Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Tuesday 12 June 1660

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GAMMON. the buttock of a hog salted and dried; a ham of bacon.
---A new complete English dictionary. J. Marchant, 1760.

About William Faithorne

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FAITHORNE (William), an ingenious English painter, that flourished in the 17th century. After the civil wars broke out, he went into the army; when being taken prisoner in Basinghouse, and refusing to take the oaths to Oliver, he was banished into France. He studied several years under the famous Champagne, and arrived to very great perfection in correctness of drawing. He was also a great proficient in graving, as likewise in painting, especially in miniature, of which there are many specimens now extant in England. He died in Black-Friars in 1691, when he was near 75 years of age. He wrote a book, "Upon Drawing, Graving, and Etching," for which he was celebrated by his friend Flatman the poet. William Faithorne the son, who performed chiefly in mezzotinto, has often been consounded with his father.
---A New and general biographical dictionary. 1795.

About Wednesday 13 June 1660

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"fair water"

A very common expression through the 19th century but surviving only as a technical term in the 20th. It seems to mean clear, pure water. A little disconcerting to think about the alternative.

About Thursday 7 June 1660

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OK, as an American, I admit ignorance. Somebody, in the encyclopedia perhaps, tell me please what the "Presbyterians" (are they same as "fanaticks"?) really want. Now, especially. (I'm talking politically, not religiously.) Now, in June, do they really expect a national Presbyterian Church? Do they want more controls on the new king? (That sounds like a good idea.) What are they not "able to do" that they want to do. And that Parliament and the king don't want them to do.

About Brampton estate

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In August, 1661, John Pepys retired to a small property at Brampton (worth about £80 per annum), which had been left to him by his eldest brother, Robert Pepys, where he died in 1680. His wife Margaret, whose maiden name has not been discovered, died on the 25th March, 1667, also at Brampton.
---Wheatley

About Saturday 24 November 1660

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More dramatic, however, and infinitely more interesting, is the second song referred to. It is entitled 'Orpheus' Hymn to God.' The first stanza may be quoted here:

'King of Heav'n and Hell, of Sea and Earth,
Who shak'st the world when thou shout'st thunder forth,
Whom Devils dread, and Hosts of Heaven prayse;
Eternal cause who on the winds doth ride:
Whom Fate (which masters all things else) obeys;
And Nature's face with thick dark clouds dost hide!'

The musical treatment is highly characteristic of Lawes, and of the school to which he belongs. Again, the declamatory element prevails over the melodious, and very quaint, amongst other things, is the long roll of semiquavers to the word thunder, which Purcell seems to have imitated in a famous passage. Altogether the two songs are very interesting, and few modern critics will differ from Mr. Pepys's statement that they are good.
---Italian and other studies. F. Hueffer, 1883.

About Tuesday 5 June 1660

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The song mentioned by Pepys is entitled 'A Storme' and bears the character of a monologue. Chloris at sea, near the land, is surprised by a storm. Amintor on the shore, expecting her arrival, thus complains:

'Help, help, O help, Divinity of Love,
Or Neptune will commit a rape upon my Cloris,
She's on his bosom,' etc.

The music is of a declamatory character and depicts the situation of the unfortunate Amintor with considerable force.
---Italian and other studies. F. Hueffner, 1883

About Help, help, O help, divinity of love / A Storm

Bill  •  Link

The song mentioned by Pepys is entitled 'A Storme' and bears the character of a monologue. Chloris at sea, near the land, is surprised by a storm. Amintor on the shore, expecting her arrival, thus complains:

'Help, help, O help, Divinity of Love,
Or Neptune will commit a rape upon my Cloris,
She's on his bosom,' etc.

The music is of a declamatory character and depicts the situation of the unfortunate Amintor with considerable force.
---Italian and other studies. F. Hueffner, 1883

About Tuesday 5 June 1660

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"we made barber’s music"

If you will now see the pleasantest sight you have seen yet, walk but up these two steps, and you shall see a Jury (or Conspiracy,) of Barber-Surgeons, sitting upon Life and Death. You must think that any Divertisement there was welcome, so that I went up, and found it in Truth a very pleasant Spectacle. These Barbers were most of them Chain'd by the middle; their Hands at Liberty; and every one of them, a Cittern about his Neck; and upon his Knees a Chessboard and still as he reacht to have a Touch at the Cittern, the Instrument Vanisht; and so did the Chess board, when he thought to have a Game at Draughts; which is directly Tantalizing the poor Rogues, for a Cittern is as natural to a Barber, as Milk to a Calf.
---The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas. 1696.

Buz. My education has been like a gentleman.
Gen. Have you any skill in song or instrument?
Buz. As a gentleman should have; I know all, but play on none: I am no barber.
---Old Fortunatus. Thomas Dekker, about 1590.

About Capt. Philip Holland

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1672 April 28. Whitehall. Warrant to Sir John Robinson to take into custody Philip Holland, suspected of being a spy employed by the Dutch, he having deserted in the last Dutch war and served the enemy by conducting their ships into our rivers.
---Calendar of State Papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles II.

About Saturday 2 June 1660

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"drinking of white wine and sugar"

What says sir John Sack-and-Sugar?
---The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare. Henry IV, part 1, 1790.

A footnote to the above says:
Much inquiry has been made about Falstaff's sack, and great surprise has been expressed that he should have mixed sugar with it. As they are here mentioned for the first time in this play, it may not be improper to observe that it is probable that Falstaff's wine was Sherry, a Spanish wine, originally made at Xeres. He frequently himself calls it Sberris-sack. Nor will his mixing sugar with sack appear extraordinary, when it is known that it was a very common practice in our author's time to put sugar into all wines.

About Edmund Calamy

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He opposed the infamous murder of his Sovereign King Charles I, with constancy and courage. Under the usurpation of Cromwell, he was passive and lived as privately as he could, yet he gave no reason to suspect, that he was at all a well wisher to that government, when the times afforded a favourable opportunity, he neglected not the promoting the return of King Charles II, and actually preached before the House of Commons on the day they voted that great question, which, however, has not hindered some from suggesting their suspicions of his Loyalty. After this step was taken, he together with Mr Ash and other eminent Divines, were sent over to compliment the King in Holland, by whom they were extremely well received. When His Majesty was restored, Mr Calamy retained still a considerable share in his favour, and in June 1660, was appointed one of his Chaplains in Ordinary, and was offered the Bishoprick of Coventry and Litchfield, which he refused.
---Biographia Britannica. 1748.

About Saturday 2 June 1660

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He is now a Knight of the Garter. Doesn't that do it? Though he isn't the Earl of Sandwich yet.

About Capt. John Holmes

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HOLMES, Sir John,—was the gallant biother of the as gallant sir Robert Holmes. He was appointed commander of the Jersey in 1664; and in the following year, after having first served as lieutenant of the Centurion, was appointed Commander of the St. Paul; and what is somewhat extraordinary, served, in the beginning of the next year, as lieutenant of that same ship. He was in a short time removed into the Bristol, which ship we find him captain of, in the month of August. He was posted in the line of battle as one of the seconds to his brother sir Robert, and afterwards commanded one of the companies as the attack of Bandaris. His very conspicuous conduct on this occasion procured him the command of the Triumph, a second rate. He probably continued captain of this ship during the remainder of the War, although we find nothing further recorded of him till the year 1668, when he was made commander of the Falcon and Kent successively. In 1669 he went out with sir Thomas Allen to the Mediterranean, as commander of the Nonsuch. In 1670 he removed into the Bristol, and in the following year into the Diamond.
---Biographia navalis. J. Charnock, 1794.