Those loose pronouns again "I hear also of another difficulty now upon him [George Digby, Lord Bristol]; that my Lord of Sunderland (whom I do not know) was so near to the marriage of his [Digby's] daughter as that the wedding-clothes were made, and portion and every thing agreed on and ready; and the other day he [Sunderland] goes away nobody yet knows whither, sending her the next morning a release of his right or claim to her, and advice to his friends not to enquire into the reason of this doing, for he hath enough for it; but that he gives them liberty to say and think what they will of him, so they do not demand the reason of his leaving her, being resolved never to have her, but the reason desires and resolves not to give." [remaining masculine pronouns all refer to Sunderland, feminine to Digby's daughter]
"And she’s writing him in ENGLISH!" I gather from this comment and others, including the fanfic representations of her voice and writing, that some annotators seem to feel that Elizabeth's English is a poor second language, pronounced with a French accent. In fact, as Jeannine's marvelous biographical essay makes clear, Elizabeth was born in England, and lived there until the age of 8 or 9. She was taken to France for a few years, maybe 3 or 4, then returned to live in England for the rest of her life. Her father was French, but her mother was Anglo-Irish. Under those circumstances, she was clearly a native speaker of English. She was no doubt fluent in French as well, possibly bilingual (her epitaph credits her with being gifted in languages). But there's no reason to suppose she had any difficulties with English, or spoke differently than anyone else around her in London.
"reading over all our letters of the office that we have wrote since I came into the Navy" Interesting to note that they kept file copies of their correspondence, even when it required (I assume) writing the whole thing out twice. I wonder if those documents are still extant, or if they were consumed by some fire.
The Pepys parlor game "there are many species of creatures where the male gives the denomination to both sexes, as swan and woodcock, but not above one where the female do, and that is a goose." Well, today (although I think not in Sam's time) we can add "cow" as a vernacular generic term for bovine creatures (at least in the U.S.). Can anyone think of any others? For some insects, like mosquitoes and bees, the female variety is the only one we normally ever see, but that's not quite the same thing.
Tens and twelves Linguistically speaking, most (not all) of the world's languages are decimal, in the sense that they have root words for one through ten, and then form higher numbers by combinations of these roots (in Chinese, for example, 'eleven' is simply "ten-one", 'twelve' is "ten-two", etc.) Most of the Indo-European languages are the same: Italian "undici" is clearly "one-ten", Russian 'eleven' is "one-on-ten", etc. French and Spanish "onze, douze," "once, doce" show more modification, but their "one, two" components are clear enough.
In the Germanic languages, however, including English, the situation is a little different. The internal structure of "eleven" and "twelve" (and their counterparts in other Germanic languages) don't include any form of "ten", and "eleven" doesn't even have a "one" in its modern form (although historically it did). The OED suggests that the "l-v" component of these words comes from the same source as "leave", and the original sense was something like "count to ten, one (or two) left over." But in the modern language we don't get to a clear compound form until "thirteen," so for English (and German, and Dutch) speakers today, "eleven" and "twelve" are really root forms, which would make the number systems of those languages duodecimal rather than decimal. However, that's only true for the lowest numbers; by the time we get to twenty, we're in clear decimal mode all the rest of the way.
The cellar scene From the collective wisdom above, especially Bradford and IAS, here's the scene as I see it: Sam and Bess come home and find everybody in the cellar, Ashwell included, watching the vintner draw the wine (for reasons explained by IAS). Sam is peeved that Ashwell is associating with the servants in this way, because she is supposed to be a rank above them.
Murray nods? I'm startled to learn that the OED missed Sam's use of the word 'duodecimal'. I checked and confirmed that IAS is quite right, the first citation is from 1714 (with 'duodecimo', referring to book size, cited from 1658).
Will Hewer The last two sentences of this entry make it clear that Will Hewer did indeed have servant's duties in Sam's household, a topic of discussion in the annotations to the 29 March and 23 April entries on which I yielded too soon, I now think. And contra IAS's concluding comment on the 23 April entry, it seems Mr. Hewer was not even exempt from cuffing.
"sat down myself to try a little upon the Lyra viall, my hand being almost out, but easily brought to again" What a nice phrase. The feeling will be familiar to anyone who has picked up an instrument after a period of disuse.
I have no information about the Royal African Company. However, it is my understanding that those of royalist persuasion considered the reign of Charles II to have begun on the death of his father, January 30, 1649, ignoring the Cromwellian unpleasantness. On that reckoning, 1662 would indeed be the 14th year of CII's reign.
