocrypha has fallen into disuse among Protestants.

About Friday 6 January 1659/60

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Twelfth Night (6 January) is called Trzech Króli (Three Kings) in Poland and, as in the UK, that's when christmas trees come down or else it'll be bad luck.

About Sunday 1 January 1659/60

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'My wife … gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year … '

My wife, after the absence of her terms for seven weeks, gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year she hath them again. (from L&M edition)

About Saturday 29 May 1669

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I've been reading the diary (sometimes several entries at a time) and the comments with great delight. I found this site late and was trailing at least three years behind the interactive group of annotators but I occasionally wrote a comment, though doubtful if it would ever be read. However, such is the power and lure of this site that I believe new readers will continue to discover it, read the diary and benefit from the added information. Thank you, Phil, Terry, Mary, Australian Susan and all the other contributors. Teresa from Australia

About Saturday 1 May 1669

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… she (Bess) then expected to meet Sheres, which we did in the Pell Mell, and, against my will, I was forced to take him into the coach …..(to St James’s Park)... there till the evening, and then home, leaving Mr. Sheres at St. James’s Gate, where he took leave of us for altogether, he; being this night to set out for Portsmouth post, in his way to Tangier, which troubled my wife mightily, who is mighty, though not, I think, too fond of him. But she was out of humour all the evening, and I vexed at her for it, and she did not rest almost all the night, so as in the night I was forced; to take her and hug her to put her to rest.

Poor, broken-hearted Bess comforted by her wayward husband

About Tuesday 27 April 1669

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“Il Nipotismo di Roma..." From this work the word Nepotism is derived, and is applied to the bad practice of statesmen, when in power, providing lucrative places for their relations. (Terry Foreman)

'Nipote' is Itallian for both 'nephew' and 'grandson'. I found that the word 'nepotism' is also used now to describe the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs rather than employing better qualified strangers. Sometimes the difference between 'nepotism' and 'networking' becomes blurred in today's corporate world and that of Public Service. Perhaps as it was then?

About Monday 19 April 1669

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Was Sam Pepys a sex addict ?
Sexual addiction is a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts. Like all addictions, its negative impact on the addict and on family members increases as the disorder progresses. Over time, the addict usually has to intensify the addictive behavior to achieve the same results.

Sex addicts do not necessarily become sex offenders. Moreover, not all sex offenders are sex addicts (about 55 % of convicted sex offenders were most likely sex addicts). Recently, an awareness of brain changes and brain reward associated with sexual behaviour points to powerful sexual drives that motivate sex offenses.

The National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity has defined sexual addiction as “engaging in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior acted out despite increasing negative consequences to self and others.” In other words, a sex addict will continue to engage in certain sexual behaviors despite facing potential health risks, financial problems, shattered relationships or even arrest.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders, Volume Four describes sex addiction, under the category “Sexual Disorders Not Otherwise Specified,” as “distress about a pattern of repeated sexual relationships involving a succession of lovers who are experienced by the individual only as things to be used.” According to the manual, sex addiction also involves “compulsive searching for multiple partners, compulsive fixation on an unattainable partner, compulsive masturbation, compulsive love relationships and compulsive sexuality in a relationship.”

The definitions don't seem to QUITE fit Sam - he neglected Bess. But maybe he did this for some 'philosophical' reasons?

About Saturday 17 April 1669

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'... he do tell me that the leisure he hath yet had do not at all begin to be burdensome to him, he knowing how to spend his time with content to himself...' What a friendly and supportive way to say that sir W. Coventry hasn't yet been bored in his forced state of unemployment.

About Tuesday 23 February 1668/69

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In Italy, corpses of 'saints' are dressed in colourful robes and paraded around towns on feast days dedicated to them. I saw this in Gubbio, Paciano in Umbria), Bagnoreggio in Tuscany.

About Tuesday 23 February 1668/69

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When an old nun died at my school (1961) all the girls were led to the chapel, where she lay in state; after prayers, they were led to her coffin to bow and kiss her foot (dressed in black stocking) - the kissing was optional. We had never seen this nun before. Some girls complied, other refused. I refused feeling disgusted.

About Tuesday 27 October 1668

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Also in Australia people are legally and effectively protected against sexual harassment, and well aware of the very unpleasant consequences of such behaviour. On the other hand, in Italy, for example, law is one thing and machismo behaviours are often another. Could it be that in the 'old' countries, where attitudes continued for millennia in unbroken flow, it is more difficult to change behaviour, especially when custom is fused with natural inclination?

About Tuesday 31 March 1668

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'took up my wife and Deb., and to the Park, where, being in a hackney, and they undressed, was ashamed to go into the tour, but went round the park, and so with pleasure home, ' - this is not Sam's fantasy but the embarrassment of having his wife and her maid not dressed elegantly but in house clothes and in a hired cab, in a place where the elegant crowd came to show off and be seen

About Tuesday 17 March 1667/68

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"The House, I hear, have this day concluded upon raising 100,000l. of the 300,000l. by wine, and the rest by a poll-[tax], and have resolved to excuse the Church, in expectation that they will do the more of themselves at this juncture..."

Sure, sure... The Church will donate prayers.

About Friday 17 January 1667/68

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The story of the romance between Anna Talbot and George Villiers continues, retold after Pope: on the day of the duel, the Countess trembled all morning for her gallant, who afterwards 'slept' with her in his bloodied shirt. The romance lived on and much later on, when the Duke of Buckingham brought his mistress to live with him, his indignant wife, the Duchess, told him that she and Talbot couldn't live in the same house. "So I thought, Madam, and have therefore ordered the horses to convey you to your father", the Duke replied. But the Duchess appears to have stayed. Talbot and Villiers had an illegitimate son. Their affair was finally broken off in 1673 and the countess went to France to spent time in a convent. She afterwards returned to England and remarried.