Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Thursday 25 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

But Australian Susan, didn't the Bull Terrier succeed the Bulldog in time and descent? "Bull Terriers arose from the old-fashioned Bulldog, crossed with the now extinct Old English Terrier, during the 19th century." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull…
"Now an affectionate companion, the Bull Terrier arose from the Bull and Terrier crosses, originally bred for dog-fighting. When bullbaiting was outlawed in England in 1835 the 'sport' of dog-fighting became popular and a smaller dog breed was needed, that could be more easily hidden under one's coat at the arrival of the police." http://www.bulldoginformation.com…

(Whatever the case, someone might accuse us of being too interested in bull****)

About Thursday 25 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

Perhaps not mastiffs, but (sorry, Brits) bulldogs

"Bulldogs were originally used for bullbaiting, a wagering sport popular in the 17th century in which trained bulldogs leapt at a bull lashed to a post, latched onto its snout and attempted to suffocate it."Bulldogs were originally used for bullbaiting, a wagering sport popular in the 17th century in which trained bulldogs leapt at a bull lashed to a post, latched onto its snout and attempted to suffocate it." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull…

About Thursday 25 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

"the...child was torn to pieces by two doggs..., and is dead, which is very strange."

What was "very strange" about this news? Were there not mastiffs and bull- and bear-baiting dogs, the ancestor of the pit bull? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_…
Or was it strange that it had happened at Walthamstow?

About General information

Terry F  •  Link

''Navies 'reflect the societies from which they come." -- Adam Nicolson in SEIZE THE FIRE: Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar. (HarperCollins, 2005)

'Seize the Fire': Outkilling the French
By DAVID LIPSKY - NYTimes book review published: September 4, 2005

... ''Navies,'' Nicolson writes, ''reflect the societies from which they come.'' At Trafalgar, the meritocracy smashed into the aristocracy. The French-Spanish fleet was dusty, class-based Europe: the Spanish commander had inherited the right to wear his hat in front of the king, and upper-crust French naval training included daily lessons in dance. British officers however, came from the scrappy middle class -- Jane Austen's brother was one of Nelson's captains -- and fought for self-advancement. Captured ships were ''prizes''; they kept a portion of the value. Nicolson explains, ''For an aristocrat, failure in battle does not erode his standing or his honor.'' But an English officer would be fighting for his material life, and ''to preserve his honor and his name, he needs to win. Victory is neither a luxury nor an ornament. It is a compulsion and a necessity.'' [...] http://snipurl.com/hxr3

About Wednesday 24 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

"inditing a letter from Tom to his mistress upon his sending her a watch for a token"

indite
Transitive verb: Inflected forms: indited, inditing, indites

1. To write; compose. 2. To set down in writing. 3. Obsolete To dictate.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English *enditen*, from Old French *enditer*, from Vulgar Latin *indictre*: Latin in-, toward; see in + Latin *dictare*, to compose, to say habitually, frequentative of *dicere*, to say
The American Heritage

About Theophilus Bird

Terry F  •  Link

Bird, Theophilus (1608-63) (alias Bourne). Actor (Queen Henrietta's 1625-35; King's 1638-47; King's 1661-3). (Son of William Bird; son-in-law of Christopher Beeston) [Nungezer, 46; JCS ii, 377; Stevenson, 'First Irish Theatre', 158 (1942); Freehafer, 'London Patent Companies', 12 (1965); Oliver, 'Building of the Theatre Royal' (1972); Highfill-Burnim-Langhans ii, 133 (1973); Streett, 'Durability' (1973); George, 'Early Cast Lists' (1974); Bentley, Profession of Player (1984), 30; Milhous and Hume, 'New Light', 492, 501 (1991); Wills, 211 (1993)] http://shakespeareauthorship.com/…

About Wednesday 24 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

Aglaura

L&M note: "A play by Sir John Suckling which he originally wrote as a tragedy, but transformed into a tragicomedy; first acted in 1737, and published in 1638. The scene mentioned here is probably the one at the beginning of Act V, involving a fight between Ariaspes and Ziriff."

" a tragedy of court intrigue, of which the scene is supposed to be Persia, was acted in the winter of 1637, when its literary qualities received less attention than the novelty and magnificence of the scenery used and the dresses presented by the author to the actors. King Charles is said to have requested an alternative final act with a happy ending, which Suckling afterwards wrote. Flecknoe saw the play when it was revived at the Restoration, and his criticism, that it was 'full of flowers, but rather stuck than growing there,' applies to all Suckling's dramatic work. He has imagination, fancy and wit, but these faculties are not usually employed upon his plot and his characters. The famous lyric, 'Why so pale and wan, fond lover?' occurs in the fourth act of Aglaura.” http://www.bartleby.com/216/0921.…

Why so Pale and Wan?

WHY so pale and wan, fond lover?
Prithee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can’t move her,
Looking ill prevail?
Prithee, why so pale?5
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Prithee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can’t win her,
Saying nothing do ‘t?
Prithee, why so mute?10
Quit, quit for shame! This will not move;
This cannot take her.
If of herself she will not love,
Nothing can make her:
The devil take her!15

http://www.bartleby.com/101/327.h…

“the new theatre of all will be ready against term.”

