Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Thursday 30 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

celtcahill, thanks for another Capt. Robert Holmes story.

We will, I am sure, hear all about it next year! and it does contain another big spoiler. Seriously, though, this is a nice find.

About Wednesday 29 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

This AM in the House of Commons (Sirs Charles Barkeley, Wm. Penn, Mr. Coventry, et al.), a long-simmering issue was taken up:

Sectaries, &c.

A Letter, directed to the Lord Fanshaw, and subscribed by Mr. Willoughby, and several other Persons of Quality, of the County of Hertford, complaining of the frequent and numerous Conventions of Quakers, Anabaptists, and other Dissenters from the Church of England, was read.

Ordered, That a Committee be appointed, to peruse the Statute of 35° Eliz.; and to consider whether the same be defective, and wherein; and to provide such further Remedies and Expedients as they shall find necessary, against the Meetings and Conventions of Sectaries, Nonconformists, and Dissenters from the Church; viz. [45 named M's of P] : And they are to meet To-morrow at Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, in the Speaker's Chamber: And to send for Persons Papers, and Records.

From: 'House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 29 April 1663', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8: 1660-1667 (1802), pp. 472-73. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 30 April 2006.

About Tuesday 28 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Robert Gertz, I cannot help but recognize your gift for 'sampling'!!

IMHO, it does not diminisn your accomplishment one bit - indeed, it enhances it!! - to say how admirable is your passing homage to Iago (Othello 3.3.178-184); and your extensive cover of the lyrics of "I Won't Dance" by Dorothy Fields, Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Jimmy McHugh (whew!), with your original choral adaptation of a Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire number!

Kudos to you! Keep it up!!

About Wednesday 29 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"guessing [over it is in the country] means 'more so than it is in the country'."

Sounds right to me, Roy Feldman, though, like you I (from the 'burbs [of L.A.], to Manhattan for two years of noise 24/7 40 years ago) wouldn't say it that way.

About Wednesday 29 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"sitting long upon a low stool and then standing long after it he cannot tell) . . . ."

L&M text: "sitting long upon a low stool and then standing long after it he cannot tell), his bowells went up again into his belly, being got forth into his cod, as it seems is usual with many men -- "

About Tuesday 28 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Thanks, all (i.A.S., R.G., Harry) for illuminating the action!

Harry, would you further clarify "To the best of my recollection, we never 'added' the figures"?

About Tuesday 28 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Sam is very critical of those around him but once he’s impressed with them is more than willing to say so, I hope he also says something to the person who impressed him."

Miss Ann fr Home, how much I am sure not only I but many others join you in this hope; but I have the feeling that what he confides to his Diary (and to us) isn't shared in public, unless he tells the Diary that he does so - all having to with maintaining his public status.

About Tuesday 28 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Methinks "casting up my Lord’s sea accounts over again, and putting them in order for payment" extraordinary, Miss Ann fr Home.

Recall the accounts are those of the Straights (Tangier and Lisbon, 1661-2) "wherein [Pepys 11 April] had found [Sandwich] to stand debtor 1200l..:" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

We seem to be in deep yogurt here, as a friend of mine said (she's a copy-writer by profession, and clearly very skilled ).

About Monday 27 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

Calomel

Ye doctors all of every rank
With their long bills that break the bank,
Of wisdom's learning, art, and skill
Seems all composed of calomel.
...
lf any fatal wretch be sick
Go call the doctor, haste, be quick,
The doctor comes with drop and pill
But don't forget his calomel.
...
Well, if I must resign my breath,
Pray let me die a natural death
And if I must bid all farewell,
Don't hurry me with calomel.

(3 of 8 stanzas for Bradford's sake)
http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickhei…

About Sunday 26 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"I find [Ashwell] hath a most prodigious memory, remembering so much of things acted six or seven years ago."

Ah! but Mr. Pepys has never acted or directed, doing which - through many rehearsals, and the performances themselves - etches the parts and the blocking details in the memory for decades, to which I attest from personal experience as a former Thespian among others.

About Monday 27 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

A blatant slap at the Queen, surely also part of the shock!

"The Queen...and the Duke of Monmouth dancing" etc., apparently putting the status of her marriage and of any of her heirs in public question.

About Sunday 26 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"I...find myself worth full 700l., for which I bless God, it being the most I was ever yet worth in money."

- From what we know about the extended family's current assets, outlays and prospective needs, this is a very good thing indeed;
- Sam'l nicely distinguishes between what he's worth "in money" and what he's worth otherwise -- in accounts receivable? in moral terms?

About Sunday 26 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"Michael, you are invaluable!"

I'll second that - 'tis an awesome tour de force!! (aussi tour de farce!)

About Saturday 25 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"the...designs of the papists, and the fears of...the Protestant church heretofore of the return to Popery as it were prefacing it."

OED Preface, v. 3. fig. To introduce, precede, herald. Oba.

In the hypothetical, "as it were" mode, methinks it unprecedented to extend the experimental method to a thought - e.g., how plausible is it that Popery were to return?

About Sunday 26 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

“How blessed a thing it is for brethren to live together in unity!”

Do you suppose SP thought of politics - civic, mayhap domestic, familial, even Navy Office - even if the good sermon didn't?

About Sunday 26 April 1663

TerryF  •  Link

"How blessed a thing it is for brethren to live together in unity!"

L&M note that Pepys, as he did on some other Sundays, wrote this paraphrase of a key part of the Lectionary text VERY LARGE.
Today's text is Psalm 133 Ecce, quam bonum! [here it is entire]:

"1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/kj…