jeannine

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jeannine has written 14 articles:

Encyclopedia topics

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 Sunday 18 February 1665/66

jeannine  •  Link

“Lay long in bed discoursing with pleasure with my wife, among other things about Pall’s coming up, for she must be here a little to be fashioned,”

I can just picture the new 1666 reality show version of “What Not To Wear” with a total makeover of Pall. She could have her ‘before’ and ‘after’ portraits painted by Hales, a 1666 version of the transformations below!

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites…

About Friday 2 February 1665/66

jeannine  •  Link

“…we shall have a very handsome cupboard of plate.”
Brought back for me a vivid memory from a hundred years ago of spending money we didn’t have on [junk] we didn’t need to fill a cabinet no one saw and which was never opened. O how delighted we were!

Cape Henry --as I read today's entry I was wondering if Sam and Elizabeth actually used these plate items in their daily life (?), or entertaining (?) and then I read your annotation and thought -how true!

I am not sure if Sam's collection of plate was ornamental or really useful --any thoughts anyone?

About Wednesday 31 January 1665/66

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"Mrs Knightly may well have had the same misgivings as Queen Catherine."

(Spoiler about Queen Catherine) From Davidson’s “Catherine of Bragança”. She quotes tonyt’s letter above from Charles to his sister Minette, and then adds:

“Catherine, it would seem, did not share the fears of her ladies, or at least disregarded them where Charles’s society was concerned. She made every preparation for journeying to Hampton Court, after him, but, unluckily was detained by miscarriage, and was kept in Oxford until February 16. To add to the keenness of her disappointment, Lady Castlemaine was at the same time rejoicing over another son, whom Charles acknowledged. It will hardly be credited that, though, the doctors in attendance on Catherine declared that the sex of her expected infant could have been judged, some of the women swore to the King that it was all a mistake, and she had not been ‘enceinte’ at all. They so far convinced him that at the time he fully believed she was unable to have children, which destroyed much of the pleasure he was beginning to feel in her society, and drove him to seek that of others. It is impossible to doubt that this was a plot, either of Lady Castlemaine herself, or of her partisans.” (page 219)

About Wednesday 31 January 1665/66

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"my cozen Pepys and Moore and I to our business, being the clearing of my Lord Sandwich’s bond wherein I am bound with him to my cozen for 1000l. I have at last by my dexterity got my Lord’s consent to have it paid out of the money raised by his prizes. So the bond is cancelled, and he paid by having a note upon Sir Robert Viner, in whose hands I had lodged my Lord’s money, by which I am to my extraordinary comfort eased of a liablenesse to pay the sum in case of my Lord’s death, or troubles in estate, or my Lord’s greater fall, which God defend!"

I think L&M left out the line about Sam breaking open a bottle of fine champagne on this one! What a relief for him.

About Tuesday 23 January 1665/66

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"A most furious storme all night and morning"

I find myself so thankful that I can turn on the weather and know what is coming my way. A true modern convenience. I suppose unless one had arthritis or sensitive sinuses that they never had any real indication of what to expect from one day to the next.

The winter joke in New England is that every time you hear a weather report with snow in the forecast you can expect to see all of your neighbors in the local grocery store stocking up on milk, bread, etc. It usually rings true!

About Monday 22 January 1665/66

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"According to some statistics, it was safer if thee stayed away from sweet talking giver of remedies, elixirs and panceas, the odds be in thy favor of not having thy life and bank account being bled to death, but be able to donate thy life savings to the preacher.."

Well said, you might even happen to bump into the infamous Dr. Bendo (i.e. The Earl of Rochester) who seemed to have created some interesting cures of his own.....(mostly along the lines of sperm donation!)
http://www.pseudopodium.org/repre…

Happy Friday and stay away from Quack doctors!

About Sunday 21 January 1665/66

jeannine  •  Link

Seems like everything is perfectly arranged --the house with it's new blue bedchamber and Sam with his accounts. Let's see if tomorrow's Tangier meeting goes as nicely.

About Saturday 20 January 1665/66

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I just checked the "Minutes from the Meeting" for the Samuel Pepys Pity Party Club and it seems that today nobody showed up...

(Nice poem AH!)

About Wednesday 17 January 1665/66

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"Has Pepys gone completely around the (Anglican) bend?"

My first thought was with all of the ladies that Sam has been toying around with over the past months that sitting with Lady Crew was quite a change of pace. Perhaps he is in the 'no fondling zone' and noting the difference of the company there.

About Tuesday 9 January 1665/66

jeannine  •  Link

Language Hat, thanks for the document links. It's nice to know that the 'code of silence' prevailed and the guilt party got away with it. It would have been a waste of a thousand pounds to pay the reward as it could never repair Castlemaine’s reputation (besides where would Charles get the money anyway???). This reminds me of the saying (which I just can't seem to find or remember exactly) but basically 'why is the King running around protecting Castlemaine's reputation when she's doing nothing to protect it herself?'

