Tuesday 24 April 1660

Annotations

• N WKW on Thu 24 Apr 2003, 11:13pm

  Though it has been clarified before, it bears repeating (mainly because I keep forgetting) that a “character” means a “code or cipher,” or by extension a coded message.
  Amid the word’s many other meanings, by Johnson’s time someone of Pepys’s standing could write out “a character” for a former employee seeking a new post—-i.e., a letter of recommendation, a reference.

• N Eric Walla on Thu 24 Apr 2003, 11:52pm

  This entry clearly shows …

  … the release of tension that has been in the air since Lambert escaped the Tower and the fanatiques resumed their strut. Surely they NOW believe that the Gods are on their side. They weren’t too sure there for a while.

  We all naturally have our own built-in plot spoilers since we know how things came out. I think it much too easy to discount the uncertainty behind these men’s actions on behalf of the Restoration and their fear that the tide could turn again.

• N Glyn on Thu 24 Apr 2003, 11:58pm

  For example, Pepys wrote “characters” for his boss George Downing on 25 and 28 January, shortly before Downing left for Europe.

• N Bill-in-Georgia on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 12:23am

  Character

  But what was the message? Surely important. Our Sam seems quite discreet about putting his boss’s business into his diary.

  Query: Does Sam’s method of writing his diary qualify as a character or was it just a form of shorthand? If not a character, why didn’t he use one?

• N Mary on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 08:07am

  Character vs. shorthand

  Sam’s diary is written in a slightly personalised version of Shelton’s ‘Short Writing and Tachygraphy’, which was published in London in 1626. (See L&M Vol 1, pp. xlviii ff.). It was designed to enable people to write quickly rather than secretly.

  The character that Sam uses when writing out confidential letters for Mountagu is a code, designed to preserve secrecy. It is plainly a laborious process to turn plain text into character and we saw, in the earlier entries, that on occasion Sam did not manage to encode his exemplars to Mountagu’s satisfaction and had to do the work over again.

  Presumably Sam’s reason for choosing to use shorthand for the diary is that he was primarily interested in immediacy of record ( with an element of discretion) rather than secrecy at the expense of immediacy.

• N Matthew on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 02:04pm

  “So I spent all the day about it” - yet he was only given the job in the afternoon. Along with “great large” is this an indication of petulance at being given excessive work?

• N Nix on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 04:22pm

  Uncertainty —

  Consider Samuel’s situation in light of the current state of affairs in Iraq (sorry to bring the 21st century into this): The repressive government has fallen, various groups of “fanatiques” are competing for influence, and nobody knows how it will come out. I’m not trying to make some political point, but only to emphasize Eric’s insight about reading this in light of the author who did not know the end of the story.

• N M.Stolzenbach on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 04:31pm

  Loved this sentence:

  “And every man begins to be merry and full of hopes. “

• N Paul Brewster on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 05:24pm

  L&M Footnote on the song-book:
  “Playford’s Select ayres and dialogues (1659), pp. 112-113, has Thomas Brewer’s new setting of James Shirley’s lyric ‘Turn Amaryllis to thy swain’ (Schoole of complement, 1631, p. 37).”

• N Warren Keith Wright on Fri 25 Apr 2003, 11:29pm

  Born in London in 1611, Thomas Brewer, composer and viol player, served in the household of Sir Nicholas Lestrange at some point in his career; he seems to have died sometime between 1660 and 1670. Aside from instrumental works, he wrote a good many airs and catches. “His best-known song,” says “New Grove” (3.273), “is probably the glee ‘Turn, Amaryllis, to thy swain’”.
  Anyone have any luck finding the Shirley text?

• N Paul Brewster on Sat 26 Apr 2003, 12:38am

  Turne Amaryllis
  Here’s what I’ve found so far although not in the place referenced by L&M:
  The treasury of musick (1669):
  Turn Amarillis to thy Swain turn Amarillis to thy Swain, turn Amarillis to thy Swain, thy Damon calls thee back again, thy Damon calls thee back again: Here is a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty Arbour by, where Apollo, where Apollo, where Apollo, where Apollo, cannot cannot spy, where Apollo cannot spy. Here let’s sit, and whilst I play, sing to my Pipe, sing to my Pipe, sing to my Pipe, sing to my Pipe, sing to my Pipe a Rounddelay; sing to my Pipe, sing to my Pipe, sing to my Pipe a Rounddelay. (From the English Poetry Database)

• N Paul Brewster on Sat 26 Apr 2003, 12:42am

  Another less elaborate source for “Turne Amarillis” with pretty much the same general idea
  Catch that Catch can (1652):
  Turne Amarillis to thy Swaine, thy Damon calls thee back againe. Here is a pretty pretty Arbor by, where Apollo, cannot spy: there lets sit, and whilst I play, sing to my pipe a round delay. (Again the English Poetry Database)