LKvM

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LKvM has posted 149 annotations/comments since 5 November 2015.

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Third Reading

About Saturday 4 May 1661

LKvM  •  Link

" . . . 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

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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

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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

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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

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" . . . 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

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"(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

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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

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"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

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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

About Tuesday 2 April 1661

LKvM  •  Link

"Meat" redux:
Bear in mind that Sam's mention that there was no "meat" left for late-comer Lord Sandwich means that for Sandwich there was no "food," the root for "meat" having been a word that meant "food" in general, not just "flesh."

About Monday 1 April 1661

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I agree with Andy:
"But if her womanly role is limited to the house, how come she can't even rule on her maid?"
She sounds absolutely sick and tired of being bossed around by men who are interfering in her domaine, and terribly frustrated by her powerlessness. I feel very sorry for her (and for most women in that era).

About Sunday 31 March 1661

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Regarding "finding Will abroad at Sir W. Batten’s talking with the people there," it was common to use "the people" for staff, so Will was chatting with Batten's servants, and on ships, officers like Nelson and Bligh, and undoubtedly Batten and Sandwich too, simply called their crew or seamen or sailors their "people."

About Wednesday 27 March 1661

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Re Vincent and bubbles, on wondering whether Sam knew about the tulip bubble of 1637, and my stockbroker husband, who, when we were in Ireland in 2008, noticed what he correctly perceived as an Irish housing bubble:
"Tulip mania, also known as the Dutch tulip bulb market bubble, is the earliest market bubble recorded in history."

About Tuesday 26 March 1661

LKvM  •  Link

All this talk about eating "flesh" is somewhat disconcerting. In looking up the etymology of "meat" I found: "The word "meat" was commonly used in 16th/17th century England in the way that we now use the word "food."
We have seen examples of that use of "meat" for "food" in Sam's writings and in today's "sweetmeats."
Further, it was only during the 19th century that "meat" was used for what Sam calls the "flesh" of beef.

About Monday 11 March 1660/61

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"Note that it's still illegal to eat Christmas Pudding on Christmas Day in Britain - a leftover of the Puritan era."
Still? Even today, March 11, 2024?

About Friday 8 March 1660/61

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With all of Sam's pride in his Latin, it is surprising that he doesn't always use the accusative/objective case when it is called for: "And so he carried Sir William Batten and I home . . . ."
He's given a pass in the comments above, but's clear that he knows it:
" . . . whom I ever thought a man . . . ."
Just a slip-up, I guess, but it happens more than this once.