Friday 23 May 1662

Annotations

• N Australian Susan on Mon 23 May 2005, 11:56pm. Flag this

  Wit in a Constable
  written by Henry Glapthorne in 1639.
  “GLAPTHORNE, HENRY (fi. 1635-1642), English poet and dramatist, wrote in the reign of Charles I. All that is known of him is gathered from his own work. He published Poems (1639), many of them in praise of an unidentified Lucinda ; a poem in honor of his friend Thomas Beedome, whose Poems Divine and Humane he edited in 1641; and Whitehall (1642), dedicated to his noble friend and gossip, Captain. Richard Lovelace. The first volume contains a poem in honor of the duke of York, and Whitehall is a review of the past glories of the English court, containing abundant evidences of the writers devotion to the royal cause. Argalus and Parthenia (1639) is a pastoral tragedy founded on an episode in Sidneys Arcadia; Albertus Wallenstein (1639), his only attempt at historical tragedy, represents Wallenstein as a monster of pride and cruelty. His other plays are The Hollander (written 1635; printed 1640), a romantic comedy of which the scene is laid in Genoa; Wit in a Constable (1640), which is probably a version of an earlier play, and owes something to Shakespeares Much Ado about Nothing; and The Ladies Priviledge (1640). The Lady Mother (1635) has been identified (Fleay, Biog. Chron. of the Drama) with The Noble Trial, one of the plays destroyed by Warburtons cook, and Mr A. H. Bullen prints it in vol. ii. of his Old English Plays as most probably Glapthornes work. The Paraside, or Revenge for honor (1654), entered at Stationers Hall in 1653 as Glapthornes, was printed in the next year with George Chapmans name on the title-page. It should probably be included among Glapthornes plays, which, though they hardly rise above the level of contemporary productions, contain many felicitous isolated passages. ” from 1911 online
  

• N Louis on Mon 23 May 2005, 11:59pm. Flag this

  A hammered dulcimer, and Henry Glapthorne (fl. 1635-42), all in one day: “Wit in a Constable (1639 or 1640) … is probably a version of an earlier play, and owes something to Shakespeares ‘Much Ado about Nothing’.”

  Bit of dialogue:
  

• N Australian Susan on Tue 24 May 2005, 12:04am. Flag this

  Dulcimer
  What Sam saw was a hammered dulcimer (see http://www.rtpnet.org/~hdweb/ ) Not to be confused with the plucked Mountain Dulcimer more commonly seen in the USA (e.g.http://www.everythingdulcimer.com/)
  Typical of Sam, can’t resist anything new be it puppet plays or music or even those mysterious muscats he’s waiting for! His happiness at having “my Lord” back safe and well is shining through this entry and a I do like the “slunk away” - Sam knows he is valued and wanted by the Sandwiches - he has no need to hang about and be sycophantic. Much better take the wife off to the theatre, even if it is a dud drama.

• N A. De Araujo on Tue 24 May 2005, 12:05am. Flag this

  “a very agreeable lady,and paints still”
  Is she a painter or does she paint herself?I am confused!

• N Australian Susan on Tue 24 May 2005, 02:10am. Flag this

  “paints still”
  Now, I was rather surprised by this as I thought it would be the older ladies who would *start* painting, rather than this being something done by young ladies and then left off. Anyone an expert on make-up in the 17th century out there? Surely, “painting” was an attribute of the “actress” - sometime synonym for prostitute? Or was it OK for the aristocracy. We know that Elizabeth wore patches, but did she “paint” too?

• N Robert Gertz on Tue 24 May 2005, 02:13am. Flag this

  Slunk away to the Opera, eh?…I can just see our conspiratorial twosome slipping off.

  (Actually I’m listening right now to “And So to Bed” the Ellis 50’s musical on Sam and Beth, in particular one song where Beth is singing about slipping off alone with Sam…Very appropriate)

  
  

• N dirk on Tue 24 May 2005, 02:18am. Flag this

  “that the Queen is a very agreeable lady, and paints still”

  I agree with Susan that this sounds unusual. Are there any alternative interpretations - other than her making paintings? Does anybody with L&M have an alternative reading?
  

• N dirk on Tue 24 May 2005, 02:41am. Flag this

  16th & 17th c. facial make up

  See:
  http://costume.dm.net/paintedface/index.html
  

• N A. Hamilton on Tue 24 May 2005, 04:32am. Flag this

  dulcimer

  In the U.S. South we call the instrument heard by Sam a hammer dulcimer.

