Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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1893 text
Frances Butler, the great beauty, who is sometimes styled. la belle Boteler.
Annotations
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According to L&M, Mrs. Butler was sister to A. Butler, aka Monsieur L’Impertinent and also cousin to Sam’s friend Will Bowyer. The ‘Mrs.’ (i.e. Mistress) is a courtesy title.
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Why the appendage? was it, that she was pretty and one of the lesser Butler’s with an hour glass figure [ mod. fr? Bouteille]
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la belle Boteler
Why the appendage?
Sounds like a foreign-accented pronunciation of Butler. Perhaps just playfully spinning the glee in her beauty on the tongue. Or picked up from someone with an accent saying her name? I wonder how much of a French accent Elizabeth had? -
actually it be Francophile way of saying a beautiful Butler [ derived from Bouteiller meaning cupbearer leading to Bottle, by a name, which was given to those keep the good stuff below, in the pantry], Butler he the only one that had a key to vino.
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Samuell, Verfies relatonship to his good friend Bowyer Mr. W. Bowyer, [http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/528.php ] “…and there drank my morning draft, and had some of his simple discourse. Among other things he tells me how the difference comes between his fair cozen Butler and Collonell Dillon, upon his opening letters of her brother’s from Ireland,…”