Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Tuesday 23 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Mr.————’s balcone."

L&M read "Mr.———————Balcone." with a long space where Wheately has a horizonal line.

About Monday 22 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

That Elizabeth had written Samuel a contentious letter in English - that others could read - that he tore up in front of her face in a rage, suggests that she oft wrote him (or could be expected to write him, for reasons Robert explained) in French, esp. when it mattered most.

"Deer" for "Dear" also passed muster, before (and even after) the publication of Samuel Johnson's *Dictionaryof the English Language* (1755), as suggested by "Between a Son and His Father: Sam’s Letter to John Sr regarding Brampton" - thanks to Jeannine. http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…

About Monday 22 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Not to discourage Elizabeth's epistolary voice, Robert.

And she's writing him in ENGLISH!

About Monday 22 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Wasn't Wayneman grounded?! refused permission to again wreak havoc in Brampton per the request in a letter from Samuel's father John? So mustn't Wayneman be lurking about somewhere or other, at Samusl's beck and call - or not - as has sometimes been his wont, even in London?

About Monday 22 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Bradford, indeed he does. It appears that urban renewal is reducing traffic congestion. Recall 17 March 1662/63 - "But my Lord Mayor [though a "coxcomb" and "bufflehead]....is resolved to do great matters in pulling down the shops quite through the City, as he hath done in many places, and will make a thorough passage quite through the City" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Sunday 21 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

The change in Sam’s character since Elizabeth’s departure

might also be due to the departure of Pembleton and the all-consuming Green Monster, The Jealousy of Samuel Pepys.

(Robert Gertz keeps him alive off-stage. -- Robert, that's not an invitation to another dance!)

About Sunday 21 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

The soporific Scot of St Olave'szzzz.

In the Companion L&M conjecture the young man who goes unnamed in the Diary might have been Alexander Mill, M.A., licensed to preach Aug. 1662. They note that an "Alexander Milne took his M.A. in Aberdeen in 1658." Whoever, his name might be spelt mmzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

About Sunday 21 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Sir J. Minnes (who poor man had forgot that he carried me the other day to the painter's to see some pictures which he has since bought and are brought home)"

Last Tuesday 16 June - "After dinner with Sir J. Minnes to see some pictures at Brewer's, said to be of good hands, but I do not like them." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Saturday 20 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Will’s reading a little in the Latin Testament"

Yesterday's Diary entry ended "making Will read a part of a Latin chapter, in which I perceive in a little while he will be pretty ready, if he spends but a little pains in it."

Ready for what? Is Pepys prepping Will Hewer for St Paul's School?

About Friday 19 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"The pecking-order in the Navy Office."

"Unit coherence," a value in the military, was enforced in the Navy Office, whose officers lived in conjoined apartments within sight of the office they shared.

Sir John Mennes b. 1599
Sir William Penn b. 1621
Sir William Batten b. 1626
Samuel Pepys b. 1633

The first three shared experience of many years at sea and in sea battles; but Pepys was an outsider, a patronage appointment by the Earl of Sandwich, a rival of Sir Wm. Penn.

***

(The phone call I answered that disturbed my addition [thanks, Conrad Schweinsberg, for the poetic heass-up] was late and long-distance, from my younger brother, who lives two time-zones farther away from GMT, and, alas, earned his first degree in mathematics.)

About Friday 19 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

L&M seem unfazed that the sum in the Diary is £100 more than the warrant of March 22 1639, which they cite, provides.

About Friday 19 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Clerk of the Shippes"

"Clerk of the Ships," say L&M, with a raise of £80 p.a. in 1639, was the old title of "Clerk of the Acts" (now Mr. Samuel Pepys).

The Comptroller (now Sir John Mennes) was given an extra £120, and the Surveyor (now Sir William Batten) £100.

The salary-raise levels of 1639 provide something of a notion of the pecking-order in the Navy Office.