Monday 16 December 1661

Annotations

• N A. De Araujo on Thu 16 Dec 2004, 11:23pm

  “up by 5 o’clock this morning”
  At what time does the sun come up in London this time of the year?

• N Alan Bedford on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 12:49am

  “…where there was a new play (

• N Adri Overgaauw on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 12:55am

• N Bradford on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 01:52am

  “it being the first time, the pay was doubled, and so to save money, my wife and I went up into the gallery, and there sat and saw very well.”

  Ah, because of its novelty, the ticket price was twice the norm? But if you waited, and the play failed, there might not be a later discount matinee. So to speak.

• N daniel on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 01:58am

  “the pay was doubled, and so to save money, “

  this is a touching reminder of how close Sam’s world and ours is. I still recall going to film matinees as a child and hoping to stay for a second showing unnoticed by ushers, as it was a economical way of spending a rainy afternoon.

• N JWB on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 04:09am

  Sandwiches at the pied-a-terre? No, the pied-a-terre is Sandwich’s.

• N Bullus Hutton on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 06:28am

  “it being the first time, the pay was doubled ..but if you waited, and the play failed, there might not be a later discount “
  Bradford, was it GBS or Wilde who said “Here are two tickets to my opening night. Bring a friend..if you have one”
  And the response was: “Busy that night. Will attend your second night.. if you have one”

• N A. De Araujo on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 12:15pm

  Thanks Overgaauw, no wonder they have been staying in bed until late,lately

• N Stolzi on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 02:50pm

  “Cutter, an old word for a rough swaggerer”

  Good heavens, could we have a survival here of a seventeenth-century word? My mother, fifty years ago in the South, would shake her head and say of a really unconventional, perhaps “fast,” type, “She’s a cutter!”

  More of women than men, as I recall.

• N vicenzo on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 09:16pm

  ‘cut’ or ‘cutter’ appears NOT to have been derived directly from any Latin origin, but the English word did provide so many offspring even for a simple dictionary. I’m sure I will read a cutting remark, as I cut a swash thru a bunch of cut throats wearing my cutty sark [?beeing a X dresser?],before cutting my jib.

• N language hat on Fri 17 Dec 2004, 11:34pm

  cutter (OED):
  3. a. One over-ready to resort to weapons; a bully, bravo; also, a cutthroat, highway-robber. Obs.
  
  1568 GRAFTON Chron. II. 85 He.. gathered together a companye of Roysters and Cutters, and practised robberyes. 1581 G. PETTIE Guazzo’s Civ. Conv. III. 135b, Like these cutters, and hackers, who will take the wall of men, and picke quarrells. 1607 R. C. tr. H. Stephen’s World of Wonders 95 A theefe, or rather a cutter by the high way. 1734 NORTH Lives II. 57 His infirmities were passion, in which he would swear like a cutter [etc.]. 1826 SCOTT Woodst. xxvii, I see, sir, you understand cutter’s law — when one tall fellow has coin, another must not be thirsty.

• N dirk on Sat 18 Dec 2004, 03:07am

  “up by 5 o

• N Michael Wright on Sat 18 Dec 2004, 03:23am

  “up by 5 o’clock”

  I think “o’clock” means what it says, “by the clock” — that is, equal hours.

• N Grahamt on Sat 18 Dec 2004, 09:11am

  I think 8:05 was the answer to:
  “At what time does the sun come up in London this time of the year?”

• N Adri Overgaauw on Tue 21 Dec 2004, 12:57am

  Indeed, 8:05 was answer to:
  

• N vicenzo on Tue 21 Dec 2004, 04:30am

  Five o’clock = five on the clock. When whats said is standard repartois then the least no. of syllables the better. The hour glass be turned every half hour, therefore, there be the unmentioned geezer turning it and ringing the poor old bell at the appropiate times. The Lodgings, I be sure had a man on duty to keep Watch on the street and the glass but like most of the lessers, their important but not noteworthy job be totally unnoticed till he fails in his task. All of the better types of residences have a faceless unknown, who if they had kept a diary, it would be worth a reading on how the betters do live. Now the faceless ones cost too much to have around , so we install cameras and hi tech screeners to filter out the raff riff.