jeannine

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jeannine has written 14 articles:

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jeannine has written summaries for eight topics:

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jeannine has posted 1,236 annotations/comments since 16 June 2004.

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First Reading

About Friday 19 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"it being a joy to my heart to think of the condition that I am now in"
Interesting to note that Sam is now seeing himself as worthy of protection-- a rise in his importance and significance.

About Thursday 18 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Thanks to all for the thought provoking and informative links, background, etc. Interesting that although the concept of providing some form of monetary relief for the poor did exist that the whole concept of "give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for life" doesn't seem to exist along side of it.

About Thursday 18 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"till the Queen, seeing them, knew whose they were, but did not discover it"

I am assuming that this was the Queen to Louis XIV, Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, who knew whose pearls these were? Perhaps this story is recorded somewhere in the history of France or some Catholic writings of the time. The whole concept of "charity" for the poor is very interesting. Questions that pop to mind--were acts of charity like this rare at this time? were they tied to religions(Catholic vs. other religions), did they vary from country to country?
On a slightly similar subject, the whole concept of the Catholic religion having the convents provided a refuge for young girls who could not be provided for in other avenues of life, and in a way, could be considered a form of charity. I remember reading (I think Antonia Fraser's "Weaker Vessel") about the lack of any similar avenue for poor girls in England at this time as it was a non-Catholic country and the Protestant religion had nothing similar to the convents. I also recall that things like orphanages, etc. were not established in England during this time either.

So, if "charity" existed in Charles II's world, what were the established ways to raise funds? what functions would the funds provide for --the poor, children, etc.-- or to add a little sarcasm here--perhaps the poor King himself!

About Wednesday 17 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Hmmm, need your votes here everyone--how many think that tomorrow's entry will begin with a hangover??? I've heard of "keeping up with the Jones'" but in this case keeping up with the Crumlum is probably going to cause a headache in the morning.

About Friday 12 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Well Glyn, if they were Ferrer's fingers that were cut off today, then his diary would probably end rather abruptly on Sept. 12, 1662!
Thanks for the references back in time- too funny -he seems like a character.

About Friday 12 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"but for the present I am very melancholy, as I have been a great while", interesting to note that he perceives himself to have been melancholy for a great while. Over the past few weeks he's had a flurry of activity, good visibility at work, etc. When I read this I got the feeling that perhaps most of all he just wants his home to be his home once again, and somehow got a hint of his missing Elizabeth (or am I reading into it?)

About Elizabeth Malet

Jeannine  •  Link

Wife of the court poet/playwrite and Libertine John Wilmot (Earl of Rochester). In 1667 Lord Rochester married Elizabeth Malet, a witty heiress whom he had attempted to abduct two years earlier. Pepys describes the event in his diary, 28 May 1665: "Thence to my Lady Sandwich's, where, to my shame, I had not been a great while before. Here, upon my telling her a story of my Lord Rochester's running away on Friday night last with Mrs Mallet, the great beauty and fortune of the North, who had supped at Whitehall with Mrs Stewart, and was going home to her lodgings with her grandfather, my Lord Haly, by coach; and was at Charing Cross seized on by both horse and footmen, and forcibly taken from him, and put into a coach with six horses, and two women provided to receive her, and carried away. Upon immediate pursuit, my Lord of Rochester (for whom the King had spoke to the lady often, but with no success) was taken at Uxbridge; but the lady is not yet heard of, and the King mighty angry and the Lord sent to the Tower."

About John Wilmot (2nd Earl of Rochester)

Jeannine  •  Link

John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester (commonly referred to as Lord Rochester) was one of Charles II's "Merry Gang" of debauched court companions. He is noted for his profane wit, his outrageous antics/escapdes and his obscene and satirical poetry and plays. He had a sharpness and bite to his words, made all the more stinging due to the fact that he exposed many a truth that most wished never to be made public. During his peak in his career he managed to make his targets cringe at the thought of what he may reveal about them. He reportedly had a "spy" who he sent out to gather "private" information which he could use as the material for his writing.
He is famous for his kidnapping of a young heiress (who he eventually married) and for his love affair with Elizabeth Barry, whom he developed into one of the most famous actresses of the time.
He lived life to the lowest, a depraved alcoholic, full of syphillis and/or other disease and for one last surprise, repented and was welcomed back into the church before his early death at age 33.
The following urls list information about his life and the first one also includes some of his poems (many of which may are extremely sexually explicit, so be forewarned).

