Swift puts this common fayre attraction to good use in *Gulliver's Travels*, "Voyage to Lilliput"
"In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the original institutions, and not the most scandalous corruptions, into which these people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For, as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of party and faction." http://xahlee.org/p/Gullivers_Tra…
Methinks Pepys saw it aright, in reporting that the show "was strange, but such dirty sport that I was not pleased with it."
L&M transcribe this as "Cupid on a Dolphin" but note that "Cupid" should be Arion, legendary poet and musician, whose song, before he hurled himself into the sea to escape execution by rivals, charmed a dolphin to let him ride it to safety. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arion
Pepys, ever-eager to comply with "my Lady's desire", has even more urgent motives than ever -- surely pity and concern, and anger at Milord, who done her wrong (or so SP, along with many others).
An online article thereon by the late Marjorie Hope Nicolson in the *Dictionary of the History of Ideas*, Vol. 4, pp. 486-490, featuring, near the beginning, "John Evelyn is the best single example of the English virtuoso both before and after the Restoration." (486).The initial meaning had to do with collecting, then was a term for a member of the Royal Society, at first in description -- Pepys's Diary is cited -- then in satire (the RS experiments were not understood by outsiders or the King); and Elizabeth Pepys is cited as an example of a virtuosa. - http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi…
"they value me as a man of business, which he accounts the best virtuoso"
virtuoso
virtuoso 1620, "scholar, connoisseur," from It. virtuoso (pl. virtuosi), noun use of adj. meaning "skilled, learned, of exceptional worth," from L.L. virtuosus (see virtuous). Meaning "person with great skill" (as in music) is first attested 1743. http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…
London, "as well watered as any city in the world, and that the bringing the water to the City hath cost it first and last above 300,000l.; but" has the Fleet Ditch as the municipal house of office.
Very pleased with the Lord Mayor today, but not 6 mos. ago -
17 March 1662/63 -"my Lord Mayor I find to be a talking, bragging Bufflehead, a fellow that would be thought to have led all the City in the great business of bringing in the King, and that nobody understood his plots, and the dark lanthorn he walked by; but led them and plowed with them as oxen and asses (his own words) to do what he had a mind when in every discourse I observe him to be as very a coxcomb as I could have thought had been in the City." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Sir Roger L'Estrange Aristocratic Publisher, By William H. Itoh [a very well-writ, more detailed bio of his life, works and times] http://www.historybuff.com/librar…
Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704) was an English pamphleteer and author, and staunch defender of royalist claims. In 1644 he led a conspiracy in support of King Charles I and was sentenced to death as a spy, although after four years' imprisonment in Newgate Prison he was able to escape to the Continent, finding refuge in Holland. In 1653 he was pardoned by Oliver Cromwell. In 1663 he began his career as a journalist, publishing a paper under the title The Public Intelligencer and taking over as chief licenser and surveyor of the press from John Birkenhead. L'Estrange was involved in political controversy throughout his life. In 1685, He was knighted by King James II. A fierce Tory and opponent of religious toleration, L'Estrange was arrested several times for involvement in plots against William and Mary. In addition to his work as a political pamphleteer and his journalistic writing, he was also a translator of the Greek and Latin classics, including a translation of the fables of Aesop. . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roge…'Estrange
"In the evening...it will not be safe for me to leave her alone."
The main sentence of this day's entry, 180 words long, encompasses the family Pepys's politics and its economics - the subtext being - "humor Elizabeth, for the sake of the family's welfare, since it all depends on me, and do that" - and the phrase Joe so rightly highlight, "for my peace"...
"when I have a mind or occasion to go abroad to Portsmouth or elsewhere about pleasure or business, when it will not be safe for me to leave her alone.".
------------
Wheatley's omission this day, like those of the last few, does not seem to be clearly bowdlerizing; but isn't this juicy!