L&M note: “The new Theatre Royal being built for Thomas Killigrew at a cost of £2400 between Drury Lane and Bridges St; opened on 7 May 1663.”

About Tuesday 23 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

"cabarett"

I wonder if the L&M note provides a clue: "in France. In some places keepers of drinking-houses had to make contributions."

Wikipedia has: "The term is a French word for the taprooms or cafés, where this form of entertainment was born, as a more artistic type of café-chantant. It is derived from Middle Dutch cabret, through Old North French camberette, from Late Latin camera. It basically means ‘small room.’” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caba…

About Tuesday 23 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

The time factor in this Navy remodeling job:

Methinks Australian Susan's invoking of "Jack and Sarah"'s not bad -- the remodeling is cushy indoor work by men who are used to working out of doors in all weather, perhaps at Deptford; despite Pepsy's micromanaging, this job's to be extended until the Mistress of the House returns.

In the US we call this slo-mo, sarcastically, "government work."

About Woolwich

Terry F  •  Link

"The Royal Dockyard expanded westwards as far as Bowater Road. To the east its limit was marked by the Mast Pond - now under the Ferry truck park. Shallow water and a lack of room to expand caused Woolwich to be overtaken by the Dockyards at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham during the Napoleonic wars. This period, too, marked the closure of the Royal Ropeyard at Woolwich. The ropeyard was established from around 1573 to supply the whole of the Royal Navy. Until around 1750 it employed over 400 people. Woolwich ropeyard was one of the greatest rope manufactories in the world at the time, and would have been as significant as later roperies at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth."

Here is a map of the Woolich Dockyard, 1748.

"The resources needed to build a ship of the line were staggering; in addition to up to 2,000 mature trees, each ship required between 30 and 40 miles of rope, which needed renewing every 2 or 3 years. The Woolwich Ropeyard, eventually 1,080' long, produced standard 100 fathom (600 foot) lengths of rope. Now largely lying under Beresford Street, it stretched from the Arsenal Gatehouse to Riverside House."
http://www.royal-arsenal.com/wars…

About Tuesday 23 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

"they give so much, which they call God's penny.”

L&M note: “The *denier-a-Dieu*. Since 1656-7, when the *Hôpital-Général* had been founded in Paris, there had been a considerable movement for the building of poorhouses in France. In some places keepers of drinking-houses had to make contributions. C.W. Cole, *Colbert”, i.126+.”

About Monday 22 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

"[I] have bespoke a weather glass of [Greatorex}"

Does this means he has asked Greatorex to make one especially for him?

"hastening to get things ready against my wife's coming”

Methinks “against” can be a pun for us! Was it so for Mr. Pepys?

About Sunday 21 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

We don't hear about the "Sunday oaths" today.

It seems Sam records his saying them if
- they are conspicuously applicable;
- he has extra time;
- they occupy a special place in his day
none of which is applicable today.

About Sunday 21 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

Correction: what Mark Twain wrote about Wagner's music:
"The late Bill Nye once said, 'I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds.' *Mark Twain's Autobiography*, Vol. I http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/…
This puts the usual "Mark Twain quote" at a further remove.
(The copyright laws in Australia are more sane than in the US.)

About Sunday 21 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

Not off at all, as Clement shows:

"I have been told that Wagner's music is better than it sounds." -- Mark Twain, *Autobiography* (1924) http://www.music-with-ease.com/wa… -- clearly what JWB had in mind. Clement, thank you for explaining that Samuel Pepys is the inspiration for Samuel Clemens' *1601* (of which, I, whose family is rooted in Hannibal, have had a copy for years).

About Biographies of Pepys

Terry F  •  Link

Dirk says Questia offers a free online read of "Samuel Pepys In the Diary" -- not really:

Re Questia: once entirely a subscription service, "Questia offers free access to the first page of every chapter in a book and the first paragraph of each article for your review." then requires a subscription: http://www.questia .com/PM.qst?a=refresh&docId=5711957&type=book There are various plans: http://www.questia.com/Registrati…

Questia's free access is comparable to Amazon's for many books, though not this one (either in the US or the UK).

About Sunday 21 September 1662

Terry F  •  Link

I "did vex my aunt talking in commendation of the mass which I had been at to-day, but excused it afterwards that it was only to make mirth."

L&M note: "Answering the charge of being a papist in 1674, Pepys, in a speech to the Commons, is reported to have challenged 'the whole world that he has not been once in his life at Mass': Grey, ii.427. He was not counting the occasions on which he had been a spectator...."

Here he joins (or is swept along by) the crowd in the Queen's train, was not a happy "auditor," but was a happy spectator of the finery; and, of course, "what pleased [him] best was to see [his] dear Lady Castlemaine" -- perhaps a religious* experience at a Mass after all!

*"religious" in the sense of "a matter pf one's 'ultimate concern'" (a definition proposed by 20c Protestant German-American theologian Pail Tillich http://www.angelfire.com/md2/time… )