Saturday 24 January 1662/63

Annotations

• N Bradford on Tue 24 Jan 2006, 11:23pm. Flag this

  “by lying with my sheet upon my lip, as I have of old observed it, my upper lip was blistered in the morning.”

  The consequence of lye? (No, no, not another pun.) Fabric allergy? Friction?

  “Graft”: here we go again. Really, Mr. Wheatley, it’s not like there was a sign posted on the wall, “Shave—-2 Bits, Haircut—-2 Shillings, Bleeding—-Inquire About Our Annual Rates.”

• N Clement on Tue 24 Jan 2006, 11:30pm. Flag this

  “…and by lying with my sheet upon my lip…my upper lip was blistered in the morning.”
  Sam’s not buying 300 thread count Egyption cotton, obviously. We are again reminded of another little element of difference between 17 c. live and ours.
  Graft: I agree, Bradford, a bit strong of a word for this time. Lagniappe, we might call it elsewhere, though lagniappe is rarely expressed in coin of the realm.

• N Todd Bernhardt on Tue 24 Jan 2006, 11:31pm. Flag this

  Actually, Mr. Wheatley, though I don’t deny that Sam took a little extra off the top (to extend Bradford’s barbershop analogy), I will say that you could read “bring me to something” in other than monetary terms — Sam could well be talking (as he already has, multiple times) about how minding his business will bring him status as well as wealth.

• N Tony Eldridge on Tue 24 Jan 2006, 11:49pm. Flag this

  No, I’m with D.W. Remember that Sandwich said originally that the salary was incidental in a post like Sam’s - it was what you could make on the side that counted. In my own small Somerset (UK) town we still celebrate Hugh Sexey who rose from poverty to become Elizabeth’s Auditor to the Treasury, amassing land and founding a school and almshouses - all or mostly from what he made ‘under the table’.

• N Terry F on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 01:17am. Flag this

  I think what’s involved is something between Wheatley’s “graft” and Clement’s “lagniappe” (the latter bringing us back to Katrina) —

  Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, “the gift,” and ultimately from Quechua yapay, “to give more.” The word came into the rich Creole dialect mixture of New Orleans and there acquired a French spelling. It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean “an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.” http://www.bartleby.com/61/80/L0018000.html

  — but in this case the gift or benefit is expected — by the hotel porter, the restaurant valet driver, the….

• N dirk on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 02:53am. Flag this

  “and delivered my manuscript to be bound”

  A sidenote:

  The Gutenberg site today made available a remarkable book on bookbindings (also some 17th century ones)— with illustrations:
  English Embroidered Bookbindings, by Cyril James Humphries Davenport, 1899

  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17585/17585-h/17585-h.htm

• N in Aqua Scripto on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 04:16am. Flag this

  Pretty be word of the day,
  ending yesterday : “…which is pretty enough, I came back to my office, and there set to business pretty late,…”
  then opens with “Lay pretty long, and by lying …”

• N Pauline on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 04:30am. Flag this

  “…by lying with my sheet upon my lip, as I have of old observed it, my upper lip was blistered in the morning…”
  This evokes dear memories of my father, third and last surviving child following several lost possibilities somewhat early 20th C. His minor physical observations were clear and held in some “telling” importance very much like this.

  I think Sam, Tom, Pall, and John—as the suvivors of eleven—will each have such evidence of their parents describing “reasons” and showing oddly minute concern for their health.

  We have Tom speech problems—a connection? Pall, the only surviving daughter—difficult? spoiled? what?

  How little we’ve heard of John to date.

  Sam—-a raring example of parental investment of total love, support, expectation of sucess.

• N in Aqua Scripto on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 04:53am. Flag this

  Mr Gauden turns up every 3 months : I wander why? rite around pay day.

• N Pauline on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 06:21am. Flag this

  ‘Mr Gauden turns up every 3 months ‘
  Well, I looked back to see if he represented Mr. Barlow’s interest, but that be Mr. Grant. It must be something similar, a quarterly expectation brings him to the forefront.

  Ah!! In the end the government’s inability to pay him for his victualizing for Tangier and navy in general ruins him. As that destiny looms into view, he might well show up every three months, if not more often.

• N alanB on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 10:27am. Flag this

  Is Mr Wheatley here as another annotator or marginator as you should all now be addressed?

• N A. Hamilton on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 05:32pm. Flag this

  my manuscript to be bound at the stationer’s

  Any suggestions as to the topic of this tome? From the margenting remark yesterday the subject is the Navy or some aspect of it.

• N A. Hamilton on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 05:35pm. Flag this

  The lagniappe was not picayune

  if it helped Sam to amass L600 in a couple of years. But the examples of high livers Batten and Povy suggest others took more. Should Sam be commended for the modesty of his charges for doing business?