About Tuesday 9 January 1665/66

jeannine  •  Link

The King cannot go away till my Lady Castlemaine be ready to come along with him;” she being lately put to bed…

Lady Castlemaine had given birth to a child in December. Allen Andrews in “The Royal Whore” gives a good indication of what going on while she was in Oxford and her unpopularity. I’ll gloss over the vulgar word (you can easily fill in the blank!) but the story is so funny, I thought it would bring a good background and add some dimension to Pierce’s tale.... Andrews explains

“”The five-months decent of the factious, frivolous and surprisingly dirty court was a disaster for the academicians of Oxford, though the tradesman ran to curry favor and enter debits. Anthony Wood said, ‘The greater sort of courtiers were high, proud, insolent and looked upon scholars no more than pedants or pedagogical persons…Though they were neat and gay in their apparel, yet they were very nasty and beastly, leaving at their departure their excrements in every corner, in chimneys, studies, coalhouses, cellars. Rude, rough, whoremongers; vain, empty, careless.’

Barbara Castlemaine made herself widely unpopular. Her natural shrewishness was intensified by bad temper stemming from the poor quality of her lodgings and the necessity to pass the last months of her pregnancy in such uncomfortable surroundings.

The King’s constant visits to her left the scholars in no doubt to their relationship. And after Barbara had given birth to her fifth child, George, in Merton College on December 28, 1665, the men of the gown posted a notice on her door explaining at large that it was only the privilege of her special position that kept this scold and strumpet from the ducking stool which Oxford retained for such unruly women. The notice was written in elegant Latin and Explicit English [just English follow]

The reason why she is not duck’d
Because by Caesar she is -------“

There are probably few at Oxford who will be sorry to see their uninvited guests depart!

About Sunday 7 January 1665/66

jeannine  •  Link

"I must now stand upon my own legs"

Reminds me of the idea that who you know may get you in the door but what you do once you are there keeps you there.

Also, the situation with Sandwich is truly sad stuff, but par for the course in this cut-throat cast of characters. The Court of Charles II was very fluid and nobody ever really knew where they stood. He would exercise his powers on and off to keep people and protect them if/when it suited him, but often people got jostled in and out with the waves of others in the political process. Although Sandwich is out of the Navy spotlight he is not totally cast aside (spoiler: just watch what happens to poor Clarendon when he gets the boot).

Sam is far too low on the totem pole to cause any concern with the likes of the DOY, Coventry, Albemarle, etc. so as long as he can manage to keep his distractions to a minimum (i.e. keep his pants zipped up while on the job, for instance) and get back to focusing on his work he will be welcomed (or at least accepted) as the change of command takes place. He is a very organized worker and can produce great things when he puts his mind to it. This change of command may be just enough to re-energize him as London begins to return to normal.

About Sunday 24 December 1665

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Merry Christmas from travels in Cairo! Made it out late in a snowstorm, delayed further by a plane mechanical failure and then another day and a half by an airline strike in Italy. Still hoping Santa will find our luggage. The good news is the sphinx says hi to all and with an intermittent internet connection I can visit Sam and wish you all the very best! Enjoy your holidays friends --you are all a wonderful present to me every day of the year!

About Wednesday 13 December 1665

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"he and his wife made me drink some tea"

Upon her arrivel to England Queen Catherine asked for some tea. From that time, it's been "THE" drink to try. I am sure, like any other drink that tends to be bitter (i.e. coffee, etc.) that is is an acquired taste, but now in the royal circles and those wanna-bes it's the 'in' things to drink.

About Sunday 10 December 1665

jeannine  •  Link

If Mrs. Andrews is looking every hour to be brought to bed, does that mean that she expects to go into labour any minute?

That's how I read it Margaret. Maybe we'll get an update tomorrow (hoping for a quick labor for her) - a boy or a girl-place your bets!

About Saturday 9 December 1665

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"One wonders if she would have been so poorly remembered physically if she had not made her remark about Sam’s mentor."

As I recall from reading about her in other books of the time, Sam's comment was probably more of a compliment to her than an insult! Whenever I've come across a reference to her (sorry don't have time to dig through books for quotes these days) she is very unfavorably described both in manner, looks and a total lack of class. Yet, her husband, who married her when he was well down on the food chain, apparently seems content with her.

From Sjoerd's entry in the encyclopedia, this little bio of her gives some indication of her nature.
http://www.bigenealogy.com/family…

About Monday 20 November 1665

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"he telling me that Luellin hath been dead this fortnight…which much surprised me."

Actually I am very surprised that the plague has not hit closer to home so to speak. Considering all of the deaths he's actually quite lucky that he hasn't lost anyone 'really close' to him. Even more so for Elizabeth as her family is too poor to move away from the infected areas during this time.