joe fulm

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joe fulm has posted 22 annotations/comments since 19 December 2013.

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Second Reading

About Friday 1 August 1662

joe fulm  •  Link

Samuel started the day with a headache, ended it 'in pain', and with a tincture of male frustration in between; sounds about right that little changes except the centuries.

About Monday 22 April 1661

joe fulm  •  Link

More interesting than whether Lady faulconbridge's name was Mary would be what she thought about the Restoration of the monarchy, or would she be attending today's ceremonies, considering her father's head was on a Whitehall railing spike possibly along the route(where it would remain for over twenty years before being blown away in a gale).

About Wednesday 27 February 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

Pepys finished yesterday's entry with semen and today's with seamen. I wonder did he ever make the connect and smirk- maybe years later- in the privacy of his own heart.

About Friday 22 February 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

I have read the diary since last October but cannot make out SP's working hours. Some sailors are ship-locked at the harbours-probably having been at sea for weeks or months- until Pepys' department decides their next journey,and Sam goes home for his dinner every day or is off meeting relatives on workday afternoons. A study of flexitime versus slave labour in history might be interesting.

About Monday 18 February 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

SP seems at the moment to be caught in the prongs of Love(his Valentine is William Battens sister, not his wife) and War(the Irish preacher sermonising about scattering warmongers, no doubt with SPs neighbour Oliver Cromwell in mind, a safe sermon by the Irish doctor considering Parliament had just dug up his country's nemesis and mutilated the corpse), that seems to have SP a bit irritable.

About Monday 28 January 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

I see SP has changed from referring to local man 'Oliver' (Dec 4th last when Parliament decreed to dig up Cromwell and his comrades to mutilate them), to 'Cromwell' in today's entry. Despite being from the same locale Sam has a career to expedite and being too familiar with Republic traitors won't fill the carafe with good sack.

About Thursday 24 January 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

'at home all day' on Thursday (?). I can't help think about the poor sailors now at harbour after weeks or months at sea, not knowing if they will get paid or if they might have to go to sea again for God knows how long without getting ashore to see their families on SP's department's choosing. What exactly is Pepys' working week? Diary of a sailor's life then might be interesting.

About Saturday 19 January 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

only yesterday SP said the drink was decaying his memory and he would start to cut back. Today he is supping ale.
'Lord help me get sober, but not today'. Seems too with the buying of mousetraps the recently acquired cat is being too well fed and not at its post, maybe it got its fill of the uncooked calf's head SP recently discarded, and couldn't be bothered.

About Friday 18 January 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

With a monkey added to the mix I'd have given anything to see the cat coming across it. Ears up, back arched and then a hiss, then sidling away to a quiet place to lick its inner back leg- territory claimed, job done.

About Friday 11 January 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

having read the diary since last October SP does not give much in the way of what he thinks. maybe he doesn't. for example he has no opinion about the fantastiques belief in the coming of Jesus. SP only mentions god when he has had a windfall. yesterday he writes about meeting the petits but does not re iterate how he had advised Elizabeth not to marry henri late last year. or whether he might have been right or wrong about that. the diary is still fascinating in the recordance of everyday events.

About Tuesday 1 January 1660/61

joe fulm  •  Link

I noticed when Pepys was going through his household he does not include the newly acquired cat. Moreover when he is listing work improvements to the house, the mouse catcher still doesn't get a nod. Perhaps in that era of high infant mortality, felines didn't acquire nominal mention nor were ever entered in the familial circle of inclusion. Lets just hope it was fed well (perhaps a bit of uncooked calf's head as a treat) and lived long.

About Sunday 30 December 1660

joe fulm  •  Link

No mention of Christmas until the day before Christmas day (or santa/reindeer jingles in mid October), and still no mention on the 30/12 of New Year celebrations. Just went into my local shop and they already have St Valentine day cards displayed (for Feb 14th). The rise of Markets may have eliminated European wars but it has led into a bland duller age.

About Friday 28 December 1660

joe fulm  •  Link

There's no contentment like the aftermath of a vomitus hangover and the cease of razor sharp kidney pains. Especially that he'd had an operation two years previously for kidney/bladder stones(performed in a relative's house by surgeon Thomas Hollier) and that subsequent discomfort must have been worrying. Uneventful days come into their own.

About Monday 24 December 1660

joe fulm  •  Link

According to Pepys on the 21st the Princess Royal Mary was 'dangerously ill'. On the 22nd he said the painters were finishing up. On this day, the 24th, the Princess Royal Mary dies and the painters are still in situ until 10 at night. Since Pepys has been out of the house the last two days have the painters been taking it easy as historical events came to pass?

About Friday 21 December 1660

joe fulm  •  Link

The house workmen must have been relieved when Sam headed to Whitehall to work and stayed out until late. He'd had his beady eye on them working the past couple of days. His house kettle probably got used more today.