Sasha Clarkson

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Sasha Clarkson has posted 752 annotations/comments since 16 February 2013.

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Second Reading

About Sunday 7 December 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Sam uses the word "Dutch" congregation, but the people would likely have been mostly Flemings from modern day Belgium and France, who had fled religious persecution in the Spanish Netherlands and northern France. The Flemish spoken in Belgium is a dialect of Dutch and mutually comprehensible with it.

Incidentally, although the word 'Huguenot' refers to French speaking Protestants, but its origin may well be Dutch/Low-German. One theory gives its origin as 'Huis Genooten', meaning "house fellows", ie those who read the bible in secret with each other.

http://www.huguenot.netnation.com…

About Friday 7 November 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I remember singing this at the folk club in the York Tavern in Norwich in 1979/80

"No man that's a drinker takes ale from a pin
For there is too little good stuff there within.
Four and a half is its measure in full,
Too small for a sup, not enough for a pull.

Chorus (after each verse):
Then bring us a barrel and set it up right,
Bring us a barrel to last out the night;
Bring us a barrel, no matter how high,
We'll drink it up lads, we'll drink it dry.

That poor little firkin's nine gallons in all,
Though the beer it be good, the size is too small.
For lads that are drinkers, like you and like I,
That firkin small barrel too will quickly runs dry ........

...... Then bring forth the puncheon and roll out the butt,
Them's the beast measures before us to put.
Our pots will go round and good ale it will flow
And we'll be content for an hour or so.

The following version is almost in tune - and no-one would notice after a few pints! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F…

About Thursday 6 November 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

BTW There was no "Bulgarin": it was Bukharin and Rykov, together with ex NKVD chief Yagoda, so-called "Trotskite-Rightist-Deviationists", tried and executed in 1938, together with perhaps hundreds of thousands of others.

About Tuesday 4 November 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

❝ "But there will be no great miss of him for all that."

But I do miss him and all the other characters. ❞

"Send not to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee! "

About Thursday 23 October 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Note again that archaic English past tense "I AM come to follow my business again", not "I HAVE come ...."

In our neighbour Indo-European languages, French and German, "to be" rather than "to have" is still used as the auxilliary verb for the perfect tense of intransitive* verbs; eg: "je suis venu" or " ich bin gekommen", not "j'ai venu" or "ich habe gekommen".

Tolkien used it in his work sometimes for archaic effect, eg Elendil's words: "Out of the Great Sea to Middle Earth I am come ..."

*those verbs without a direct object.

About Monday 20 October 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"Young Killigrew" might have been the son of Thomas Killigrew: though there were rather a lot of them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tho…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen…

In fact, they seem to have been a rather famous/notorious Cornish family!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arw…

I remember borrowing (from the public library) *Winston Graham's 'The Grove of Eagles' about the Killigrews and the Armada, and it being an excellent read!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/sh…

*Author of the Poldark novels.

About Sunday 7 September 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It's interesting that just because Sam got up early, he did not automatically expect Will to do so too: as a sort of live-in "intern" of a similar social class to the Pepyses, Will Hewer is even now more than a mere servant.

About Friday 5 September 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Re 'Brouncker': yours is a rational explanation Terry, certainly for the post 1665 change. But as there seems to be a bit of Schadenfreude concerning the poor performance of the "virtuosoes" yacht, I wondered about deliberate mispronunciation.

There was a teacher in a local school whose surname was 'Hillier'; determinedly pronounced 'Hillyard' by some local parents whose children had fallen foul of him; they knew quite well what his name was, but were determined to exact a petty revenge in this way. Mispronunciation or misspelling can be a social weapon. I wondered similarly about Sam's "Mr Whore".

About Friday 5 September 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I know that spelling was flexible in Sam's day, but I do wonder whether or not Sam was having a little private joke by spelling Brouncker as 'Brunkard', to rhyme with drunkard?

Later in the diary, it's spelled 'Brunker', and then finally 'Brouncker' as Sam has more and more to do with him.

About Thursday 4 September 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Robert: " I presume he means the expensive meal was put on the Naval Office's expenses account"

I think not: it depends which hat Sam is wearing when he says "we" and "our" Both Sir Williams are bothers of Trinity House, as Sam has been since 15th February 1662.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Batten is a senior brother of Trinity House who missed out on being elected Master this year, but who will succeed next year. I think the brothers of Trinity House were treating the officers of the Ordnance, and hence it is quite natural for Lady B to come an lord (or lady) it about a little.

If this were at the expense of the Navy Board, I'm sure that Sir George Carteret, its Treasurer would be present, or at least mentioned in dispatches!

About Wednesday 27 August 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It is as well to ascertain the facts before enjoying being anachronistically judgemental and self-righteous!

By bothering to look up Will's background, it is easy to ascertain that Will was anything BUT "lower class". Will is from a wealthy middle class background: if anything wealthier than Sam's, but out of political influence after the restoration.

Until the end of the diary period at least, Sam maintains a good relationship with Will's uncle, Robert Blackborne, a former navy administrator, and also values his opinion and advice.

Will is still under 21, and his current position is effectively that of Sam's apprentice, and Sam's relationship to him is therefore very similar to one of loco parentis as well as paterfamilias. As Will gets older, and moves into his own lodgings, his relationship with Sam settles down and deepens into a lifelong friendship.

About Wednesday 27 August 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"I did not think he was come home, but was in fear for him, it being very late, what was become of him."

In the modern world it would be "I was out of my mind with worry wondering where the hell you were son, and your mobile phone's been switched off - ungrateful ******!"