LKvM

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LKvM has posted 156 annotations/comments since 5 November 2015.

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Third Reading

About Thursday 16 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Re: : . . . the collation; and so we, with the rest of the servants in the hall, sat down and eat of the best cold meats that ever I eat on in all my life." As has probably already been mentioned, the past tense of "eat" was spelled "eat," but pronounced "et," as it still is in some very rural areas of the United States South that were settled long ago by English immigrants.
I suppose a modern equivalent of a collation would be a charcuterie board.

About Wednesday 15 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

I think that what Sam really regrets is his "surly answer."
We have been following his life for a while now, and it is his charm and likeablity that have caused just about every man and woman in his life, from all his drinking buddies to "my lady" and Penn and Batten and Sandwich, to want his company.
A cordial but firm answer to these nosy men from the Lords would have been more his style, but alas, like Hamlet, he "forgot himself."

About Monday 13 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Perhaps it was one of the "striplings" that Evelyn saw being examined who originated this verse defining the "Dr. Fell Syndrome":

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell,
But this I know and know full well,
I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.

About Thursday 9 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

It seems to me that poor Elizabeth's distress may have had three sources, listed below in ascending order of painfulness:
▪︎standard, routine internal menstrual cramps (bad enough),
▪︎sharp pain from an external, embarrassing, disgusting, recurring vulvar abcess;
and, finally, perhaps, if the poor woman is truly blasted by fate,
▪︎the excruciating pain of a dry socket where the incisor was pulled.

About Wednesday 8 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

A foretooth is a "cutting" tooth, or incisor, of which there are eight: four in the upper jaw and four in the lower jaw.
Since Elizabeth is known to be a beauty, let's hope the drawn incisor was one of the four less visible foreteeth in the lower jaw.

About Monday 6 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Re 3rd President of the United States Thomas Jefferson and the five household slaves he freed on his deathbed:
Jefferson "owned more than 600 slaves during his adult life. Jefferson freed two slaves while he lived, and five others were freed after his death, including two of his children from his relationship with his slave (and sister-in-law) Sally Hemings. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his death, the rest of the slaves were sold to pay off his estate's debts."

About Saturday 4 May 1661

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" . . . the Monarch's Way (Worcester to Shoreham) 982km/610 miles.
Britain's second-longest signed walking trail, a lengthy, meandering route following the flight of Charles II after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, and including many sites of historic interest."
I had no idea that it was so long, or that it took the fugitive king six weeks to cover it! It's truly amazing that a conspicuously 6'2" black-haired Italian-looking man accomplished this remarkable feat.

About Friday 3 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

The best perk of having freedom of the city: "the right to be hanged with a silken cord." I do suppose that's preferable to having your head chopped off.
I was actually surprised to read about Mr. Creed's "epicurianism" and what we might call picky and unpleasant table behavior today. I, too, had a friend who sent food back to the kitchen and regularly embarrassed the rest of us at the table with his criticisms, so I can sympathize with Sam.
But since Creed is a Puritan (something I as an American associate with a simple life and simple tastes), I wouldn't have expected him to exhibit such delicacy or sophistication at the dinner table. Maybe I just don't understand Cromwellian puritanism correctly.

About Wednesday 1 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

On April 30, 2011, I drove a rental car from London to Portsmouth, on approximately the same route as Sam, but a little faster, and at Portsmouth we stayed at an old inn. On the next day, this day, May Day, we went to HMS Victory and were treated to a ribald May Day dance by the sailors on the dock before we boarded, and when we toured the ship, we were very merry.

About Sunday 28 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Btw, for what it's worth, at this time Margaret Kite Pepys was about 56 (born circa 1605). She's too old to be menopausal and too young to be demented. She's just angry.

About Friday 26 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

" . . . dined by myself at home on a piece of meat from the cook’s."
Whether it be from "the cook's" or "Cookes," the "meat" in this case means actual flesh, not just "food in general," as discussed previously.
(I like the notion of his putting the meat between two pieces of bread to make a pepys, sorry it didn't work out that way!)

About Saturday 20 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

"(Had the Sandwiches had a daughter named Jemima, she would have been accorded the courtesy title "Lady Jemima Sandwich".)"
They did have a daughter named Jemima, the girl with the crooked neck that we met in the early pages of the diary.

About Friday 19 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Sort of a spoiler:
Regarding John Evelyn, who refused the honor, and Robert Boyle, and questions in later years about why Samuel Pepys did not receive/accept a knighthood, the conjecture given for Sam is usually that he did not want the "charge," i.e., the expense. Maybe that was true for Evelyn and Boyle too.

About Thursday 18 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

"had [Lady Batten] been noble she would not have been so with her servants . . . "
This brings to mind something I read about the late great Queen Elizabeth II's admonishing Meghan Markle after said Duchess of Sussex had lost her temper to a subordinate: "We don't speak to people that way."

About Tuesday 9 April 1661

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"I put my Lady, Mrs. Turner, Mrs. Hempson, and the two Mrs. Allens into the lanthorn and I went in."
That's six people in the lantern. Even though people were much smaller then, ships' lanterns must have been surprisingly commodious.
And just btw, I think Sam is probably "the life of the party." Everyone from Batten and Penn to Sandwich and Lady Sandwich seems to adore his company. After all, he sings, plays instruments, and apparently has a gregarious, witty, fun-loving presence, so I think they make sure he's part of the group just for the fun of it.

About Wednesday 3 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

Re the problem of the date of Easter:
It depends on the crucial date of the Jewish Passover, which is called "The Last Supper" by Christians.
The crucifixion occurred the day after Passover AKA The Last Supper.
On the third day after the crucifixion the resurrection occurred, and that day is called Easter by Christians.
That's the historical biblical record. No days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, etc. are mentioned).
Over the centuries since Constantine the Roman Catholic Church arranged it all so that Passover, called The Last Supper, took place on a Wednesday, the crucufixion took place on a Thursday (Greindonnerstag or "crying Thursday" in German), and then Good Friday would conveniently lead in three days to the resurrection on a (surprise!) Sunday, which was called Easter Sunday.
With Jewish astronomers calculating the date of Passover and competing Christian astronomers calculating the same date but calling it The Last Supper, and Julian and Gregorian calendar confusion thrown in to boot, it's no wonder that there was confusion all over Europe about Easter