Sunday 15 September 1661

Annotations

• N Pedro. on Wed 15 Sep 2004, 11:20pm

  “where besides us and my uncle Fenner’s family, there was none of any quality, but poor rascally people. “

  Knowing our Sam, this cannot be as bad as it sounds? No quality but rascals?

  http://www.jaggery.com/rascals.htm

• N Nix on Wed 15 Sep 2004, 11:49pm. Flag this

  “a troublesome carrion” —

  What a wonderful turn of phrase! I’ll definitelly have to save it and toss it out when the appropriate character shows up.

  It would also be a great name for a rock band.

• N language hat on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 02:22am. Flag this

  this cannot be as bad as it sounds?

  I’m afraid it is. A democratic respect for “all men created equal” was not a feature of respectable 17th-century Englishry; Sam was no Leveller.

• N JWB on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 02:56am. Flag this

  Kite-carrion
  It’s not funny Sam. This goes beyond nasty. It’s demented. Suddenly, Mama looks to be the sane one.

• N OzStu on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 05:25am. Flag this

  Music and singing.
  Sam seems to have lost interest in his music (last singing lesson 31 July ?). With all the stresses of Gravely business, Beths’ secret assignations, and troublesome relatives, a few hours music could have provided some welcome respite.

• N Xjy on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 05:45am

  “a troublesome carrion”
  Homo homini lupus (dog eat dog)
  Or in good old contemporary Hobbes’s words Bellum omnium contra omnes (every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost)

  Aunt Kite is family. God knows what he would say of the untouchables if their situation ever touched his mind…
  Sam was anything but a Leveller. Give him a ladder to climb and he’s happy as a squirrel in a squirrel-wheel :-)

• N helena murphy on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 06:40am. Flag this

  Although Sam as a university man is a gentleman,it is a shame that he does not behave accordingly ,and not look down on those who attended aunt Kite’s burial.
  As regards the above comment about” a democratic respect”,surely in today’s world democracy is becoming more and more a figment of the imagination. Respect for the individual can also be found in other political systems which do not adhere to the western “democratic process”.

• N Australian Susan on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 06:46am. Flag this

  “a troublesome carrion”
  I wondered if Sam had got confused and meant “vulture” (i.e. one that feeds on carcases or carrion). That would seem to make more sense in this context: that he, as executor, did not want to be troubled by the relatives flapping about the corpse of the will, trying to grab at bits and squabbling.

• N andy on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 09:00am

  quality

  The ability to ignore family mourning when a better offer comes along, e.g. a night out on the river with Sir Slingsby.

• N Kal on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 11:34am. Flag this

  quality

  A little harsh perhaps - the deceased is the remarried-widow of an uncle who died some eleven years previously (when Sam was only 19). Not excusing his airs (thought that would be expected of a man in his position), just his lack of grief.

• N Todd Bernhardt on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 11:55am

  re: poor rascally people

  Perhaps Sam was bemoaning the fact that, “besides us and my uncle Fenner’s family, there was none of any quality”? Hasn’t anyone here gone to a friend’s funeral and been saddened by a lack of attendance? Remember, funerals back then were events where attendees could hope to receive something (at least in the form of food and drink), and perhaps Sam is simply commenting upon people whom he sees as taking advantage of a sad situation? The rascals…

• N Bardi on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 02:09pm. Flag this

  Would any of us be less open and candid when writing in our own personal diary? Methinks you’ve come down hard on our Sam for merely expressing his views when they’re not what’s current protocol. Sometimes those “warts” are what make him our man!

• N Stolzi on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 02:43pm. Flag this

  Church today, and “prayers” in the evening, but we note that none of it seems to have improved Sam’s temper!

• N Todd Bernhardt on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 02:47pm. Flag this

  Hear, hear, Bardi! It’s for this very candor (and wartiness) that I read the diary.

• N A. Hamilton on Thu 16 Sep 2004, 11:56pm. Flag this

  Carrion

  American Heritage Dictionary gives as the 2nd meaning of this noun, “feeding on” rotting flesh.

  http://www.bartleby.com/61/81/C0128100.html

  By extension, Pegg Kite threatens to feed, kite-like, on the estate?

• N Pauline on Fri 17 Sep 2004, 02:14am. Flag this

  “…poor rascally people.”
  Maybe “rascal” in its meaning of “man of low birth or station,” “persons of the lowest class.” Sam could just be pointing out a class difference, using a common term. Neither “quality” nor “rascal” is used like this today without our hearing a tone of snobbery, in the one case, or expecting lively misbehavior in the other. That may not have been the case for Sam.
  

• N Nix on Fri 17 Sep 2004, 11:00pm. Flag this

  “poor rascally people” —

  No reason to be sanctimonious: every family has some, and Samuel is honest enough to recognize it. In my wife’s family, they referred to one set of relatives-by-marriage as “carnival people”. Certainly vivid, and an accepted view intra-family.

• N in Aqua Scripto on Sat 15 Apr 2006, 07:47pm. Flag this

  Nice phrase “… I shall fling up my executorship..”

• N Cum grano salis on Fri 14 Sep 2007, 08:45pm. Flag this

  For this this S. Pepys gets another OED entry;
  “…a troublesome carrion to us executors; but if she will not be ruled, I shall fling up my executorship….”

  4. Used (contemptuously) of a living person, as no better than carrion. Obs. 1547-64
  Dead, fit to be buried and/ or eaten, to be cleaned up,removed to make room for the living.
  Natures way of recycling.