Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Sunday 3 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Corrections:

(1) it was Dirk, not Glyn, who quoted someone suggesting I must eat the neighbor's cat, that preferred to nap under my car, and waked not when I backed out (see above).
(2) Australian Susan emailed me this better link to her neat reference to a 17c PDA: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Thursday 7 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"hidden meanings"

Since I dropped the phrase, I'm accountable for it. Todd B., in my intellectual economy (such as it is) your tuppence are worth a lot, and perhaps the case for this phrase will fail entirely or in great part (risk taken). I *was* waxing a bit eloquent, wasn't I; now let me see if I can wane with honor.

While also appreciating greatly Sam's candor and self-discovery as a diarist (aka, "journalist", (1) I imagine him exploiting analogies gladly, am pretty much with A. Hamilton, but would perhaps not say "novelistic" (the notion being a few decades away): methinks Sam's sense of *drama* is alive and well, as the "interest" passage shows (I retract "encrypt"). (2) Sam has already used what Tomalin terms a "coded passage" to obscure a sexual adventure (September 4, 1660: http://www.pepys.info/bits2.html#… (3) (SPOILER) Sam's use of "coded passages" will become more frequent a year from next January, as evidence of the private/public split of the age. (4) The Baroque with its architectual trompe l'oeil is indeed upon us, as "patches" will give way to masks and wigs: cf. John Spurr's aptly subtitled *England in the 1670s: This Masquerading Age* or, Charles II's England goes the way of France (for the Background later). (Rococo is usually dated 1720-60.)

Perhaps "veiled meanings" works? ("masked meanings" later)....

About Hemp

Terry F.  •  Link

"Hemp was amongst the most important and costly naval supplies. The best dressing was with Stockholm tar....The principal varieties were K

About Thursday 7 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

No plays? As Cungranissilis says, using Shelton's tachygraphy hides nada, wherefore Sam'l, having *apparently* foresworn (lit.) attending the theatre, uses some of what he has learned there to encrypt in his journall dramas that unfold around him, and reserving for himself ever-choicer rolls therein.

About Thursday 7 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

mouse traps

A. Hamilton and Cungranissilis, you do us a service to remind us of the common use -- of Pepys' use here (disguised from us by transcription) -- of cipher = disguise ~ a common feature of the Baroque, whose artistic and architectual trompe l'oeil was complemented by the flourishing of cryptography -- hidden meanings.
"Here there be mice: let us get a trap!"
I think I need a wigg (hair thinning, as it is, or no).

About Thursday 7 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Mr. Cooper's not Richard-come-lately, as the Background info shows
See Pauline from L&M Companion: "The one-eyed sailing master (iv.133). Pepys had known him in the 'Royal Charles' in 1660, and in July 1662 met him again when paying off the 'Royal James', on which he had served as master's mate. Then unemployed, he was taken on by Pepys to teach him mathematics and other lore of his trade. His payment,it seems, took the form of promotion: in Aug. 1662 he was made, at Pepys's request, master of the 'Reserve' in which Robert Holmes flew his flag on a voyage to the Mediterranean. They quarrelled...Holmes was not invariably an easy man and Cooper was not invariably sober...and their dispute came before the Navy Board. Pepys at first resisted Holmes's demand for Cooper's discharge, but gave way to dark threats of a duel. But almost immediately afterwards...it is easy to guess at whose suggestion'Cooper was made master of Sandwich's flagship the 'Prince'. Sandwich's journal records his observations of two meteors.” http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

About Hemp

Terry F.  •  Link

Dave Bell on Sat 6 Aug 2005, 7:04 am | Link
As an ex-farmer, I can confirm that industrial hemp is actively been grown in Europe. There

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

We hear the emotions of our Mr. Pepys!

This day was eventful in its way in what he was told -- about which we, his "journal," hear more than what he said in reply; but we do hear what he *felt* in terms perhaps not shared with others, or...?:

He is "sorry" Mr. Cholmely, who "is a fine gentleman...had received...some unkindness from my Lord, upon ['Ned' Montagu's] score;" and is "sorry" "that my Lord will lend" Ned 400l.; and he is "very glad" Ned "hath lost his honour for ever with all people in it" = Schadenfreude; and is "glad" to hear from Sir W. Batten "that the trayne was laid [for him] before Sir W. Pen went."

Can someone explain this this last statement to me?!

