Sunday 23 February 1661/62

Annotations

• N Miss Ann on Wed 23 Feb 2005, 11:41pm

  Dr Fuller’s “Worthys” - is our Sam compiling lists in his head of those “worthys” that will be worthwhile knowing? Who’s who and all that … let’s not waste time with people who won’t be worth knowing as we climbs the corporate ladder, OR, is it a matter of “know thine enemies” and being prepared just in case …
  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM.

• N Ruben on Wed 23 Feb 2005, 11:51pm

  He did not tell us about it before, but now he has his own Worthys…
  You may see a 20 years later version of the book in the excellent site of Otago’s library in the net, were you will also find pictures of cards and pictures Pepys collected, and more extraordinary material. He left some 3000 books collected. Our man was really a bibliophile!
  http://www.library.otago.ac.nz/exhibitions/london/london_five.html

• N Pete Zicari on Thu 24 Feb 2005, 06:27pm

  Here we have a true measure of the man, that enabled him to rise so high in the esteem of his friends and noble patron: Fighting a cold and feeling it get worse, he can write in his diary — in code that no one will read for centuries — that “I think I may reckon myself as happy a man as any is in the world.” Happy birthday indeed.

• N A. De Araujo on Thu 24 Feb 2005, 11:15pm

  “my cold being increase”
  Obviously the something warm he got yesterday did not work as it should not have.

• N Robert Gertz on Fri 25 Feb 2005, 02:00am

  Happy Birthday indeed!

• N PHE on Fri 25 Feb 2005, 05:54am

  What joie de vivre
  “I think I may reckon myself as happy a man as any is in the world”

• N Wim van der Meij on Fri 25 Feb 2005, 06:17pm

  Re: PHE’s comment: and what a great motto for one’s birthday!
  I wonder though if the ‘getting an estate’ is thought essential by Sam to reckon himself happy.

• N Carolina on Fri 25 Feb 2005, 09:19pm

  I find it quite interesting that he says he has an increasing cold yet later on he says he finds himself in very good health.
  A cold was not considered an illness in those days?

• N Australian Susan on Sat 26 Feb 2005, 12:52am

  “very good health”
  I took that to mean that he has no long term ailments or disabilities - the cold was perceived as transitory and something he would assume he would get better from. It’s like the difference between a horse being sound and being fit. It may be “sound in wind and limb”, but not “fit to race”, if either ill-conditioned or with a slight infection somewhere. Not that I am comparing Sam to a horse…..

• N Mary on Sat 26 Feb 2005, 11:36am

  Sam’s very good health.

  Australian Susan has the right of it. The clue lies in Sam’s assessment of himself “and like to live and get an estate”. After enduring a sickly childhood and surviving his cutting for the stone, Sam fully appreciates his own essential good health. A cold is seen as merely a passing nuisance, even if he does cosset himself a little with ‘“something warm” before bed.

• N Todd Bernhardt on Sat 26 Feb 2005, 05:20pm

  re: Colds and Estates

  Do we know that a “cold” back in Sam’s day meant the same thing that it did today? Or could it encompass a wider variety of ills?

  As for Wim’s comment about an estate being essential to Sam’s happiness, I think it’s a matter of him simply saying “my prospects are good,” which is a reason for his optimism. Remember, this was a time when a comfortable retirement was by no means assured, and building an “estate” (which I assume does not necessarily involve land, but could also mean ample money in the bank/under the mattress) was the sole responsibility of the potential retiree (unless they got lucky in marriage, had a rich relative who remembered them, etc.)

• N Carolina on Sat 26 Feb 2005, 06:15pm

  Do we know that a

• N vicenzo on Sat 26 Feb 2005, 08:41pm

  Retirement: so many gattered the coin of the realm, only to end up in debtors prison [there be at least 5 prisonsfor those that angered their creditor] . Even some rich bankers ended their days destitute. Take Sams last boss [Slingsby]of the navy, his family had to petition the House of Lords to sell all, to pay his Creditors. So Sam will be aware of the consequencies of spending more than he can he can lays his hands on. [never count one’s eggs ‘till the bird lays them, even be more foolish to count the chickens ye be getting from the eggs laid, let alone those that maybe laid.

• N Andrew Hamilton on Sat 5 Mar 2005, 09:57pm

  Retirement: “Better to go down dignified, with boughten friendship at your side, than none at all. Provide, Provide.”

• N vicenzo on Sat 5 Mar 2005, 10:16pm

  “boughten friendship” only as long you keep a buying.
  “Frugalitas miseria est rumoris boni”
  or frugal misery is a good rumour

  
  http://libri.freenfo.net/2/2035012.html

  Frugality is wretchedness with a good name…Syrus, Maxims.
  Fidem qui perdit, nihil pote ultra perdere.
  Lose credit and one lose no more.