Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Third Reading

About Henry Lawes

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LAWES, HENRY (1596-1662), musician; received his early musical education from Giovanni Coperario (Cooper); gentleman of the Chapel Royal, 1626; connected with the household of the Earl of Bridgewater, probably before 1633; suggested to Milton the composition of 'Comus' (performed, 1634), for which he wrote the music; his edition of 'Comus' published 1637; published 'Choice Psalmes put into Musick for Three Voices,' 1648; 'Ayres and Dialogues for One Two and Three Voyces,' 1653; lost his appointments at outbreak of the civil wars; his third book of 'Ayres' brought out, 1658; restored to his offices in the Chapel Royal, 1660; the first Englishman who studied and practised with success the proper accentuation of words, and made the sense of the poem of paramount importance.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome, 1903

About Sunday 23 December 1660

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“where our pew all covered with rosemary and baize “

Pepys' pew covered with green felt? I don't think so. The 1716 poem by John Gay, quoted in the annotation above, should be enough to put a blaze to the baize. Which Pepys should have spelled as “bays”, as Gay did. Or even as "baies".

When rosemary, and bays the Poet's crown,
Are bawl'd in frequent cries through all the town;
Then judge the festival of Christmas near,

Why would peddlers be selling green felt for Christmas? They weren't. They were selling sprigs of bay, the herb bay! Why? Because rosemary and bay (like mistletoe) stay green all winter.

This from The Gardener's Chronicle, 1875, page 270:

“Herrick's often quoted poem on the ceremonies of Candlemas Eve commences with--
Down with the Rosemary and so
Down with the Baies and Mistletoe

And in the churchwardens' accounts for St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1647, is the item--
'Paid for Rosemarie and Baies that was about the church at Christmas, 1s 6d.'”

About Saturday 29 December 1660

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"and took a brave state-plate and cupp"

Brave.
3. Magnificent; grand.
---Samuel Johnson, Dictionary, 1755

BRAVE. Courageous, Gallant, Excellent, Skilful
---Bailey, An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1721

About Thursday 27 December 1660

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STRANGE.
1. Foreign; another country.
2. Not domestick.
3. Wonderful; causing wonder.
4. Odd; irregular; not according to the common way.
5. Unknown; new.
6. Remote.
7. Uncommonly good or bad.
8. Unacquainted.
---Samuel Johnson, Dictionary, 1755

STRANGE.
unusual; uncommon; wonderful
---Bailey, An Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1721

About Murrough O'Brien

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O'BRIEN, MURROUGH, first EARL OF INCHIQUIN and sixth BARON INCHIQUIN (1614-1674) known as 'Murchadh na atoithean' or 'of the conflagrations'; studied war in the Spanish service; accompanied Strafford into Leinster on the outbreak of the Irish rebellion, 1641; governor of Munster, 1642; had some small success but was hampered by lack of funds; outwitted Irish leader, Muskerry, at Cappoquin and Lismore; forces dispersed at the truce 1613; visited Charles I at Oxford 1644; forced to submit to parliament, 1644, the parliamentarians being masters of the sea and therefore the only people who could help the Munster protestants; made president of Munster; supplies having been him by Philip Sidney, lord Lisle (afterwards third of Leicester), 1647, he became gradually master of the south of Ireland; declared for Charles I, 1648; fortified the southern ports against parliament; made truce with the confederate catholics, 1648; joined by Ormonde, with whom he got possession of Drogheda and Dundalk; lost influence in Munster, which revolted Cromwell's landing, 1649; made some stand at Kilmallock, 1649, but after retiring west of the Shannon left for France, 1650; made one of the royal council and created earl of Inchiquin, 1654; served under the French in Catalonia, 1654; engaged in the Sexby plot, 1656, and became a Roman catholic; taken prisoner by the Algerines, 1660, but ransomed the same year; high steward of Queen Henrietta Maria's household; lived quietly in Ireland after 1663.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome, 1903

About Thursday 22 November 1660

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"her dressing of herself with her hair frized short up to her ears"

To FRIZZLE, to curl or crisp the hair.
---N. Bailey. An universal etymological English dictionary, 1737

Second Reading

About Friday 25 November 1664

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"Mrs. Lane and her husband live a sad life"

SAD, sorrowful, melancholy, dull.
---N. Bailey. An universal etymological English dictionary, 1734

About Thomas Chicheley

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CHICHELEY, Sir THOMAS (1618-1694), master-general of the ordnance; of Wimple, Cambridgeshire; high sheriff, 1637; M.P. for Cambridgeshire, 1640; ejected by the roundheads, 1642; M.P. for Cambridgeshire, 1661; knighted, 1670; master-general of the ordnance, 1670-4; M.P. for Cambridge town, 1678-9, 1685, 1689; lived extravagantly, and was obliged to sell Wimple, 1686.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome, 1903

About Sunday 20 November 1664

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"talking of our ropeyarde stores at Woolwich, which are mighty low, even to admiration."

