Tuesday 5 November 1661

Annotations

• N dirk on Tue 2 Nov 2004, 01:13am

  crackers

  Did Wayneman’s fireworks accident on 2 November have anything to do with this? Probably.

• N dirk on Tue 2 Nov 2004, 01:24am

  “seeing the boys in the streets flying their crackers”

  What’s the occasion? Some festival I’m not aware of? (I’m not British, so I hope I can be forgiven here.)

• N Robert Gertz on Tue 2 Nov 2004, 02:19am

  Nice of Sam to butter up brother Tom’s customer…Though I wonder what Beth thought of Mr. A, his “attentions”, and Sam’s tolerance for them.

  Nice to think they had a merry time making fun of the would-be playboy.

  Anyone keeping track of the number of times our Bess has been hit on?

• N vicente on Tue 2 Nov 2004, 04:20am

  Maybe pre-celebration of 5 of nov[Guye FFalkes, gun powder plot?] like they do for the 4th of July [USA]
  An Ass eh!who Sam or Armiger, never leave a man in his cups with a wench who may be in her cups ?
  Iniuriam faclius quam feras Syrus Maxims
  it’s easier to do a wrong than endure one.

• N Pedro. on Fri 5 Nov 2004, 11:38pm

  Last year.
  “This 5th of November is observed exceeding well in the City; and at night great bonfires and fireworks.”
  http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/11/05/index.php#annotations
  

• N Conrad on Fri 5 Nov 2004, 11:44pm

  In 1605, Guy Fawkes (also known as Guido - yes, really) and a group of conspirators attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

  After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had had a rough time under her reign had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. Alas, he was not, and this angered a number of young men who decided that violent action was the answer.

  One young man in particular, Robert Catesby suggested to some close friends that the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.

  To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords.

  But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that some innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. Was the letter real?

  The warning letter reached the King, and the King’s forces made plans to stop the conspirators.

  Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.

  It’s unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed - some people think the gunpowder they were planning to use was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and his colleagues got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we’ll never know for certain.

  Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, since the failed coup, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called “the State Opening of Parliament”. Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. Today, the Queen and Parliament still observe this tradition.

  These days, Guy Fawkes Day is also known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire.

  Some of the English have been known to wonder whether they are celebrating Fawkes’ execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government.
  

• N RexLeo on Fri 5 Nov 2004, 11:52pm

  “…he is an ass, and lays out money with Tom, otherwise I should not think him worth half this respect I shew him”

  It is interesting to see Sam putting up with a guy who is outrageously flirting with his wife for the sake of his no good brother but would not lift a finger to help Beth’s brother. She has a right to feel aggrieved.

• N Conrad on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 12:08am

  Dirk, here in Australia, as children, many years ago we called our fireworks, ‘crackers’ & we celebrated Guy Fawkes night with a traditional bonfire & Guy, that had been built up for a number of days beforehand. Fireworks these days have been banned for a number of years because of the injuries & accidental fires they caused. We still have a bonfire night but it is not now connected with Guy Fawkes & is now performed in May a cool month here in Australia, by licenced fireworks handlers. Wayneman’s injury is most certainly connected with the Guy Fawkes celebration.

• N Vince on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 12:29am

  Re: “What

• N Louis on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 02:16am

  Armiger, not provided with a link here, is, according to the L&M Companion,
  [William] Armiger (apparently his first name is never given in the Diary):

  “A Norfolk connection (‘cousin’) of Pepys, who lodged with Pepys’s brother Tom, the tailor. Richard Mansuer, his maternal uncle, had married Alice, widow of Thomas Pepys of South Creake, Norf., who was great-grandfather of Jane Turner and great-great-uncle of Pepys. William Armiger and one of his sons owed money to Tom Pepys at his death. He had ten sons and nine daughters.”

  So why does he lodge with Tom? Were these 19 all out on their own by this time? His dates, it would seem, are not known.

• N Robert Gertz on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 02:58am

  “It is interesting to see Sam putting up with a guy who is outrageously flirting with his wife for the sake of his no good brother but would not lift a finger to help Beth

• N upper_left_hand_corner on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 05:44am

  More info about the 5th of November celebrations and their motivation can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night

• N Philip on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 02:01pm

  “It is interesting to see Sam putting up with a guy who is outrageously flirting with his wife for the sake of his no good brother but would not lift a finger to help Beth

• N David A. Smith on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 05:38pm

  “courting her, but he is an ass, and lays out money with Tom”
  Here, I think, is the key — Sam would have nothing to do with Armiger, but Armiger shows dim Tom a good time, so Sam smirks and quaffs and lets Armiger clumsily drool at Elizabeth. I suspect Sam also has a good maritally-calibrated awareness that Elizabeth probably cannot stand the profligate Armiger, which makes it easier for Sam to watch, as cock of the walk.

• N Stolzi on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 06:37pm

  It begins to look to me as if, for William Penn the founder of Penneylvania, becoming an austere and pious Quaker was an act of wild adolescent rebellion against his parent Sir W! :)

• N vicente on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 07:22pm

  Son same as father for some, for others son be different, ‘tis a problem for most families to have a son that not follow pops into the fray of life.

• N Pedro. on Sat 6 Nov 2004, 11:00pm

  Conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot.

  For a description and a print showing the Conspirators see…

  http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext/BookofDays/14330547.html

• N Robert Gertz on Sun 7 Nov 2004, 02:55pm

  “It begins to look to me as if, for William Penn the founder of Penneylvania, becoming an austere and pious Quaker was an act of wild adolescent rebellion against his parent Sir W!”

  It’s the 60s, right? Will Jr is a college student…Quakerism is about as ‘hippie, flower-child’ as one can get at this time.

• N Australian Susan on Tue 9 Nov 2004, 10:07pm

  William Penn Jr
  Don’t forget - the younger Penn has just been rusticated (expelled) from Oxford. Yes, very much the rebellious student!

• N Mary on Tue 9 Nov 2004, 10:14pm

  Rustication.

  According to L&M, Penn jr.was sent down (expelled) not rusticated. Rustication involves being sent away from the university for a fixed period (perhaps the remaining portion of a full term) before being allowed back into one’s college. Not as drastic as being sent down.

• N Australian Susan on Wed 10 Nov 2004, 10:47am

  Even worse!!