Also below are some articles about Rochester's character and essays about his works.

http://www.poetryconnection.net/p…

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Pa…

http://www.ealasaid.com/fan/roche…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John…

http://www.bartleby.com/218/0807.…

http://www.bartleby.com/218/0807.…

About Monday 8 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Cumgranissalis...Lucky for one annotator I can think of that girls still like annotators whose names they can't pronounce.........

About St Margaret's Church, Westminster

Jeannine  •  Link

Peter, Thanks so much for the beautiful article and fantastic pictures of the church! Quite magnificent! Of interesting note about Pepys and his "relation" with the church, Percival Hunt in "Samuel Pepys In the Diary" states that, "Though the diary shows the influence of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, Pepys, like many of his time and his class, never thought of the Church as a spiritual guide. The Established Church was important in the social and political structure of England, and his parish church [St. Olave's] was a needed part of his own way of living....The Diary has no conscious concern even for a sentence with the life of the spirit which is in men. In spiritual speculations and spiritual struggle Pepys shows no interest..." (page 153)...perhaps this is why he had no issue with making this a location of not so religiously minded activity.

About Monday 8 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"Tom's intentions for a wife, which he would do me all favour in to Mr. Young, whose kinswoman he do look after…” Does this mean that Tom is still open to potential candidates? I sort of thought he may have already narrowed down his choices (but could be wrong here). Of interest, since the topic is politics with the higher ups—it also seems to work for Sam on other ways too, like Mr. Young, trying to suggest a potential “candidate” for Tom. As mom used to always say when I was growing up…”it’s not what you know but who you know”….a theme that Sam seems to be managing quite nicely these days.

About Sunday 7 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

"You lie-confess and be hanged"--Every biograpahy I've read about the Queen and/or Charles "translates" the comments above (and whatever supplemental history they have on the subject) as follow...Charles has Catherine in front of his mother. He is trying to be pleasant, witty, etc. He teases Catherine and announces that she is pregnant. She is startled and speaks back her first English spoken words "you lie" and everyone laughs. It's a criminal (perhaps even considered treasonable) offense to call the King a liar. He then goes on to tease her by telling her she now must "confess and be hanged", because she committed a crime.
One other well recorded fact is that as Catherine was learning English, Charles (in his on-going great show of maturity and wisdom) took the liberty of "mis-teaching her words". He would bascially teach her some swear, curse or vulgar word/phrase and then she'd say it at an inappropriate time. Court humor at that time could be quite biting, depending upon whose side of the joke that you were sitting on. It's not clear if Charles was just trying to be funny and light hearted or if this was intentionally mean spirited, it just that it happened, and caused the Queen much embarassment.
Antonia Fraser in "King Charles II" will provide an interesting quote on this during the Popish Plots (16 years from now) when she explains the then current relationship of the King & Queen and states...."the Queen herself had changed. She no longer resembled Princess Katherine of France: there was no more talk of 'bilbo', no oaths sworn by mistake" (p 465) refering back to the language taught her by her husband early in the marriage.

About Sunday 7 September 1662

Jeannine  •  Link

Todd, "Mr. Crofts a most pretty spark of about 15 years old, who, I perceive, do hang much upon my Lady Castlemaine, and is always with her"..... of interesting note, perhaps Mr. Crofts (soon to be made Duke on Monmouth) has more than just Sam's eye. Many historians will report that he also became a lover of Lady Castlemaine, probably somewhere around this time period, give or take a few months. Charles II never was faithful to anyone and with the sharp exception of his wife, he never expected it in return. Lady Castlemaine was probably the most notorious of his mistresses in entertaining multiple lovers while involved with Charles and throughout her lifetime. In the future this will make her the target of the tongue of many satirists (much of this quite obscene and very accurate), but for now she is sitting pretty and flaunting her status.