Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Ald. Sir William Turner (b)

Terry F.  •  Link

"Turner, Ald. Sir William, kt 1662 (1615-93). Younger brother of John, the lawyer. A draper (both Pepys and Tom Pepys had accounts with him), Master of the Merchant Taylor's Company 1661-2, 1684-5; prominent in the R. Africa and E. India Companies. Sheriff 1662-3: Lord Mayor 1668-9; M.P. for the city1690-3. In 1668 he claimed and was awarded £400 from the King -- a gift traditionally made to bachelor Lord Mayors -- and gave it towards the rebuilding of Guildhall. A Puritan, who headed each page of his accounts *Laus Deo*, he founded a hospital and free school at Kirkleatham, Yorks., in 1676." L&M Companion, 460.

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"did a good morning's work upon the rigging”: Sam reviews with Cooper the finest points that he needs to know for his job
- following Coventry’s advice of yesterday: sticking on task;
- optimizing his remaining time with Cooper while the model is there;
considering the masts, booms, gaffs (spars), also the sails, cordage and davits: article and figure about “rigging” here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigg…

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Yes, JWB, and only 6 weeks ago Sandwich saw his position severely threatened by none other than Coventry -- what a read: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

(Cumgranissalis, I could do a 4-hour night one night in a row; but my younger son. who is an animator, could do that in art-school and does now at 27: perhaps these genes are from my paternal line -- farmers who in season could work days and nights on end.)

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Jeannine, Robert Gertz, have you always thought/felt so about Sam?
There were times, as I recall, when there was speculation about what his evident enjoyment of playing with others' children signalled about his hope for his own. Of course, his jealousy whenever he suspected she might be eyed/have an eye out, doesn't mean he didn't have ye olde double-standard....

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

And is Sam the man Elizabeth left when she went to Brampton? How will he "fit her in" to his new, "improved," nose-to-the-grindstone schedule with "no plays," etc.

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

A final take: Sam writes at *his* place, then goes to Penn's to sleep.

Considering the sentence as a whole, with emphasis added: "At night writing in *my* study a mouse ran over *my* table, which I shut up fast under *my* shelf's upon *my* table till to-morrow, and so home and to bed.”

Rex Gordon, I think the shelf (top) has been lowered (“shut”) so as to secure the “table” “till to-morrow” against the mouse that ran *over” and, thank goodness, not *into* it.

As for cats and mouse-traps, I wonder whether the remodeling hasn’t quite disrutped the normal anti-rodent measures of the Pepys’s house.

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"Writing a letter to my brother John to dissuade him from being Moderator of his year"

L&M note: "John Pepys was now in his second year at Christ's College, Cambridge. Moderators presided over academic disputations."

Is John's brother concerned about an extracurricular distraction? or is it a matter of it being a greater distinction to refuse (what Samuel too views as) an honor?

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Touché! On a jog to Deptford, Coventry seems to say: Sit still! — he, also peripatetic, not heeding his own advice? Of course, he doesn’t say *always* sit still, nor does Pascal (great get Sean Adams!).

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Coventry's advice is doubly self-referential: 'attend to the speaker's interest,' speaks he; and, 'leave your desk and see what's happening,' as he goes with Sam on a walk to Deptford for surprise inspection.

Are we to wonder what's happening at Portsmouth? Will there be thither another road trip?

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"Thence by boat; I being [wet], he put the skirt of his cloak about me."
Emendation per George R.

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"Thence by boat; I being hot, he put the skirt of his cloak about me."
George R, surely you are correct: neat read. L&M also like it “hot,” but sometimes Sam misspells. I wonder what the two are like in the shorthand.

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Today the Dynamic Duo strike at Greenwich: there seems to be a pattern here: who's next? Woolwich again? (Chatham's in good shape)

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"To Deptford, and there surprised the Yard, and called them to a muster"

L&M note: "Surprise musters were a normal way of inspection and discipline:...."

About Friday 8 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Re "the story of Sir John Millicent"

L&M notes: "Millicent, of Barham, Cambs., was said to be 'the very best extemporary fool' at James's court: A. Weldon, *Court...of James I* (1650), p. 92. James's monopolies had been notorious."
"The Privy Council of the early Stuarts (not the 'Council of State' of the Interregnum had in that way coerced their unwilling subjects."

About Thursday 7 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"hidden meanings" revisited

Todd Bernhardt, I certainly do see what you mean. I’ve had no trouble reading the sexual “coded passages” either, with limited French and Spanish.

And, of course who could have read these more easily than the polylingual Elizabeth herself?! which has cause me to wonder, from whose eyes were these to be hidden, his “mind’s” — is this his conscience working overtime, diddling itself?

Speaking of Beth, it has seemed to me that were she not in Brampton, would she not miss the plays, the socializing, etc.? Sam is become a less fun man-about-town = even “reform” bring trade-offs.