Joe, no, we didn't hear about "the mutiny the other day" - one of those things that took place on a day that Pepys didn't see Mennes, and was concerned about personal matters. There are a lot of these events, about which we find out from notes in Latham and Matthews, and some of the erudite among our fellow-annotators.
L&M trace this to another "short allowance money" pay day Thursday last, and, when assaulted "in or near Fenchurch" by discontented sailors, Mennes, a magisrate (as were the other Principal Officers of the Navy Office, including Pepys), with assistance, arrested the leaders and sent them to prison. An investigation was ordered by the Privy Council - the upshot yet to come.
"Queenborough is a small town on the Isle of Sheppey in the Swale borough of Kent in South East England.Queenborough is two miles (3.2 km) south of Sheerness. It grew as a port near the Thames Estuary at the westward entrance to The Swale where it joins the River Medway" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quee…
Comments
First Reading
About Friday 4 September 1663
TerryF • Link
"the monkeys dancing on the ropes"
Swift puts this common fayre attraction to good use in *Gulliver's Travels*, "Voyage to Lilliput"
"In relating these and the following laws, I would only be understood to mean the original institutions, and not the most scandalous corruptions, into which these people are fallen by the degenerate nature of man. For, as to that infamous practice of acquiring great employments by dancing on the ropes, or badges of favour and distinction by leaping over sticks and creeping under them, the reader is to observe, that they were first introduced by the grandfather of the emperor now reigning, and grew to the present height by the gradual increase of party and faction." http://xahlee.org/p/Gullivers_Tra…
Methinks Pepys saw it aright, in reporting that the show "was strange, but such dirty sport that I was not pleased with it."
About Friday 4 September 1663
TerryF • Link
"Ayrid on a dolphin"
L&M transcribe this as "Cupid on a Dolphin" but note that "Cupid" should be Arion, legendary poet and musician, whose song, before he hurled himself into the sea to escape execution by rivals, charmed a dolphin to let him ride it to safety. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arion
About Thursday 3 September 1663
TerryF • Link
Pepys, ever-eager to comply with "my Lady's desire", has even more urgent motives than ever -- surely pity and concern, and anger at Milord, who done her wrong (or so SP, along with many others).
About Deptford, Kent
TerryF • Link
Image of the Royal Dockyards, Deptford, end of the 17th century
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
About Thursday 3 September 1663
TerryF • Link
About Marjorie Hope Nicolson, the author of, i.a.,
*Pepys' Diary and the New Science* (1965) -
http://c250.columbia.edu/c250_cel…
In the Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marj…
About Thursday 3 September 1663
TerryF • Link
virtuoso
An online article thereon by the late Marjorie Hope Nicolson in the *Dictionary of the History of Ideas*, Vol. 4, pp. 486-490, featuring, near the beginning, "John Evelyn is the best single example of the English virtuoso both before and after the Restoration." (486).The initial meaning had to do with collecting, then was a term for a member of the Royal Society, at first in description -- Pepys's Diary is cited -- then in satire (the RS experiments were not understood by outsiders or the King); and Elizabeth Pepys is cited as an example of a virtuosa. -
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi…
About Thursday 3 September 1663
TerryF • Link
"they value me as a man of business, which he accounts the best virtuoso"
virtuoso
virtuoso 1620, "scholar, connoisseur," from It. virtuoso (pl. virtuosi), noun use of adj. meaning "skilled, learned, of exceptional worth," from L.L. virtuosus (see virtuous). Meaning "person with great skill" (as in music) is first attested 1743. http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…
The OED might give a shout out to PEPYS Diary.
About Wednesday 2 September 1663
TerryF • Link
"the Black Sword, which the Lord Mayor wears when he mournes, but properly is their Lenten sword to wear upon Good Friday and other Lent days"
It it so-called because it is "hung in black" as has the Church been during Lent?
***
Very nicely done, Robert, old top!
About Wednesday 2 September 1663
TerryF • Link
Municipal planning
London, "as well watered as any city in the world, and that the bringing the water to the City hath cost it first and last above 300,000l.; but" has the Fleet Ditch as the municipal house of office.
