Monday 30 December 1661

Annotations

• N Australian Susan on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 01:00am

  “which I never saw”
  Surely this is a first! Elizabeth seeing a play before Sam! Wonder how long it will be before he manages to see it?
  “which do not much displease”
  He doesn’t sound very enthusiastic about the paintings, does he? No record of what Elizabeth thought.

• N Alan Bedford on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 01:06am

  …my wife has been at a play to-day and saw

• N Stolzi on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 02:15am

  Dinner

  Do you suppose any bread, vegetables, or whatever was served with the beef, oysters and chicken?

  What a rascal to promise them a sumptuous dinner yearly but not “intend to keep it.”

• N vicenzo on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 03:40am

  a quote from Chapman’s Busy D’Ambois that might have amused Sam “speed his plough”
  … GEORGE CHAPMAN. English poet and dramatist (c. 1559 - 1634). … Bussy d’Ambois [Opportunity]
  His deeds inimitable, like the Sea That shuts still as it opes, and …

  “…His first play, Bussy d’Ambois was performed by Paul’s Boys in 1604. Chapman collaborated with Ben Jonson on the comic drama Eastward Ho!, in 1605. Because of some vague slurs about Scots in Eastward both Jonson and Chapman were briefly imprisoned….”

• N Conrad on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 04:20am

  “which do not much displease us”
  is a double negative, meaning that really the paintings are, to them pleasing. We now see that two paintings have been produced & they even have their friend Sir W Penn over to the artist’s studio to view them.

• N Mary on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 07:20am

  For “Mere I staid” read “Here I staid”.

• N Clement on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 09:02am

  George Chapman

  is also the translator famously honored by Keats’ “On first reading Chapman’s Homer.”
  Though some modern critics sniff that his pentameter couplets are too tightly constrained to be as lucid as modern free-verse translations of the Greek dactylic hexameter, his work often soars, and preserves the feel of oral presentation better than free verse.

  But another quote from Bussy D’Ambois suited for Sam’s experience, “O what is man Unless he be a Politician?”

• N Australian Susan on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 03:55pm

  “which do not much displease us”
  I took this to mean that he was displeased with them, but not very much - not that the phrase contained a double negative - Sam has been unhappy with his portrait, but now is feeling a bit better about it (but only a bit).

• N Australian Susan on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 03:57pm

  It is 1.55am here, so Happy New Year to everyone!

• N Douglas Robertson on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 04:16pm

  Thomas Shadwell
  Is this the same Thomas Shadwell who was lampooned by Dryden in Mac Flecknoe?

• N JWB on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 04:20pm

  “… but I do not intend it.”
  I suppose Sam’s smoozing with the old crowd at the Exchequer to assist him with the Navy debt estimates he’s been assigned. “O what is man Unless he be a Politician?

• N Nate on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 05:38pm

  Stolzi, I don’t think there would be much available in the way of vegetables as it was winter and the art of canning was still in the future. Roots and tubers could be stored for later consumption. Cabbage could be fermented and stored but I don’t think that was the custom in England.

• N A. Hamilton on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 05:44pm

  Same Thos Shadwell lampooned by Dryden?

  Yes.

  http://www.don-juan.org/english/angleterre/la17m0f1.htm

• N vicenzo on Fri 31 Dec 2004, 07:47pm

  “…to see our pictures, which do not much displease us…” At least there be no worts, that could be seen by anybody [pre peri winkle days {nick name for covering the spot of tonsure}periwig] there fore no wigging of the painter.
  Painting be better than modern digital pics. Even a good portrait photographer has to find ways to disguise those little details that be annoying to the subject under the lights. Ah! for the art of disguise to reveal the real you.
  Nothing has changed, vanity goes on. It was said latter by a poet ” oh! to have the gifte to see oneself as others see us”
  misquote of Rabbi Burnes;

• N vicenzo on Sat 1 Jan 2005, 04:04am

  Mr. Faulconberge: there was sitting in the House of L one Viscount Fouconberg. Any connection? as the name be old Yorkshire, maybe one of the branches that be way out on a limb. Family trees be like regular trees infested . Names be corrupted by the dulcet tones of the times. See the Peppis spellings, no computer to spell check.

• N Pedro. on Sat 1 Jan 2005, 11:42am

  House of L one Viscount Fouconberg.

  This was probably the 2nd Viscount Fouconberg. Thomas Belasye (1627-1700), for family tree see…
  http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/bb4ae/belasyse2.htm

  He may have married Mary the 3rd daughter of Cromwell.
  http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/2512.php

• N wembley on Sat 1 Jan 2005, 09:08pm

  Even in the hideous winter climate of England, it is still possible to harvest curly kale, winter cauliflower, cabbage and - of course - Brussels sprouts!

• N Pedro on Thu 7 Feb 2008, 12:01pm

  On this day…

  Allin is now on his way to Cadiz and east of Tavira…

  “We had one Robt Luines a foremast man taken upon one Cook’s chest and being asked what he did there by Cook he said nothing. He having picked the lock took out 16 biscuits, cheese and butter and question him for them he denied them, but looking upon his bed found them turned into his blanket. So this morning he was whipped for his theft as an example to others. He had 20 lashes, but never shed a tear, a graceless rouge and an old thief.”