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"writing in my study a mouse ran over my table"

OK, what about this: he is writing on one surface — let us call it a “desk” — and the mouse runs over another that he calls his “table,” which “has some kind of a lid…A secretaire,” as Ruben suggests, which he “shut up fast” so the mouse won’t get into a cubby-hole and eat paper to its little heart’s content.

Samuel does seem to be in “his” space, and he dines at home, where he is tempted to get more service than meal-service of his wench, Jane; but he has been sleeping at Penn’s, so the furniture in the study is likely only “his” de facto, not de jure.

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"writing in my study a mouse ran over my table"

Is he writing on something that is on his table? Surely not the entry we are reading? What's the layout of "his" (Sir W. Penn's?) place? (Hekpful query, Ruben.)

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Duelling? Here in Dixie 'old times are not forgotten."

Kentucky's Oath of Office

I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of .... according to law; and I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen of this State, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God." http://www.erniefletcher.com/inau…

About Wednesday 6 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

" Mr. Waith...is sensible of Sir W. Batten's carriage; and is pleased to see any thing work against him.”

L&M note: “Batten was chairman of the governors of the Chatham Chest; Robert Waith the Navy Treasurer’s paymaster. The affairs of the Chest were now about to be investigated….. “

About Tower Dock

Terry F.  •  Link

Tower Dock
On Tower Hill, south from No.50 Great Tower Street to 46 Lower Thames Street (P.O. Directory). Earliest mention: 1680 (Ct. H.W. II. 776).

From: 'Tower Dock', A Dictionary of London (1918). URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 06 August 2005.

Obviously, A Dictionary of London (1918) was mistaken about the date of the "earliest mention"; but perhaps the 1893 Wheatley edition of the Diary hadn't yet been read thoroughly.

About Tuesday 5 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Another cheeky passage, with bathos:
"I set forward, hailing to all the King's ships at Deptford, but could not wake any man: so that we could have done what we would with their ships. At last waked one man; but it was a merchant ship, the Royall Catharine”

About John Bland

Terry F.  •  Link

John Bland, London merchant, who immigrated ca. 1635 to Virginia.
Returning to London, he "is known to have written *Trade Revived, or A way proposed to restore...the...trade of our English nation*...(1659); and *To the King's most excellent Majesty, the humble remonstrance of John Bland*...(1661)....He had traded in Seville...and had a half-share in the cargo of the Peter and Andrew, sent to Tangier in September [1662]....He went to Tangier in October 1664 after failing to obtain the contract for supplying it with victuals. There he became Mayor in 1668 and 1670. [L&M, iii.158.n.1.] m. Sarah Green, daughter of Giles Green Esq; d. 8 Jun 1680.

About Monday 4 August 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

language hat, etymology aside, the politics of hemp strong in THC is a part of its history. Actually the historical information @ "onlinepot.org" is rather reliable, and it was the case that many things were was made of hemp. Cf. a website devoted to the now-named "industrial hemp":

"16th-18th Century: Hemp was a major fiber crop in Russia, Europe and North America. Ropes and sails were made of hemp because of its great strength and its resistance to rotting. Hemp's other historical uses were of course paper (bibles, government documents, bank notes) and textiles (paper, canvas), but also paint, printing inks, varnishes, and building materials."

Interlude: Pauline on Capt. George Cocke (c.1617-76). Baltic merchant and navy contractor, of London and Greenwich; a native of Newcastle upon Tyne (which played an important part in trade to Scandinavia). He was an influential member of the Eastland Company, dealt extensively in hemp and owned a tannery in Limerick. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Resuming: "Hemp was a major crop until the 1920's, supplying the world with its main supply of food and fiber (80% of clothing was made from Hemp).[...]1943: Both the US and German governments urge their patriotic farmers to grow hemp for the war effort. The US shows farmers a short film - 'Hemp for Victory' which the government later pretends never existed [but can be seen online, just like "Reefer Madnes"]. The United States government has published numerous reports and other documents on hemp dating back to the beginnings of [the USA].
1945: The war ends and so does "hemp for victory". Feral hemp, "ditch weed", still lines the back roads, waterways, and irrigation ditches of most Midwestern states [and here, in Kentucky], 60 years descended from "hemp for victory!"
http://www.hemphasis.net/chart.htm
"The hemphasis.net website may be the most complete and concise discussion of industrial hemp on the web. Hemphasis magazine is the only hemp-centered journal currently published (in a print medium) in North America, to our knowledge."