Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Saturday 15 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Re Xjy - "mind (v.)
[…] Meaning “to take care of, look after” is from 1694.

Hm, looks more like 1663 to me…"

Me too. OED anyone?!

About Saturday 15 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Mind" at least x 3

"so up with good peace of mind, hoping that my wife will mind her house and servants, and so to the office, and being too soon to sit walked to my viail, which is well nigh done, and I believe I may have it home to my mind next week."

mind (n.)
O.E. gemynd "memory, thinking, intention," P.Gmc. *ga-menthijan (cf. Goth. muns "thought," munan "to think;" O.N. minni "mind;" Ger. minne, originally "memory, loving memory"), from PIE base *men- "think, remember, have one's mind aroused" (cf. Skt. matih "thought," munih "sage, seer;" Gk. memona "I yearn," mania "madness," mantis "one who divines, prophet, seer;" L. mens "mind, understanding, reason," memini "I remember," mentio "remembrance;" Lith. mintis "thought, idea," O.C.S. mineti "to believe, think," Rus. pamjat "memory"). "Memory" is one of the oldest senses, now almost obsolete except in old expressions such as bear in mind, call to mind. Phrase time out of mind is attested from 1414. To pay no mind "disregard" is recorded from 1916, Amer.Eng. dialect. To have half a mind to "to have one's mind half made up to (do something)" is recorded from 1726. Mind-reading is from 1882. Mind-boggling is from 1964.

mind (v.)
1340, "to remember," also "to remind," from the noun; sense of "object to, dislike" is from 1608. Meaning "to take care of, look after" is from 1694. http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

About Friday 14 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Methinks Glyn is right when he says "I imagine Ashwell would be in situ until a male member of her family came to collect her and Pepys handed over responsibility for her."

Not very "independent" is she. Women have yet to acquire custody of themselves in most of the world more than 300 years on, in the 21st century.

About Friday 14 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Awake, and to chide my wife again, and I find that my wife...is so set and convinced, as she was in Sarah, to make [ Ashwell] appear a Lyer in every small thing that we shall have no peace while she stays. So I up and to my office doing several businesses in my study, and so home to dinner. The time having outslipt me and my stomach, it being past, two a-clock"

At first light, fight = active-aggression, then defeated, flight, deny, lose track of time, go late to dinner (keeping Elizabeth waiting...on tenterhooks?]...passive-aggression??

About Thursday 13 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Commissioner Pett...defeated in his attempt to suspend two pursers...a thing that he has no courage of his own nor mind to do."

This was predicted a fortnight ago, so why should it be risible?

1 August - Messrs. Coventry & Pepys "conclude that [Pett] is not able to [' to correct and suspend officers that do not their duty' ] in that yard...what with his old faults and the relations that he has to most people that act there." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Poor Peter Pett is not an administrator, he's a master shipwright.

Pepys seems bent on making men miserable who are mismatched to their positions. Is there no alternative to provide an efficient Navy - e.g., enhancing the pay-grade of men matched to their positions? It's all about performance, isn't it? Well, I guess doing that is above Pepys's own pay-grade.

About Sir Samuel Morland

TerryF  •  Link

SIR SAMUEL MORLAND'S MACHINA CYCLOLOGICA CRYPTOGRAPHICA
Cryptologia, Jul 2004 by Buonafalce, Augusto
ABSTRACT: A 17th century treatise featuring several cryptographic methods includes a cipher device used to perform an autokey. http://findarticles.com/p/article…

About Wednesday 12 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Despite the entanglemts and conflicts, today everyone is avoiding all issues and making nice - storing up for later reckonings.

About Wednesday 12 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"best not to examine it, for I doubt she’s in fault too"

doubt
c.1225, from O.Fr. douter, from L. dubitare "hesitate, waver in opinion" (related to dubius "uncertain"), originally "to have to choose between two things." The sense of "fear" developed in O.Fr. and was passed on to Eng. The -b- was restored 14c. by scribes in imitation of L. Replaced O.E. tweogan (noun twynung), from tweon "two," on notion of "of two minds" or the choice of two implied in L. dubitare (cf. Ger. Zweifel "doubt," from zwei "two"). http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

About Tuesday 11 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

A receipt: Very kind guests

4 stoned peaches
3 stoned pears
1 almost-stewed turner
1 almost-smashed morrice
2 almost-blotto pepyses

Method:
stir, chill, serve in stemware.

