Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Lady Anne Mountagu (b)

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On January 17, 1644, he [Sir Sidney Mountagu (father of Sandwich)] married Ann, the widow of John Pey, a Westminster citizen. She was one of the Ishams of Lamport, a good Northamptonshire stock. Their married life lasted only a few months, for on September 25, 1644, Sir Sydney Mountagu died, and was buried at All Saints', Barnwell.

The lady married again, one Anthony Luther, of Kelvedon Hatch, Essex. She always subscribed
herself as "Dame Anne Mountagu," keeping the surname of her most distinguished husband.
---The life of Edward Mountagu. F.R. Harris, 1912.

About Sunday 8 March 1662/63

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"his receiving letters from the King there"

I had a little trouble understanding this anecdote, which is happening in Denmark, after Richard Cromwell's death, and concerns the return of Charles. Here's my take on it:

Sydney and Mountagu are on the same side (Parliament's) but are not friendly, Sydney is wholeheartedly a Republican, Mountagu wants a position after the Restoration. Charles wants Admiral Mountagu to bring Parliament's fleet over to him, a nice turn-about. Whetstone, though he is Cromwell's nephew, switched sides in 1659, and is now a royalist envoy who has letters to Mountagu from Charles about the fleet. When Mountagu and Sydney see Whetstone, Sydney is suspicious of Whetstone's presence so Mountagu is friendly to Whetstone "to allay suspicion." A quite valid suspicion. "Coxcombly" Whetstone won't acknowlege Mountagu which arouses Sydney's suspicions even more!

Mountagu, as we know, "converted" to royalism. Sydney didn't return to England until 1677 and was executed for treason in 1683. Whetstone was knighted.

About Saturday 7 March 1662/63

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@Terry, I appreciate that Rev. Smith had to labor at transcribing the diary without the key, but there are very few instances where he disagrees with those who had the key.

About Cock (The Strand)

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There is a photo of the "re-edified Cock" in the in-depth article "Samuel Pepys and Fleet Street" http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…

And there's this from the "Westminster Walk" http://www.pepysdiary.com/news/20…

The Olde Cock Tavern
22 Fleet Street
(Mon-Fri 11 am – 11 pm, Sat 12.30 am – 9 pm, Sun closed)
"Thence by water to the Temple, and thence to the Cocke ale house and drank and eat a lobster and sang, and mighty merry." – The Diary, 23 April 1668.

Like many British pubs, the Cock has a peripatetic habit of moving about a bit. Usually, as here, this happened when a landlord moved to a new place and took the name, furniture (and if possible the clientele) with him. In this case, the journey wasn't far because the "Cock and Bottle" as it was then known was originally just across the road at 190 Fleet Street, but had to move in 1885 to make way for a new branch of the Bank of England. Now, ironically, the circle has turned and the bank has been converted back into a pub called the Old Bank of England (worth a visit for the internal architecture). On his departure, the Olde Cock's landlord took many original pieces of the old building with him including the fireplace and overmantel carved by Grinling Gibbons who may have also carved the cockerel above the entrance. Pepys called in here regularly on his way to or from his home or Westminster, and Mrs Knipp, the tavern's landlady and also an actress, became both one of his lovers as well as a valued friend. Before you go in, have a look at how narrow its frontage is.

About The Slighted Maid (Sir Robert Stapylton)

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I remember only one play, and for once I will call it by its name, "The Slighted Maid," where there is nothing in the first act, but what might have been said or done in the fifth; nor anything in the midst, which might not have been placed as well in the beginning, or the end.
--- A Parallel of Poetry and Painting. John Dryden, 1695

Dryden also wrote:

Your Ben and Fletcher, in their first young flight,
Did no Volpone, nor no Arbaces write;
But hopp'd about, and short excursions made
From bough to bough, as if they were afraid;
And each was guilty of some "Slighted Maid."

About Conventicle

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16 Car. II., cap. 4, "An Act to prevent and suppresse seditious Conventicles." It was enacted that anyone of the age of sixteen or upwards present at an unlawful assembly or conventicle was to incur fine or imprisonment. A conventicle was defined as an assembly of more than five persons besides the members of a family met together for holding worship not according to the rites of the Church of England. The act was amended 22 Car. II., cap. 1 (1670), and practically repealed by the Toleration Act of 1689, but the act 22 Car. II., cap. 1, was specially repealed 52 Geo. III., cap. 155, s. 1.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Wednesday 27 May 1663

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"to musique, they played a good Fancy, to which my Lord is fallen again, and says he cannot endure a merry tune, which is a strange turn of his humour, after he has for two or three years flung off the practice of Fancies and played only fidlers’ tunes"

We must now speak a little more of Musick made for Instruments, in which, Points, Fuges, and all other Figures of Descant are in no less (if not in more) use than in Vocal Musick.
Of this kind, the chief and most excellent, for Art and Contrivance, are Fancies, of 6,5,4,and 3 parts, intended commonly for Viols. In this sort of Musick the Composer (being not limitted to words) doth imploy all his Art and Invention solely about the bringing in and carrying on of these Fuges, according to the Order and Method formerly shewed.
When he has tryed all the several wayes which he thinks fit to be used therein; he takes some other point, and does the like with it : or else, for variety, introduces some Chromatik Notes, with Bindings and Intermixtures of discords; or, falls into some lighter Humour like a Madrigal, or what else his own fancy shall lead him to : but still concluding with something which hath Art and excellency in it.
---A Compendium of Practical Music in Five Parts. C. Simpson, 1667.

