Annotations and comments

LKvM has posted 200 annotations/comments since 5 November 2015.

Comments

Third Reading

About Sunday 18 August 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Re cassowaries' appearance:
"Jet black, hair-like feathers. Vivid blue heads adorned with a spongy crest. Most strikingly, a pair of leathery looking feet, armed with a 12 centimeter talon."

About Thursday 15 August 1661

LKvM  •  Link

The rascally knights "made shift [contrived] to fuddle Mr. Falcone [to get him drunk]." I assume Batten said to Falcone (who apparently had a weakness for wenches, since he married his maid), "Hey, take a look at that wench over there," and when Falcone turned to look, Penn swiftly poured something stronger in Falcone's cup while Pepys signaled the barman to keep bringing more. Or some other sophomoric teamwork like that. Boys will be boys.

About Friday 26 July 1661

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"and with him to an ordinary alone and dined, and there he and I read my uncle’s will, and I had his opinion on it, . . ."
Sam carries it around with him?

About Thursday 25 July 1661

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What with Uncle Wight seething with jealousy, and Mrs. Pepys spinning spendthrift dreams, they certainly seem an avaricious lot, or characters in the opera "Gianni Schicchi."

About Tuesday 23 July 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Thank you, MartinV, for that explanation of how Sam could be in front of Palmer and ogle her without twisting around to do it.
With regard to Robert Gertz's loose and slangy labeling of Elizabeth as "this half-French kid" she is fully French, not half. And her French parents were French Huguenot aristocrats.

About Monday 22 July 1661

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We are living in a brave new world.
Thank you, SD Sarah, for the posts from milord's journal. I look forward to them.

About Monday 15 July 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Again. Sam is admirably trying to keep his father from knowing his worries.
MartinT, I too hope the priceless vicente is still around.

About Sunday 14th July 1661

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I have always thought that "-by" at the end of a surname meant "farm," from English "neighbor," which comes from "naher Bauer," or "near farmer," which led to "-by" meaning "farm," as in the name of my London-born friend Joe Kirkby, whose surname I took to be a location name meaning "church-farm."
I'll need to read this group of annotations many, many times to digest all these fascinating meanings of names, derivations of names being one of my favorite pursuits.
Thank you all.

About Sunday 7 July 1661

LKvM  •  Link

" . . . 1680. He then made over the house and profits to his sister Paulina who enjoyed them until her death in 1689."
Sam's sister Paulina,"Pall," is (begrudgingly) just a servant in Sam's house now. Obviously, his attitude toward her will change for the better.

About Saturday 6 July 1661

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""I greedy to see the will."
"Well aren't we all.
"If this were a novel, what would you expect to happen next?"

And if this were a novel, what would you expect to be the title?
(I can't resist!) Great Expectations

About Friday 28 June 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Re Vicente's "Note they[Pepis] started wedded blis in a garret and one maid slepping on a trestle bed, . . ."
I don't believe they had a maid sleeping on a trestle bed in the garret days, since Sam remarks at some point that Elizabeth herself washed his dirty clothes. I believe Jane was added when they were in their first house, at the beginning of the diary.

About Wednesday 26 June 1661

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Australian Susan: "Did anyone care at this time about the cruelty to the dogs the Royal Society used in their experiments?" Considering the ghastly cruelty of the public executions the populace was accustomed to seeing, probably not.

About Monday 17 June 1661

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Sam seems to time himself to wind up at Lady Sandwich's for the midday meal quite regularly, even though the fare is now the cheap cuts.
I wonder what Elizabeth, as the "lady" at Sam's home, has on the house menu today. Whatever it is, presumably she will dine alone, and the rest of the "family" -- Jane, Pall, and Will -- will get her leftovers.

About Sunday 16 June 1661

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The £6 it cost to transport the cloth from the Tower Wharf to the Downs will definitely eat into Sam's profit.

About Friday 14 June 1661

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Thank you, daniel, for the wonderful word "grottiness" for Sam's condition. Also, until now I have only heard the words "colic" and "colicky" used in reference to fussiness in babies attributed to intestinal pain. But "played the fool" is common where i live, and I am surprised that it is so old.

About Thursday 6 June 1661

LKvM  •  Link

While sinners should get their just deserts (the line-dancing vision of hell described above with Flatt and Scruggs bagpiping), a confectioner's shop is often called Just Desserts.

About Wednesday 5 June 1661

LKvM  •  Link

" . . . upon the leads in the garden, where Sir W. Pen came out in his shirt into his leads, and there we staid talking and singing, . . . ."
I know Pepys had leads, presumably above his section of the building, that Mrs. Davis had locked him out of, but where are these "leads in the garden"? Or are all of the leads "in the garden" of this obviously very large dwelling that was sliced into units.
Wherever the leads were, it's a delightful scene with Penn and Pepys sharing a glorious evening drinking and singing on them together.
It's good to remember that Penn is only twelve years older than Sam, so if Sam is 27, Admiral Penn is only 39.
And by the way, I like salted pistachio nuts or "salt and vinegar" chips with my evening glasses of "claret," and in the USA Australian Susan's "cask wine" is plain old "box wine," some of which is surprisingly good.

About Monday 3 June 1661

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"Father" Bowyers brought his wife ("Mother" Bowyers) and FOUR daughters, "which cost me great store of wine, and [we] were very merry." That should have sent him to the couch for a little lie-down, but after all that, he carried on with the rest of his day.

About Sunday 2 June 1661

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Re ". . . we begin to doubt a famine."
The fact that Sam and others 'doubt' in the sense of 'believe' [that there could be] a famine, Shakespeare has Hamlet play with the two opposite meanings of 'doubt' --'believe' and 'disbelieve' -- in this verse to Ophelia that concerns then-controversial beliefs and disbeliefs about the stars and sun and equivocal thoughts about truth, or is it lies, in the matter of whether he loves her, or not:

"Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt that the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar,
But never doubt I love."

(Hamlet, 3.2.115-18)