About Tuesday 11 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Robert, John's letter w/ others' interjections are spot on.

Very nice empathy for their several points of view and personalities - something we all need to keep in mind in other comments.
Great thanks!

About Monday 10 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"the latter part [Greatorex] slubbered over"

slubbered

Nix re 26 Sunday 2003 http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Slubbering (OED) —
That slubbers; working in a dirty or slovenly manner; showing haste and carelessness.
a1591 H. SMITH Serm. (1886) I. 314 The Jews abhorred the sacrifice for the slubbering priests. 1594 Zepheria ii, My slubbring pencil casts too grosse a matter. 1642 MILTON Apol. Smect. Wks. 1851 III. 325 Who ingrosse many pluralities under a non-resident and slubbring dispatch of soules. 1681 H. MORE Expos. Daniel Pref. 17 His Expositions are..so dilute, shallow and slubbering. 1731 FIELDING Grub St. Op. III. x, Go, and like a slub’ring Bess howl, Whilst at your griefs I’m quaffing. 1818 Sporting Mag. II. 89 A sort of scumming, smearing, slubbering way of sketching. 1854 A. E. BAKER Northampt. Gloss. s.v., A [slovenly] servant is called ?a slubbering thing?....

About Tuesday 11 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"I made them almost foxed with wine till they were very kind"

kind (adj.)
"friendly," from O.E. gecynde "natural, native, innate," originally "with the feeling of relatives for each other," from P.Gmc. *gakundiz, from *kunjan (see kin), with collective prefix *ga- and abstract suffix *-iz. Sense development from "with natural feelings," to "well-disposed" (c.1300), "benign, compassionate" (1297). Kindly (adj.) is O.E. gecyndelic. Kind-hearted is from 1535; kindness is from c.1290. http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

"Kind" only when they are almost drunk?!

About Monday 10 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

" There were many other styles of binding practiced in *Italy* at the time." Certamente!

About Monday 10 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Aldine style ( Italian style )
"A style of bookbinding originated by Aldus Manutius but not restricted to the books printed by Aldus or his family. Aldine bindings, which were produced during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, were characterized by the use of brown or red morocco; by solid-faced ornaments with no shading (which were similar to those used in printing the text); and by title or author in simple panels in the center of the upper cover, which could be read while the book lay on a shelf or table. Early examples of the Aldine style were tooled in blind with an outer frame and a center ornament. Possibly because of the Greek binders Aldus employed, as well as the fact that gold tooling (probably) originated in the Near East, Aldine tools display definite signs of Eastern origin. Early Italian bindings convey a consistent feeling of the shape and proportion of the book, which is demonstrated by: 1) the use of border and panel as schemes of design; 2) a remarkable sense of the value accorded ornamentation; 3) the areas of leather left undecorated; and 4) restraint in the decorative detail with the result that it was always in proper subordination to the overall effect of the embellishment. See PLATE IV . (124 , 172 ,280 , 334 )" http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/do…

About Monday 10 August 1663

TerryF  •  Link

“now that I am become a better husband”

this statement having only tangentially to do with his relationship with Elizabeth, sc. how well he can/must stupport her. Now the other meaning of "better husband" will be tested as he wracks his brains over what to do when she comes to town, a prospect that does disgust him.

disgust
1598, from M.Fr. desgoust "strong dislike, repugnance," lit. "distaste," from desgouster "have a distaste for," from des- "opposite of" + gouster "taste," from L. gustare "to taste" (see gusto). Sense has strengthened over time, and subject and object have been reversed: cf. "It is not very palatable, which makes some disgust it" (1669), while the reverse sense of "to excite nausea" is attested from 1650. http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

Why me? Why now? Now what?!