Another "her" to decode L&M: “and another, one Armorer, that he rid before her on horseback, in Holland I think, and she rid with her hand upon his —————-.”[1]
I think from its position in the entry, this sentence must refer to Anne Hyde, and be another of the calumnies that were visited upon her in the vain attempt by several courtiers to dissuade James from marrying her. See http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… for a fuller version of the story - which does not, however, mention this tale.
I'm hoping somebody can explain the dispute between Sam and Sir George. Sam says Sir G's argument, that putting the highest possible value on the pieces of eight gives the king the best return, is a "ridiculous piece of ignorance." Why?
A. Hamilton writes: "I note that Sam, having told himself he would subsidize his father in the amount of 20l. a year, now writes to him to say it will be “up to” 50 l. a year. I can’t tell if this be a change of heart or a desire to sound more generous than he intends to be. Any ideas?"
Without anticipating the letter Jeannine tells us we will see soon, recall that on May 1 Sam calculated that the Brampton estate would yield 50 l. per annum, but he would tell his father a lower number, and say that he would provide 20 l. out of his own purse to make the annual income 50 l. (father John apparently lacking either the information or the skill to figure this out for himself). So what I think Sam is saying here is that he will ensure that his father has 50 l. a year to live on, however much of that Sam has to provide, although privately he believes he may have to lay out little or nothing.
Sir Thomas Crew and Lord Crew are different people - Lord Crew is Sir Thomas' father, and also Sandwich's father-in-law. So there's no anomaly in Sam's talking to Thomas, then going to meet with Lord Crew.
But I have a different problem in this entry: where did Sam take his wife by water and spent the evening, before going home? Surely the trip home by water didn't take the whole evening - or did it?
Comments
First Reading
About Wednesday 1 July 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Those loose pronouns again
"I hear also of another difficulty now upon him [George Digby, Lord Bristol]; that my Lord of Sunderland (whom I do not know) was so near to the marriage of his [Digby's] daughter as that the wedding-clothes were made, and portion and every thing agreed on and ready; and the other day he [Sunderland] goes away nobody yet knows whither, sending her the next morning a release of his right or claim to her, and advice to his friends not to enquire into the reason of this doing, for he hath enough for it; but that he gives them liberty to say and think what they will of him, so they do not demand the reason of his leaving her, being resolved never to have her, but the reason desires and resolves not to give." [remaining masculine pronouns all refer to Sunderland, feminine to Digby's daughter]
About Site maintenance over
Paul Chapin • Link
Add my vote for keeping the Recent Annotations page, if possible.
About Wednesday 24 June 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
"arid" - obviously a scanning error for "and"
About Monday 22 June 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
"And she’s writing him in ENGLISH!"
I gather from this comment and others, including the fanfic representations of her voice and writing, that some annotators seem to feel that Elizabeth's English is a poor second language, pronounced with a French accent.
In fact, as Jeannine's marvelous biographical essay makes clear, Elizabeth was born in England, and lived there until the age of 8 or 9. She was taken to France for a few years, maybe 3 or 4, then returned to live in England for the rest of her life. Her father was French, but her mother was Anglo-Irish. Under those circumstances, she was clearly a native speaker of English. She was no doubt fluent in French as well, possibly bilingual (her epitaph credits her with being gifted in languages). But there's no reason to suppose she had any difficulties with English, or spoke differently than anyone else around her in London.
About Monday 22 June 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
"reading over all our letters of the office that we have wrote since I came into the Navy"
Interesting to note that they kept file copies of their correspondence, even when it required (I assume) writing the whole thing out twice. I wonder if those documents are still extant, or if they were consumed by some fire.
About Monday 15 June 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
The Pepys parlor game
"there are many species of creatures where the male gives the denomination to both sexes, as swan and woodcock, but not above one where the female do, and that is a goose."
Well, today (although I think not in Sam's time) we can add "cow" as a vernacular generic term for bovine creatures (at least in the U.S.). Can anyone think of any others? For some insects, like mosquitoes and bees, the female variety is the only one we normally ever see, but that's not quite the same thing.
About Mathematics
Paul Chapin • Link
Tens and twelves
Linguistically speaking, most (not all) of the world's languages are decimal, in the sense that they have root words for one through ten, and then form higher numbers by combinations of these roots (in Chinese, for example, 'eleven' is simply "ten-one", 'twelve' is "ten-two", etc.) Most of the Indo-European languages are the same: Italian "undici" is clearly "one-ten", Russian 'eleven' is "one-on-ten", etc. French and Spanish "onze, douze," "once, doce" show more modification, but their "one, two" components are clear enough.