To ADMIRE, to look upon with wonder, to be surpriz'd at.
WONDERFUL, very strange and surprizing.
---N. Bailey. An universal etymological English dictionary, 1734

About Tuesday 29 November 1664

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"for he looked very frowardly"

FROWARD, peevish, fretful, surly.
---N. Bailey. An universal etymological English dictionary, 1734

About Chocolate

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Chocolate Cream.
Take a Pint of Cream, with a spoonful of scrap'd Chocolate, and boil them well together, mix with it the Yolks of two Eggs, and thicken and mill it on the Fire; then pour it into your Chocolate-Cups.
---Court Cookery. R. Smith, 1725.

About William Craven (1st Earl of Craven)

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CRAVEN, WILLIAM, Earl of Craven (1606-1697), eldest son of Sir William Craven; entered the service of Maurice, prince of Orange, 1623; knighted on returning to England, 1627; commanded English troops fighting for Gustavus Adolphus, 1631; contributed 30,000l. to the cause of the palatine house, 1637; fought beside Prince Rupert at Limgea; taken prisoner by the imperialists, 1637; purchased his liberty, 1639; aided Charles I with money; drafted a protest for the then exiled Elizabeth of Bohemia against the parliament's stoppage of her pension; deprived of his estates for loyalty to Charles I, 1651; recovered his lands at the Restoration; privy councillor, 1666 and 1681; created Viscount Craven of Uffington and Earl of Craven, 1664; offered his London mansion, Drury House, to Elizabeth of Bohemia, 1661; said, without much probability, to have been privately married to her; lieutenant-general of the forces, 1685; bidden by James II to hand over the duty of guarding Whitehall to the Dutch troops under Solms, 1688. He was early a fellow of the Royal Society.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome, 1903

About Wednesday 16 November 1664

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"how to get ourselves into the prize office"

The Calendars of State Papers are full of references to applications for Commissionerships of the Prize Office. In December, 1664, the Navy Committee appointed themselves the Commissioners for Prize Goods, Sir Henry Bennet being appointed comptroller, and Lord Ashley treasurer.
--- Wheatley. Diary, 1904.

About Tuesday 15 November 1664

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"to a blind alehouse"

[Feb. 9, 1655] Major general Worsley to secretary Thurloe,
... We have put down a considerable number of alehouses, after takeing notice of these several quallifications following; viz.
1. Such as have been in armes against the parliament ...
2. Such as have good trades and need not thereunto.
3. Such as stand in by and dark corners, and go under the name of blind alehouses.
---A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, September, 1655 to May, 1656.

About Sunday 13 November 1664

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Pepys had "To be or not to be" set to music, and it will be found in his collection of "Songs and other Compositions" (No. 2591), in the volume devoted to "Compositions, Grave."
--- Wheatley. Diary, 1904.

About Arthur Annesley (1st Earl of Anglesey, Treasurer of the Navy 1667-8)

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ANNESLEY, ARTHUR, first Earl of Anglesey (1614-1686), son of Sir Francis Annesley; graduated at Magdalen College, Oxford, 1634; entered Lincoln's Inn; made the grand tour; sent to Ireland by parliament to defeat Ormond's negotiations with the Scots in Ulster, 1645 and 1647; member for Dublin in Richard Cromwell's parliament, 1658; commissioned by Charles II to treat with parliament; made Earl of Anglesey 1661; president of council of state, February 1660; M.P. for Carmarthen in Convention parliament, and after the Restoration, privy councillor; vice-treasurer and receiver, general for Ireland, 1660-7; treasurer of navy, 1667; lord privy seal, 1672; dismissed for adverse criticism of the king's government, 1682; wrote historical and other works.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome, 1903

About Monday 7 November 1664

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I appreciate the 10-year-old reference to Alice's Restaurant as Thanksgiving approaches in the US of A.