Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Tuesday 22 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"but I hope he got ashore before the storm begun; which God grant!"

L&M note: The storm overtook the flotilla close by the Goodwin Sands on the way to France.Cf. the description in Diary of Henry Townshend (ed. Willis Bund), i. 92-3: the King's 'barque struck ground and was in very great danger, but through God's providence, and his own skill and Prince Rupert and some others...stood into Quimborough Castle. The Duke of York lost his mast in pieces, and the Vice-Admiral, Lord Montagu [sic] driven into the seas again. But all at last safe.' Coventry's letters referred to here have not been traced.

About Monday 21 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"a great rarity, which was two or three...silver dishes and plates..., in the edge or rim of which was placed silver and gold medalls, very ancient, and I believe wrought, by which, if they be, they are the greatest rarity that ever I saw in my life"

Can anyone envision this "great rarity" or maybe "greatest rarity that ever [he] saw in [his] life"? And what is "very ancient" (old? as in "The Ancient Mariner") to Sam in this case?

(Thanks for the context, Pedro!)

About Monday 21 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"But, good God! what a deal of company was there from both yards to help to [bring the head of the Royal James to the dock], when half the company would have done it as well. But I see it is impossible for the King to have things done as cheap as other men."

Was anyone else startled by the expostulation, "good God!"?

How sagacious the last sentence is -- and/but it doesn't apply only to the British head of state.

About Monday 21 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"Thence to Woolwich to the Rope- yard; and there looked over several sorts of hemp, and did fall upon my great survey of seeing the working and experiments of the strength and the charge in the dressing of every sort; and I do think have brought it to so great a certainty, as I have done the King great service in it:"

Put the goods to the test and see for yourself how they stand up: introduce this man to the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge.

About Monday 21 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Cocke's wife and Sandwich's are very angry today, both ostensibly over social slights: perhaps it's the weather.

About Sunday 20 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

The oaths read intend "a great deal more of content" if Samwatcher's compend of the likely content of his Sabbath ritual be fair, as it seems:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
to which end he intends "to give a good account of [his]time and to grow rich,..." with God's blessing - a Faust's bargain?
In this remarkable disclosure that he is obliged _every Lord's day_ to read his oaths, Sam’s “Uneqalled Self”-discovery is that he is at heart a hedonist (one who seeks “hedone” = pleasure), which is consistent with his feelings for Lady Castlemaine, et al., his self-preoccupation at times, and ergo is a spoiler for the years ahead.

About Sunday 20 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"read my oaths"
Would this have been aloud? (it was certainly allowed). Silently (even without mouthing the words) was surely Sam's more common way of reading, but I can imagine his doing it aloud to express resolve.

About Sunday 20 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

Robert Gertz, you are right,of course (well, IMO, in infact). I wonder whether Sam might have intuited some of this yesterday when he saw that Beth was "not very forward [enthusiastic] about her going into the country, and as she is so am I at a great loss whether to have her go or no because of the charge [Sam nixing empathy with extraneous consideration?], and yet in some considerations I would be glad she was there, because of the dirtiness of my house and the trouble of having of a family there [very empathic here!]." abd now, "(Lord's day). My wife and I lay talking long in bed, and at last she is come to be willing to stay two months in the country, for it is her unwillingness to stay till the house is quite done that makes me at a loss how to have her go or stay” — man, his heart is in his mout & on his sleeve for his Diary, and this a keeper, i wot.

About Sophia

Terry F.  •  Link

Reference to the Sophia in the Diary

"So back again to Westminster, and from thence by water to the Treasury Office, where I found Sir W. Pen paying off the Sophia and Griffen." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Sunday 20 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"You say that I am ignoring the time-honored traditions of the Royal Navy? And what might they be? I shall tell you in three words. Rum, buggery, and the lash! Good morning sirs."

- Winston Churchill addressing the Sea Lords, 1912
http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com…

About Sunday 20 July 1662

Terry F.  •  Link

"And what are the oaths he has to read every Lord's day”?

What about this of 28 June, last month?:
“My mind is now in a wonderful condition of quiet and content, more than ever in all my life, since my minding the business of my office, which I have done most constantly; and I find it to be the very effect of my late oaths against wine and plays, which, if God please, I will keep constant in, for now my business is a delight to me, and brings me great credit, and my purse encreases too.”
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Perhaps he made a resolution he hasn’t shared with us?