In the Germanic languages, however, including English, the situation is a little different. The internal structure of "eleven" and "twelve" (and their counterparts in other Germanic languages) don't include any form of "ten", and "eleven" doesn't even have a "one" in its modern form (although historically it did). The OED suggests that the "l-v" component of these words comes from the same source as "leave", and the original sense was something like "count to ten, one (or two) left over." But in the modern language we don't get to a clear compound form until "thirteen," so for English (and German, and Dutch) speakers today, "eleven" and "twelve" are really root forms, which would make the number systems of those languages duodecimal rather than decimal. However, that's only true for the lowest numbers; by the time we get to twenty, we're in clear decimal mode all the rest of the way.
About Wednesday 10 June 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
The cellar scene
From the collective wisdom above, especially Bradford and IAS, here's the scene as I see it: Sam and Bess come home and find everybody in the cellar, Ashwell included, watching the vintner draw the wine (for reasons explained by IAS). Sam is peeved that Ashwell is associating with the servants in this way, because she is supposed to be a rank above them.
About Tuesday 9 June 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Murray nods?
I'm startled to learn that the OED missed Sam's use of the word 'duodecimal'. I checked and confirmed that IAS is quite right, the first citation is from 1714 (with 'duodecimo', referring to book size, cited from 1658).
About Thursday 23 April 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Re Will Hewer
For a different take, see the entry of 31 May 1663, final two lines.
About Sunday 31 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Will Hewer
The last two sentences of this entry make it clear that Will Hewer did indeed have servant's duties in Sam's household, a topic of discussion in the annotations to the 29 March and 23 April entries on which I yielded too soon, I now think. And contra IAS's concluding comment on the 23 April entry, it seems Mr. Hewer was not even exempt from cuffing.
About Monday 25 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
"sat down myself to try a little upon the Lyra viall, my hand being almost out, but easily brought to again"
What a nice phrase. The feeling will be familiar to anyone who has picked up an instrument after a period of disuse.
About English Royal Africa Company ("Guinea Company")
Paul Chapin • Link
The Nth year of the reign of Charles II
I have no information about the Royal African Company. However, it is my understanding that those of royalist persuasion considered the reign of Charles II to have begun on the death of his father, January 30, 1649, ignoring the Cromwellian unpleasantness. On that reckoning, 1662 would indeed be the 14th year of CII's reign.
About Monday 18 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
"...how much better and more substantially I live than others do."
As George Herbert (1593-1633) said, "Living well is the best revenge." Wonder if Sam read him.
About Annotations are back. Again.
Paul Chapin • Link
If there is to be an expense, let us know so we can share it.
About Friday 15 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Another "her" to decode
L&M: “and another, one Armorer, that he rid before her on horseback, in Holland I think, and she rid with her hand upon his —————-.”[1]
I think from its position in the entry, this sentence must refer to Anne Hyde, and be another of the calumnies that were visited upon her in the vain attempt by several courtiers to dissuade James from marrying her. See http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… for a fuller version of the story - which does not, however, mention this tale.
About Monday 11 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Ask, and it shall be explained, in detail.
I love this site.
About Monday 11 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
I'm hoping
somebody can explain the dispute between Sam and Sir George. Sam says Sir G's argument, that putting the highest possible value on the pieces of eight gives the king the best return, is a "ridiculous piece of ignorance." Why?
About Friday 8 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Sam's subsidy to his father
A. Hamilton writes:
"I note that Sam, having told himself he would subsidize his father in the amount of 20l. a year, now writes to him to say it will be “up to” 50 l. a year. I can’t tell if this be a change of heart or a desire to sound more generous than he intends to be. Any ideas?"
Without anticipating the letter Jeannine tells us we will see soon, recall that on May 1 Sam calculated that the Brampton estate would yield 50 l. per annum, but he would tell his father a lower number, and say that he would provide 20 l. out of his own purse to make the annual income 50 l. (father John apparently lacking either the information or the skill to figure this out for himself). So what I think Sam is saying here is that he will ensure that his father has 50 l. a year to live on, however much of that Sam has to provide, although privately he believes he may have to lay out little or nothing.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
About Thursday 7 May 1663
Paul Chapin • Link
Sir Thomas Crew and Lord Crew
are different people - Lord Crew is Sir Thomas' father, and also Sandwich's father-in-law. So there's no anomaly in Sam's talking to Thomas, then going to meet with Lord Crew.
But I have a different problem in this entry: where did Sam take his wife by water and spent the evening, before going home? Surely the trip home by water didn't take the whole evening - or did it?