About Wednesday 2 September 1663
TerryF • Link
One who stole "a silver tankard, a porringer of silver, and a couple of spoons, and being now found is found guilty, and likely will be hanged"
If I were she, I'd rather have my right hand cut off.
About Wednesday 2 September 1663
TerryF • Link
Very pleased with the Lord Mayor today, but not 6 mos. ago -
17 March 1662/63 -"my Lord Mayor I find to be a talking, bragging Bufflehead, a fellow that would be thought to have led all the City in the great business of bringing in the King, and that nobody understood his plots, and the dark lanthorn he walked by; but led them and plowed with them as oxen and asses (his own words) to do what he had a mind when in every discourse I observe him to be as very a coxcomb as I could have thought had been in the City." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
About Roger L'Estrange
TerryF • Link
Sir Roger L'Estrange Aristocratic Publisher, By William H. Itoh [a very well-writ, more detailed bio of his life, works and times] http://www.historybuff.com/librar…
About Roger L'Estrange
TerryF • Link
Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704) was an English pamphleteer and author, and staunch defender of royalist claims. In 1644 he led a conspiracy in support of King Charles I and was sentenced to death as a spy, although after four years' imprisonment in Newgate Prison he was able to escape to the Continent, finding refuge in Holland. In 1653 he was pardoned by Oliver Cromwell.
In 1663 he began his career as a journalist, publishing a paper under the title The Public Intelligencer and taking over as chief licenser and surveyor of the press from John Birkenhead. L'Estrange was involved in political controversy throughout his life. In 1685, He was knighted by King James II. A fierce Tory and opponent of religious toleration, L'Estrange was arrested several times for involvement in plots against William and Mary.
In addition to his work as a political pamphleteer and his journalistic writing, he was also a translator of the Greek and Latin classics, including a translation of the fables of Aesop. . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roge…'Estrange
About Tuesday 1 September 1663
TerryF • Link
"In the evening...it will not be safe for me to leave her alone."
The main sentence of this day's entry, 180 words long, encompasses the family Pepys's politics and its economics - the subtext being - "humor Elizabeth, for the sake of the family's welfare, since it all depends on me, and do that" - and the phrase Joe so rightly highlight, "for my peace"...
About Tuesday 1 September 1663
TerryF • Link
L&M include clauses omitted by Wheatley -
"when I have a mind or occasion to go abroad to Portsmouth or elsewhere about pleasure or business, when it will not be safe for me to leave her alone.".
------------
Wheatley's omission this day, like those of the last few, does not seem to be clearly bowdlerizing; but isn't this juicy!
About Monday 31 August 1663
TerryF • Link
Off-stage events
Joe, no, we didn't hear about "the mutiny the other day" - one of those things that took place on a day that Pepys didn't see Mennes, and was concerned about personal matters. There are a lot of these events, about which we find out from notes in Latham and Matthews, and some of the erudite among our fellow-annotators.
About Monday 31 August 1663
TerryF • Link
"the mutiny the other day"
L&M trace this to another "short allowance money" pay day Thursday last, and, when assaulted "in or near Fenchurch" by discontented sailors, Mennes, a magisrate (as were the other Principal Officers of the Navy Office, including Pepys), with assistance, arrested the leaders and sent them to prison. An investigation was ordered by the Privy Council - the upshot yet to come.
About Queenborough, Kent
TerryF • Link
The Google map of Queensborough http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oi=…
About Queenborough, Kent
TerryF • Link
"Queenborough is a small town on the Isle of Sheppey in the Swale borough of Kent in South East England.Queenborough is two miles (3.2 km) south of Sheerness. It grew as a port near the Thames Estuary at the westward entrance to The Swale where it joins the River Medway" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quee…
About Monday 31 August 1663
TerryF • Link
Typo - should be "not to my great content"