Annotations and comments

Paul Chapin has posted 849 annotations/comments since 17 January 2003.

Comments

First Reading

About Sunday 29 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"it being mighty hot weather"

Mighty hot? Must have been warmer than the 8C/46F our right column shows as the April average that year - even an Englishman couldn't consider that hot, could he?

About Saturday 28 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

80L (in 1666 money) is a heck of a lot of money for pearls by modern standards, when the availability of cultured ones makes them much more affordable. I wonder how the prices of precious stones - diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires - at that time compared.

About Wednesday 18 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Yes, Tom, my thanks too. I'm no art critic, but studying the three Windsor portraits up close led me to a couple of reactions. First, it's surprising how much alike the faces look, surely much more alike than the women themselves must have looked. I suspect this is for the same reason that Playmate photos in Playboy magazine look so much alike, to conform to someone's contemporary idea of feminine beauty.

Second, after being alerted by Michael Robinson to Lely's studio system, I believe I can detect differences in the quality of different parts of the paintings. In the portrait of Henrietta Boyle, for example, the left arm is misproportioned and the left hand is fat and featureless, unlike the right arm and hand.

About Saturday 21 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Todd, I think the king is speaking admiringly of Pett for holding fast to his vision of a ship's design no matter what anybody says, while Taylor is too eager to please others by modifying his designs.

It's a nice and shrewd thing the king says about Pett's gift being from God, since (like any great artist) Pett can't begin to explain how he does what he does.

As for Batten (who isn't present, as I read the entry), the king suggests that he must have sired the ketch since it so resembles him physically - thick for its length.

King Charles II was clearly a lot of fun to be around.

About Friday 20 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"She ended all with a promise of shells to my wife, very fine ones indeed"

Would these be seashells? Or what?

About Wednesday 18 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"The full ‘flagmen’ set consists of thirteen individual portraits"
That was one heck of a commission for Lely - must have kept him in oysters for a good while. And unlike some of his contemporaries on the continent, apparently he did all the work himself.

About Friday 13 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Per ADA's comment, I wonder whether anyone has x-rayed Sam's portrait to look at the painted-over landscape.

I've seen a lot of those paintings with landscapes in the background, and I agree with Mary that Sam's is much more striking the way it is.

About Sunday 8 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

ADA, please say more. Why do you think it was the plague? It was my impression that the plague did not kill suddenly, with no prior symptoms, but that people suffered for at least several days before succumbing, unlike poor Mr. Chiffinch. Is that wrong?

About Sunday 1 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"Has the tradition of mistrust ever fully disappeared?"

Nor from the English side either, as revealed by the infamous saying "Wogs start at Calais." Or maybe that's disdain rather than mistrust.

About Monday 2 April 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"Thence to the Exchequer again to inform myself of some other points in the new Act in order to my lending Sir W. Warren 2000l. upon an order of his upon the Act, which they all encourage me to."

This is the same transaction Sir G. Downing was urging on Sam last December, to the tune of 200L, and Sam was resisting strongly. Now he has convinced himself that it is safe, in part based on yesterday's conversation with Downing, and has decided to up the ante to 2000L. "They all encourage me to." I hope he doesn't regret it.

About Wednesday 28 March 1666

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"Collecting thence that mars as well as Iupiter the earth &c doth moue about his own axis in about 24 howers." (Hooke folio, provided by Terry)

Hooke was right about Mars. Its day is just under 24 hours 40 minutes. He doesn't say why he concluded the same about Jupiter - maybe when you've seen two planets, Earth and Mars, you've seen them all? But in fact Jupiter's day is a little under 10 hours. Since it is a gas planet, the rotation is a little faster at the equator, which bulges as a result, than at higher latitudes. (Info from Wikipedia)

About Wednesday 21 March 1665/66

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Thanks to JWB for the link to DARE, the Dictionary of American Regional English. As a friend and admirer of its late founding editor, I have to note that his name was Fred(eric)(Gomes) Cassidy. His able successor, Joan Hall, is still working on completing this massive reference. Those interested in learning more about it should see http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare…

About Wednesday 14 March 1665/66

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"mr. Hooke gaue some account of what Expts. he had made by weighing of bodys in a ^ /very/ deep well, and aboue ground, and that he had found noe difference in their weight in those differing places."

This bit of Terry's excerpt from the Hooke folio (thanks Terry!) is interesting. Recall that Newton is still in his early 20s. The virtuosi, however, were already suspecting that gravity might vary according to the distance from the center of the gravitational mass. Their instrumentation was not precise enough to detect the effect in Hooke's experiment, but they were clearly thinking along the right lines. As Newton said, he stood on the shoulders of giants.

About Wednesday 14 March 1665/66

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"his credit and punctuality in the City"

"punctuality" had a more general laudatory meaning in Sam's time than it does today. OED lists several senses, of which I think the following is the closest to today's text:

3. a. Precise observance of rule or obligation; strictness in the performance of duty; scrupulousness. Now rare or arch.
1640 Howell Dodona's Gr. 169 Those that+hereafter should serve other Princes with that punctuality as Sophronio had done. 1689 D. Granville in Surtees Misc. (1858) 95, I did faithfully, and with as much punctuallity as I was able, discharge those trusts. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. x. 406 The resolution of the English at the fire, and their trustiness and punctuality elsewhere, was the general subject of conversation. 1863 A. Blomfield Mem. Bp. Blomfield II. ix. 185 Scrupulous punctuality in all his engagements.

About Saturday 10 March 1665/66

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it [etc.]"

Sam's version of "Nobody ever lay on their deathbed wishing they'd spent more time at the office."