About Wednesday 27 May 1663

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" to musique, they played a good Fancy, to which my Lord is fallen again, and says he cannot endure a merry tune, which is a strange turn of his humour, after he has for two or three years flung off the practice of Fancies and played only fidlers’ tunes"

These "fancies " appear to have been light airs, but their character has not been accurately defined. Falstaff, when speaking of Justice Shallow, says: "'a came ever in the rearward of the fashion, and sung those tunes to the overscutched huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies or his good-nights" (2 Henry IV., act iii., sc. 2). There is an interesting anecdote connected with these fancies in North's "Memories of Musick" (ed. Rimbault, 1846, p. 103): "King Charles the Second was a professed lover of musick, but of this kind onely [light French style], and had an utter detestation of Fancys, and the less for a successless entertainment of that kind given him by Secretary Williamson, after which the Secretary had no peace, for the King (as his way was) could not forbear whetting his wits upon the subject of the fancy musick, and its patron the Secretary." Dr. Hueffer, in his "Mr. Pepys the Musician," refers to Fancies, and is inclined to connect them with the Fantasia (" Italian and other Studies, 1883, p. 256).
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Robert Mountagu (Viscount Mandeville)

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MONTAGU, ROBERT, third Earl Of Manchester (1634-1683), son of Edward Montagu, second earl of Manchester; M.P., Huntingdonshire, 1660 and 1661; sent on a mission to France, 1663; gentleman of the bedchamber, 1666; died at Montpellier.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Saturday 23 May 1663

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"there took my Lyra Viall book bound up with blank paper for new lessons"

This book was Playford's "Musicks Recreation on the Lyra Viol, containing 100 Ayres, Corants and Sarabands for the Lone Lyra Viol, with Instructions for Beginners," printed 1656. This title is given in a catalogue of Playford's publications at the end of the third book of Henry Lawes's "Select Ayres and Dialogues," 1669. Several editions, or reissues of this edition with changed title-pages and dates, were issued by Playford. (From information kindly supplied to the editor by Mr. J. E. Matthew.)
---Wheatley, 1893.

About English Royal Africa Company ("Guinea Company")

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The Royal African or Guinea Company of Merchants was founded 14 Car. II. (1662). The limits of jurisdiction are defined in the charter as from Salee in South Barbary to the Cape of Good Hope. A new charter was granted in 1672, but in 1697 free trade to Africa was granted by parliament, and the company fell into decay. It was revived by a new act in the reign of Queen Anne (1708-9). An act for extending and improving the trade in Africa was passed 23 Geo. II. (1754); but in 1821 the charter of incorporation of the society was recalled by parliament (1 and 2 Geo. IV., c. 28). In Stryp's "Stow" (book v.) there is an account of the company, where the arms are described. The African House was in Leadenhall Street.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Sunday 17 May 1663

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"my great letters to my father, stating to him the perfect condition of our estate"

These letters about the Brampton estate are preserved in the Bodleian Library (Rawlinson MSS. A. 191).
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Friday 15 May 1663

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Here's a sonnet of Aretin with the pornography toned down a bit:

He Struts the Field

A knight, it seems to me, may be right proud
That kings and emperors do not possess
A pike or shaft of greater comeliness,
Or one with greater deadliness endowed.
I know that, till they wrap me in my shroud,
I’ll tourney with my lady and her dress;
I cast no puny dart, as you may guess,
For darts like those are by decorum cowed.
And you, my lady, like them quite as little —
Indeed, I know the counter-move you’d make,
If I were such a craven cannoneer.
But the arms I wield are neither small nor brittle;
And so, they may assail the front, or take
— Let’s say, their choice, though that’s too mild, I fear.

Samuel Putnam, trans.
http://elfinspell.com/PutnamAreti…

About Pall Mall

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ON ST. JAMES'S PARK, AS LATELY IMPROVED BY HIS MAJESTY.
[An extract]

Here a well-polish'd Mall give us the joy
To see our Prince his matchless force employ;
His manly posture and his graceful mien,
Vigour and youth, in all his motions seen;
His shape so lovely, and his limbs so strong,
Confirm our hopes we shall obey him long.
No sooner has he touch'd the flying ball,
But 'tis already more than half the Mall;

---Edmund Waller, 1661

About Friday 8 May 1663

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“there viewed the Queen-Mother’s works atSomersett House”

Somerset House was greatly improved at this time for the use of Queen Henrietta Maria. Cowley and Waller both wrote verses on "the Queen's repairing Somerset House," and Cowley makes the building say

"And now I dare
Ev'n with the proudest palaces compare."
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Mary Moders

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Mary Moders, alias Stedman, alias Carleton, of whom see more June 7 and April 15, 1664. She was a celebrated impostor, who had induced the son of a London citizen to marry her, under the pretence that she was a German Princess. She next became an actress, after having been tried for bigamy and acquitted. The rest of her life was one continued course of robbery and fraud; and, in 1678, she suffered at Tyburn, for stealing a piece of plate in Chancery Lane.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Mary Moders

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CARLETON, MARY (1642?-1673), 'the German princess'; criminal; born in Canterbury and named Mary Moders; came from Holland to England, 1661, pretending to be a noble German heiress; married bigamously John Carleton, 1663; went on the stage, 1664; transported for theft to Jamaica, 1671; returned to London; hanged for theft; subject of two broadsides and an 'Historicall Narrative.'
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.