Saturday 11 May 1661

Annotations

• N Bradford on Tue 11 May 2004, 11:55pm

  “to a barber

• N Hic retearius on Wed 12 May 2004, 01:30am

  Haircut

  A poster observed recently that we don

• N dirk on Wed 12 May 2004, 02:39am

  and had my haire cut (…) finding that the length of it do become me very much

  “Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas”
  (transl. Vanity of the vanities, and all is vanity)
  Eccl. I, 2

  On the other hand, some degree of vanity seems not unfitting, considering Sam’s recent rise in social status well…
  

• N vicente on Wed 12 May 2004, 03:14am

  Sounds like our Sam is in the non Chartered Accounts business:
  “…This afternoon Mr. Shepley, Moore, and Creed came to me all about their several accounts with me, and we did something with them all, and so they went away…”
  “Opinion of Book-keeping’s Antiquity,” the author states, on the authority of another writer, that the form of book-keeping referred to had then been in use in Italy about two hundred years, “but that the same, or one in many parts very like this, was used in the time of Julius Caesar, and in Rome long before.” He gives quotations of Latin book-keeping terms in use in ancient times, and refers to “ex Oratione Ciceronis pro Roscio Comaedo”; and he adds:
  “That the one side of their booke was used for Debitor, the other for Creditor, is manifest in a certaine place, Naturalis Historiae Plinii, lib. 2, cap. 7, where hee, speaking of Fortune, saith thus:
  Huic Omnia Expensa.
  Huic Omnia Feruntur accepta et in tota Ratione mortalium sola
  Utramque Paginam facit.”

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting#History

  here all expenses,
  here all [ I am borne] that i am owed, credit side and in total the calculations, man made and forsaken.
  and both sides made [balanced]
  The final page to be ‘sigh=ned’ off.
  tis for a Chartered one [or CPA]to correct.

• N roberto on Wed 12 May 2004, 05:23am

  “to a barber

• N Paul Chapin on Wed 12 May 2004, 05:59am

  Hic retearius,
  Sorry, but I don’t know where to find the ‘related photo’ album, despite having looked in several places. I would like to see the portrait of SP you mention. Can you provide a link? Thanks!

• N Hic retearius on Wed 12 May 2004, 06:15am

  Paul Chapin

  Sam in tonsorial glory:

  http://www.smartgroups.com/pictures/openpicture.cfm?GID=1855698&AlbumID=2993209&PictureID=22022394&Layout=D&Sort=ordernum&Dir=ASC

• N Mary on Wed 12 May 2004, 07:48am

  beard, mustache.

  Most men at this time were clean shaven; at least, that was the aim although it appears that a daily shave was not always de rigueur, so there would have been some stubbly chins about.

  Despite the fact that Charles II seems to have worn a thin mustache for much of this life, portrait evidence in general indicates that this did not catch on as a widely-followed fashion.

• N Hic retearius on Wed 12 May 2004, 08:15am

  Mary

  Ok, how’s this, Mary?

  http://www.smartgroups.com/pictures/openalbum.cfm?GID=1855698&AlbumID=2993209&layout=D&viewType=detailed&sort=ordernum&dir=ASC&shownum=10&Page=21

• N Mary on Wed 12 May 2004, 11:15am

  ‘saw my workmen follow their work’

  At this point, L&M reads ‘fallow their work’, but I think that this must be a simple misprint. OED offers no possible application of ‘fallow’ (normally an agricultural or landscape term) that would make any sense in this passage unless Pepys were having the new staircase stained ‘a dull, yellowish brown’ which is one adjectival meaning of the word. Even in that case I should expect him to say that it was being painted or stained, rather than ‘fallowed’.

• N Ray Hyde on Wed 12 May 2004, 11:47am

  finding that the length of it do become me very much

  Is it that Sam had shorter hair in the years leading up to the diary and is gradually transforming himself Cavalier-style now the Roundheads have gone?

• N Ann on Wed 12 May 2004, 03:13pm

  As to “curious,” I expect its this definitio from OED:

  2. Careful as to the standard of excellence; difficult to satisfy; particular; nice, fastidious. Obs. a. esp. in food, clothing, matters of taste.
  
  c1380 WYCLIF Sel. Wks. III. 205 Take meete and drinke in mesure, ne to costli ne to licorouse, and be not to corious eraboute. 1489 CAXTON Faytes of A. I. vii. 17 Not curyous of mygnotes, folyetes ne of iewellis. 1579 LYLY Euphues (Arb.) 118 Be not curious to curle thy haire. a1592 H. SMITH Serm. (1866) II. 329 Christ was not curious in his diet. 1605 CAMDEN Rem. (1637) 285 There was one that was very curious in keeping of his beard. 1781 GIBBON Decl. & F. II. 45 They soon became..curious in their diet and apparel. 1821 SCOTT Kenilw. iii, In arranging which [the hair] men at that time..were very nice and curious.
  
  

• N Todd Bernhardt on Wed 12 May 2004, 03:55pm

  re: Sam, the modern executive

  Hic, you done it! Excellent.

  (Oh, and you owe me a new keyboard … this one is slowly getting ruined by the coffee spewed over it from the spit-take I did when I saw your work :-)

• N JWB on Wed 12 May 2004, 04:26pm

  Curious Payne…
  Is Payne such good waterman that Sam’s reco will win him kudos from Lord Chamberlain, or is Sam working in an agent? How explain two postings on seeming trifle matter?
  

• N Ruben on Wed 12 May 2004, 04:50pm

  Curious Payne

• N Emilio on Wed 12 May 2004, 07:04pm

  “fallow their work”

  Mary, this is more likely an example of L&M’s reconstructed 17th-century spelling, like ‘maister’, rather than a misprint. Just think of pronouncing the “fa” as in ‘fa la la la la’.
  

• N vicente on Wed 12 May 2004, 07:48pm

  Why the favor? Maybe he Knows Paine from some previous time, but also [remotely] because he was short of the Doe Rae Me, and Samuel P. told him he would not regret giving him a free ride to Wesminster. Many have done and some do follow through with these vague promises.[Remember he did short change the cabby at one time]

• N Glyn on Wed 12 May 2004, 11:41pm

  Vincent: “Maybe he knows Payne from some previous time.” Quite right!

  If we refer back to two days ago Pepys writes: “I spoke for my old waterman Payne” So it seems he was helping out an ex-employee

• N Pauline on Thu 13 May 2004, 06:14am

  Why the favor?
  Maybe he found Payne to be an excellent fellow and good at his work and is happy to give his career a boost. This is how such hiring is done. The court doesn’t have an employment office/human resources department.

• N Mary on Thu 13 May 2004, 07:43am

  Emilio: follow/fallow

  I can’t find a single instance of ‘follow’ being rendered ‘fallow’ in 16th-17th century citations in OED. The verb entered English with a short O (OE folgian) and has hung on to that vowel ever since.

  If ‘fallow’ is not a misprint in L&M, perhaps Pepys himself mis-spelled the shorthand by placing the vowel-marker in the wrong position.

• N Rich Merne on Thu 13 May 2004, 12:29pm

  Follow etc.
  Why not accept “folow” in that printed form, and then it’s sense as, *attend to*, their work. I think this is especially likely since they (the workmen) have not attended to (followed) their work much in his absence.

• N A. Hamilton on Thu 13 May 2004, 02:32pm

  Vincent:

  I appreciated your comment on Sam’s balance sheet work. He does so much of it, and its informative to learn how ancient is double-entry bookkeeping (which I learned as a lad but seldom use).