  “[Hammer]Dulcimers were reasonably common domestic and concert instruments in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. No doubt they were first brought to the colonies from England where they were used in the street music of the time. Portability and simplicity made the dulcimer much more practical than the piano for many settlers. These attributes probably led to its association with the lumber camps of Maine and Michigan. It is still referred to as a “lumberjack’s piano” in the North. As names for the dulcimer go, however, the American appellation “whamadiddle” must be ranked as most colorful, with a close second in the German term “hackbrett,” literally “chopping board!”.

  http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmah/hdhist.htm

• N jamie yeager on Tue 24 May 2005, 06:12am. Flag this

• N Pauline on Tue 24 May 2005, 06:38am. Flag this

  The King and Queen
  Charles is 32, Catherine 24
  (Lady Castlemaine is 22)

• N Mary on Tue 24 May 2005, 07:06am. Flag this

  “and paints still”

  L&M point out that face-painting was much more commonly practised in Mediterranean countries (i.e. southern Europe)than in northern Europe at this date. Sandwich’s estimation of the new queen as a very agreeable lady rules out any suspicion that a painted face betrays a brazen hussy in this case.

• N Pedro on Tue 24 May 2005, 09:08am. Flag this

  “Sandwich

• N Peter on Tue 24 May 2005, 09:22am. Flag this

  “Slunk away to the Opera”… struck me too… not because they did it, but because of the way Sam expresses it. It sounds almost too modern. I love the way things like this take you by surprise from time to time.

• N Pedro on Tue 24 May 2005, 09:38am. Flag this

• N Xjy on Tue 24 May 2005, 10:56am. Flag this

  A joyous day
  Yup, full of joy for our Sam. Lots happening, good news, good people, good entertainment. It’s May, his patron and protector’s back after a long and sometimes anxious absence, the King and Queen are in a good mood, so is Beth, and Punch gets to wallop Judy around before getting his come-uppance.
  So his tail’s wagging away even if he has trouble expressing it.

• N Pedro on Tue 24 May 2005, 12:18pm. Flag this

  “I first saw a dulcimer played on with sticks knocking of the strings, and is very pretty.”

  If Sam had been under the influence of “muscatt”, in his vision he may have seen an Abyssinian maid, that on her dulcimer she played. And is very pretty.

• N Tom Burns on Tue 24 May 2005, 01:45pm. Flag this

  What a week!

  Beginning with Beth’s ravishment in her “new suit of black sarcenet and yellow petticoat”, followed by a play or opera every day! Almost makes me want to go back to 1662, except for wont of antibiotics and drawing and quartering…

• N Sjoerd on Tue 24 May 2005, 09:16pm. Flag this

• N language hat on Tue 24 May 2005, 10:09pm. Flag this

  paints:
  There are two OED definitions that could apply, ‘to apply makeup’ and ‘to change color (from emotion)’:

  b. intr. To apply colour to the face or body; spec. to make use of cosmetics.
  […] 1603 SHAKESPEARE Haml. V. i. 189 Bid her paint her selfe an inch thicke, to this she must come. 1647 J. HALL Poems I. 3 If you.. besaint Old Jesabel for shewing how to paint. 1712 J. ARBUTHNOT John Bull III. i. 7 She scorn’d to Patch and Paint. 1764 Ann. Reg. 92/2 The women of all ranks & ages paint; they are generally very handsome. […]

  c. intr. To change colour due to sudden emotion. Freq. in to paint pale (also white): to turn pale. Obs.
  a1529 J. SKELTON Elynour Rummyng, There was a pryckemedenty Sat lyke a seynty And began to paynty As though she wolde faynty. a1627 T. MIDDLETON More Dissemblers besides Women I. i, in 2 New Playes (1657) 2 I’ll kiss thee into colour, Canst thou paint pale so quickly. 1631 B. JONSON Divell is an Asse II. vi. 35 in Wks. II, Mrs. Fi. You make me paint, Sr. Wit. The’ are faire colours, Lady, and naturall! 1677 T. BETTERTON Counterfeit Bridegroom II. i. 20 The Widow paints White, some Aqua Coelestis there, quickly.

• N language hat on Tue 24 May 2005, 10:10pm. Flag this

  (Not that I think the second definition is likely here, but it’s interesting.)

• N Pedro on Tue 24 May 2005, 11:15pm. Flag this

• N dirk on Wed 25 May 2005, 02:48am. Flag this

  “her conversation, as much as I can perceive, is very good”

  re - Pedro’s annotation above

  **as much as I can perceive** :
  don’t forget they are conversing in Spanish! - the only language both Charles and his new queen master sufficiently to engage in conversation but a foreign language to both of them.
  

• N dirk on Wed 25 May 2005, 02:56am. Flag this

  the Queen’s blush

  I tend to agree with Pedro on this. Not at all unlikely interpretation of “paints still”.

  Thanks, language.hat
  

• N Cumgranissalis on Wed 25 May 2005, 03:34am. Flag this

  “… and paints still…” and blushes still, for such a girl, so way passed sweet sixteen,, and out of the convent too. I doth beleive it be the perfect answer even for a DOM. Still being still possible, with all those Tars around.Thanks LH et al.
  

• N Pedro on Sun 12 Jun 2005, 04:48pm. Flag this

  Still Painting.

  The Portuguese writer Casimiro quotes from the Journal of Sandwich, after his first visit with Catarina…

  “Dark and rosy, beautiful black eyes, an air of youthful innocence.”