Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Friday 5 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Alas, see the book and count them to know how many pages there are

A large and compleat concordance to the Bible in English, according to the last translation ... Now this third impression corrected and amended in many things formerly omitted ... By Samuel Newman, etc.. London: printed for Thomas Downes and Andrew Crook, 1658..

Pages not numbered. fol..

http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/RAIYJNVY…

About Thursday 4 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

a likes b; b likes c; c likes d: a hates c; d be dispised by b:

An in Aqua Scripto sociogram; and it be true.

About Thursday 4 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Re Samuel and his in-laws:

Does he avoid them because they are poor (he hasn't shunned poor Pepys relations), or because, as you say, Elizabeth is proud? -- as are they both! poor souls!

Great in-depth article, Jeannine!

About A Voice for Elizabeth

TerryF  •  Link

Another grand contribution, Jeannine! rich in research and empathy, and long in gestation, as we know from your annotations. The turbulence of her family history gives depth to her responses to Sam, etc.; and Balty's letter is a worthy part of the Diary site.

About Thursday 4 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Elizabeth "put on drawers... yet I could not get off my suspicions"

On 15 May, "my wife did wear drawers to-day as she used to do" - suggesting it was ordinary, though Australian Susan did say it was a sign of loose morals, again it seems otherwise. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About The Changes, or Love in a Maze (James Shirley)

TerryF  •  Link

Changes: or, Love in a maze. a comedie, as it was presented at the Private House in Salisbury Court, by the Company of His Majesties Revels. Written by Iames Shirley, Gent.by James Shirley
London : Printed by G[eorge] P[urslowe] for William Cooke, and are to be sold at his shop neere Furnivals Inne gate in Holborne, 1632.
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/…

Anonymous on Sun 22 May 2005, ad 22 May 1662

There are a number of plays called “Love in a Maze”, but only one was written in 1632 and revised in 1662. It’s a comedy by James Shirley, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jame… .

It’s not available online, but here’s a summary from Bartleby.com: "[The play is admirably named, since the plot is so contrived that the three pairs of lovers attach and detach their affections as often as possible in the course of five acts.] The farce consists in dressing up a page as a rich widow, who is wooed by the foolish knight, Sir Gervase Simple. An amusing piece of satirical literary criticism is introduced in the scene where Caperwit, the poetaster, discusses the function of adjectives in verse.”

Alan Bedford on Sun 22 May 2005, ad 22 May 1662

“Changes, or Love in a Maze” was a comedy of manners by James Shirley (9/1596 - 10/1666). Here’s an excerpt:

Melancholy, hence ! go get
Some piece of earth to be thy seat;
Here the air and nimble fire
Would shoot up to meet desire;
Sullen humor, leave her blood,
Mix not with the purer flood,
But let pleasures swelling there
Make a springtide all the year.

A short biography of the playwright at: http://james-shirley.biography.ms/

General discussion of Shirley’s comedies may be found in “The Cambridge History of English and American Literature” at: http://bartleby.school.aol.com/21…

About Wednesday 3 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"he dined alone with my wife being undressed" - Whoa, time out: put up a sheet!!

Easy does it. L&M read: "he dined alone with me, [my] wife being undressed"

Deep cleansing breath. Elizabeth's honor rrrrrrrrrescued.
She's in her room and isn't "decent" (properly dressed for company).

About Tuesday 2 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

I'm a bit foggy about who's doing what here:

"I went, being invited, and dined with Sir W. Batten, Sir J. Minnes, and others, at Sir W. Batten’s, Captain Allen giving them a Foy’ dinner, he being to go down to lie Admiral in the Downs this summer. I cannot but think it a little strange that having been so civil to him as I have been he should not invite me to dinner, but I believe it was but a sudden motion, and so I heard not of it."

Who's departing to be Admiral in the Downs?
To whom has Samuel been so civil, etc.? I take it Batten, who on Sunday did not invite Mr. Pepys to join the Knights at his son's child's christening? http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Gilbertson's 'The Abridgement of the English History...'

TerryF  •  Link

There being no volume like this in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, rather than what L&M suggest, perhaps Pepys "little History of England" is "The faithful analist, or, The epitome of English history giving a true account of the affairs this nation from the building of the tower of London in the day of William the Conquerour to the throwing down the gates of the said city by the command of the Parliament, which sate before the secluded members were admitted in the year 1660, in which all things remarkable both by sea and land from the year 1069 to this present year of 1660, are truly and exactly represented." by W. G. London : Print. for R. Gilbertson ..., [1660]
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/…

About Tuesday 2 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

" the missing wine… a great scene for a movie!"

Perhaps it's been made? There was Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg....

About Tuesday 2 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Lurker, I'm no LH, but put "took occasion" in context:

"To-night I took occasion with the vintner’s man, who came by my direction to taste again my tierce of claret, to go down to the cellar with him to consult about the drawing of it"

"I took occasion" seems to mean "I took advantage of the opportunity", a view of the idiom confirmed here http://www.allwords.com/word-rise…

As to "deadly mad," he's clearly very angry at having been burgled, and there may have been assault (threats of violence), but no battery.

About Tuesday 2 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"so to Mr. Beacham, the goldsmith, he being one of the jury to-morrow in Sir W. Batten's case against Field. I have been telling him our case, and I believe he will do us good service there."

Isn't this a species of jury-tampering?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury…

About Tuesday 2 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Sale of Offices.

Sir Charles Hussey reports from the Committee to which the Bill to discover, punish, and prevent Frauds, and Abuses in the Buying and Selling of Offices, was committed, several Amendments to be made to the Bill: Which he read, with the Coherence, in his Place; and delivered the same in at the Clerk's Table: Which Amendments were read the First and Second time; and, upon the Question, severally agreed to.

The Committee having left several Blanks in the Bill; viz. a Blank for Commissioners to execute the Powers of the Act; Two Blanks touching Penalties to be inserted; and a Blank for Allowances for Officers, to the Consideration of the House.

The House took the Matter upon the First of the Blanks in the Bill touching Commissioners to be appointed to execute the Powers of the Act, into Debate.

The Question being put, That the Commissioners shall be named by the King's Majesty;
It was resolved in the Affimative.\

Resolved, &c. That the Bill be re-committed to the former Committee; to peruse the same; and to alter it so, as it may be left to the King's Majesty to appoint Commissioners, to execute the Powers of the Act: And they are to meet this Afternoon at Two of the Clock, in the Speaker's Chamber.

From: 'House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 2 June 1663', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8: 1660-1667 (1802), pp. 496-97. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 02 June 2006.

About Monday 1 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

And, of course, the usual Wheatley elision:

"At home I found my wife in bed all this day . . . . "

L&M have: "At home I find my wife in bed all this day of her months."

Does anyone else wonder whether there was a 17th-century remedy for menses besides bedrest - for the well-off.
(Has Elizabeth a flask under the covers?)

About Monday 1 June 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"[The prize fight] was very well worth seeing, because I did till this day think that it has only been a cheat; but this being upon a private quarrel, they did it in good earnest....Strange to see what a deal of money is flung to them both upon the stage between every bout. But a wo[e]ful rude rabble there was, and such noises...."

The "private quarrel" bit acted out/played up on the telly in professional wrestling matches in the US before the cheering "woeful rude rabble" in 2006 is over 343 years old.

Samuel, you've been gulled. Man of the world? not yet OR not lowbrow enough to be one. Hang around.