Annotations and comments

Terry Foreman has posted 16,447 annotations/comments since 28 June 2005.

Comments

First Reading

About Thursday 14 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"dined above with my wife by her bedside, she keeping her bed . . . ."

"dined above with my wife by her bedside -- she keeping her bed, those being upon her." So L&M: "those" again.

About Wednesday 13 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,...." 2 Samuel 11:1a and 1 Chronicles 20:1a.

About Wednesday 13 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"Mr. Coventry (the Duke being now come thither for the summer) with a goldsmith, sorting out his old plate to change for new"

I'm not *sure* I understand. Is this more than a seasonal change/updating of place-settings?

Spring cleaning.

"In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,...." (NRSV)

About Tuesday 12 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"W. Howe and I to the Coffee-house"

Pepys says this of late as though it were "The Coffee-house" -- a single known place without peers. Alas, "[b]y May 1663 there were 82" coffee-houses in London, "most of them near the Exchange" -- few apparently different enough to be identified by Pepys by name of proprietor or distinguishing feature. (Companion)

About Wednesday 13 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"and so I rang up my people,..."

How contemporary rings this phrase: Pepys as macher (Yiddish for 'a guy who gets things done').

About Wednesday 13 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"my wife keeping bed all day . . . . "

"my wife keeping bed all day, she having those upon her."

So L&M, Pepys apparently having come to an understanding with us, his Readers, about "months." Will we ever be able to read or hear of "those" again without thinking of, ah, umn, Wheatley or his Monarch?

About Tuesday 12 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"the premises in Salisbury Court"

Mary, so far I have been unable to determine from the Companion's notes to Samuel's father and Tom what the status of that property was. Tom paid taxes on it and enlarged its footprint. Perhaps others can do better.

About Tuesday 12 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"it's still your child"

Yes, Jeannine, and a child set apart: John Pepys, Sr., had lost other children decades ago in their infancy and youth, but Tom was a grown man whom he had -- in his shop and home -- trained in his trade for several years, perhaps the longer because of Tom's lack of natural gifts; who had worked under his tutelage before Bramptom; and because he was always to be his father's successor --, i.e., the child, perhaps the male with whom he (JP, Sr.) had surely spent the most time, and in whom he had invested more of himself and his hopes.

And now....

About Tuesday 12 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Glyn, to support that view of John Pepys, Sr., it's been so sad to trace his recent experiences and imagine how he must have been feeling as he sustained the loss of his struggling son, the failed business and the illegitimate daughter, "at which the poor wretch was much troubled, and desired me that I would speak with J. Noble, and do what I could and thought fit in it without concerning him in it."

Grief and depression and, as this entry notes, worry -- "how the poor man hath his thoughts going to provide for his younger children and my mother."

Surely he has seen and will see better times!

About Sunday 10 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"her new best gowns" - "would this usage be akin to 'pants'?"

Todd, scratching my head about that, I decided pro tem to think of the model of "skirts" (as in, "She lifted up her skirts.").

About Saturday 9 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"And waking found myself better, but -- but pissed with some pain."

So L&M. I am as mystified as D.W.

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"Hypocras"

Spiced wine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypo…

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"Mithrydate"

L&M say (Select Glossary) "Drug used as an opiate" ~ presumably a drug with analgesic and sedative effect.

About Friday 8 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"the business of the poop lanterns"

Batten had earlier refused, for procedural reasons, to countersign the contract Pepys had drawn up for Stanes to do the glazing of four poop lanterns, but Our Man now has regrets about the...deal. (L&M tell the tale)

Poop lanterns are evidently a messy biz.

About Wednesday 6 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"[My father] desired me that I would speak with J. Noble, and do what I could and thought fit in it without concerning him in it."

John Pepys had evidently already said his good riddance to J. Noble.

About Thursday 7 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"some questions about masts"

With all the war talk, at least Pepys is about fitting the fleet. When it comes to war talk, the Duke cannot be as easily dismissed as voices at the 'Change. Pepys?!

About Thursday 7 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"my wife got me a pleasant French fricassee of veal for dinner"

Reward for the "pretty silke for a petticoate for [his] wife" bought yesterday? Nice.

fric·as·see (frk-s, frk-s)
n. Poultry or meat cut into pieces and stewed in gravy.
tr.v. fric·as·seed, fric·as·see·ing, fric·as·sees
To prepare (poultry or meat) by cutting into pieces and stewing in gravy.

[French fricassée, from Old French, from feminine past participle of fricasser, to fricassee : probably frire, to fry (from Latin frgere, to roast, fry) + casser, to break, crack (from Latin quassre, to shake, shatter; see squash2) or Vulgar Latin *coctire, to press together (from Latin coctus; see cogent).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/…

About Wednesday 6 April 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"a pretty silke for a petticoate for my wife"

Recompense for the physical and mental pain of one nose-pinch.