• N Terry F on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 05:41pm. Flag this

  “my manuscript”

  This is but one of the names SP calls whatever-it-is about the Navy, but a while back L&M noted it doesn’t seem to have survived among his carefully-preserved books, so its content will remain a mystery.

• N A.Hamilton on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 05:46pm. Flag this

  Wheatley

  as editor is responsible for the remarks appearing in square brackets in the diary text used at this site.

• N A. Hamilton on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 05:50pm. Flag this

  Gawden (Gauden)his plight

  Not being paid for his goods can make a man attentive to details like pay day. Gauden,victualler to the Navy, went broke trying to collect. Better to be someone who gets paid for facilitating matters,like Sam, than a vendor subject to the royal whim.

• N celtcahill on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 06:23pm. Flag this

  “Lagniappe” ‘Bringing us to Katrina’

  True words; would our beaurocrats were as competent as Sam….

  I believe the upper lip problem may be Herpes I the ‘cold sore’; he gets something like it off & on with or without the sheet.
  

• N in Aqua Scripto on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 08:41pm. Flag this

  Re: ‘preety’: Pretty well used word by Samuell to describe his feelings, his long lie ins and those that he dothe meet;
  Since 27th of November ‘62, Samuell has used the word ‘pretty’ over 30 times. [less than 2 months ]
  That pretty well sums up our Sam .

• N A. De Araujo on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 08:53pm. Flag this

  “my upper lip was blistered in the morning”
  Greetings from Pernambuco, Brazil, where the sugar to pay for Queen Catherine’s Dowry came from.
  methinks contact dermatitis; herpes very unlikely.

• N jeannine on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 09:27pm. Flag this

  Wrong, wrong, wrong, everybody is SO wrong here! You won’t find this in the OED, but only here as posted by a marginator/annotator/whatever tater. The unhip lip (oh my!) is clearly the result of Sam’s metrosexual lifestyle. As defined a metrosexual is an urban male with a strong aesthetic sense who spends a great deal of time and money on his appearance and lifestyle, sounds like, looks like, must be, our Sam!! OBVIOUSLY the lip is the result of an upper lip waxing gone bad. Any signs of his limping?? I hope the pedicure doesn’t yield similar results!

• N matthew newton on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 10:22pm. Flag this

  sheet upon my lips?
  herpes?
  i have never ever heard of this connected to Pepys.
  Has anyone else?

• N language hat on Wed 25 Jan 2006, 10:33pm. Flag this

  Irrelevant to today’s entry but I can’t resist…
  I just found in the book A Cultural History of the English Language by Gerry Knowles the following bit of trivia:
  “Perhaps the first recorded innovation in American English dates from 1663 and is the use of the word ordinary in the sense of ‘tavern’ rather than ‘boarding house’ as in England, and the first Americanism to be condemned was the use of bluff in the sense of ‘headland’, first recorded in 1735.”

  Since we’re now in the year 1663 and have often followed Sam into the ordinary, I thought it was at least somewhat apropos!

  You can Search Inside the Book and learn some fascinating stuff:
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0340676809/104-4097768-4723120?v=glance&n=283155
  

• N Robert Gertz on Thu 26 Jan 2006, 12:41pm. Flag this

  Between the coarse material and the type of soap, (lye?)Bess would’ve had to use in the washing, I’m surprised we don’t hear more complaints from Sam.

• N celtcahill on Thu 26 Jan 2006, 06:09pm. Flag this

  Contact dermatitis would show up wherever there is contact and he only complains about his lip….

• N A. Hamilton on Thu 26 Jan 2006, 06:42pm. Flag this

  Could it be that the sheet wicks moisture from the lip, causing it to chap?

• N in Aqua Scripto on Thu 26 Jan 2006, 08:07pm. Flag this

  He who dothe sail,
  and stays up wind,
  has the holy grail,
  you down wind.
  from thy big sail
  soon you will find
  the air be gone.

  The one down wind,
  be all of a flutter
  will then stutter
  and then will utter,
  “oh what grief,
  I be on the reef”

  The wind thief
  off with the loot
  and with a hoot
  he doth sail
  having lost thy sail
  leaving thee to flail.

  the moral be
  stay up wind
  or How Hornblower
  wins V Mayo
  

• N dirk on Fri 27 Jan 2006, 01:27am. Flag this

  Could it be that the sheet wicks moisture from the lip, causing it to chap?

  A. Hamilton — that’s what’s been in my mind from the very beginning… (And it seems by far the simplest answer - Occam’s Razor!)

• N Joe on Fri 27 Jan 2006, 06:06am. Flag this

  “…with my sheet upon my lip….”

  This wouldn’t have anything to do with that “spitting sheet” from Friday 21 November, 1662—the one he found “very convenient”?

• N A. Hamilton on Sat 28 Jan 2006, 03:13pm. Flag this

  Joe

  By George, I think you’ve got it.