Kelvin Hard

Annotations and comments

Kelvin Hard has posted 14 annotations/comments since 13 January 2015.

The most recent first…

Comments

Third Reading

About Tuesday 28 August 1660

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

I know it's twenty years ago but I am going to have to disagree with Vincent on the value of 2/6 in the 1950s. My recollection is that a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate (or indeed a Mars bar) in the 1950s was 6d (six old pence) and so you could have bought only five not ten. I well remember the pleasure when my pocket money increased from 2s a week to 2/6.

Second Reading

About Monday 19 April 1669

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

I don't think Sam was a sex addict. I think he was a man with an average or above average sex drive who took advantage of his social and financial position to dally with those over whom he had positional power or financial power. There is also an element of "seize the day" in a time when the plague (or a kidney stone) could carry you off at any time. Moreover there was a cultural double standard. A women must be faithful to ensure the lineage is carried on. But there were far fewer consequences, economic or social, for the adulterous man. Moreover Sam could always reassure himself that he was much more chaste than his King.

About Friday 13 November 1668

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

I know I am ten years too late in responding to Mark S but I think the amount paid to Deb is 10 shillings not 10 pounds. It is 10/- not 10L

About Saturday 7 November 1668

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

This is a general question, not relevant to this or any other specific day. Sam is a well – regarded official who is certainly somebody the King would recognise and Sam has very regular dealings with the Duke of York who is the heir to the throne. Many of the people that Sam deals with more or less as his professional peers are either Lords or else have knighthoods. Does anyone have any insight as to why our hero never became Sir Sam? I cannot remember whether this was ever discussed in the Tomalin biography.

About Thursday 16 April 1668

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

I think it more likely that Pepys is recording his expenditure to put it into his personal accounts rather than as an aide memoire for what he has been doing that day.

About Monday 23 March 1667/68

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

I have never understood the drive to find an alternative author for Shakespeare’s works. The “Italy” of his plays is hardly Italian. He had never been to Ancient Rome either, but that didn’t stop him from writing Julius Caesar. There is ample documentary and contemporary evidence that Shakespeare’s works were written by - well - William Shakespeare.

About Friday 13 March 1667/68

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

8s 6d does seem very expensive indeed for a dinner - especially one you didn’t very much like. You could get a decent dinner for the same price in the early 1960s.

About Committee on Miscarriages

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

Interesting to note that one of the members was Andrew Marvell, Member for Hull, better known now for his poetry including such works as To His Coy Mistress and The Garden.

About Thursday 15 August 1667

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

All the others mentioned from the Office (Minnes, Batten, Pen, Coventry) are knights. Does anyone know or can hazard a view as to why our hero never became Sir Samuel Pepys for his services to the navy?

About Thursday 15 August 1667

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

Pepys also saw Merry Wives in 1660 and 1661 and didn’t like it then either. Now if I saw a play and did not like it I would not normally go again, let alone twice. Is Pepys hoping that a new production will improve things? Or is it just that he fancied going to the playhouse and Merry Wives just happens to be what is on?

About Sunday 21 October 1666

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

Anne Hathaway was of course eight years older than Shakespeare and such age differences between an older woman and younger man were not uncommon in those days. (If the man were older I doubt we would even note it.) Marriages were made as much for reasons of convenience or security as for romance and Tom may have reasoned that he was unlikely to do better than marrying Pepys’ favourite. Moreover, whatever looks and personality so charmed Pepys are just as likely to have worked on Tom.

About Monday 29 August 1664

Kelvin Hard  •  Link

It will take more than a grain of salt to swallow the line taken by Cum Grano Salis. Sadly the link at the end of his item no longer works. But by definition three quarters of the population can’t all be part of “the poorest”. Sensible school uniforms cost less per wear than the clothes worn after school and at weekends. Child benefit and tax credits provide enough money to buy uniforms. Though I don’t doubt that the poorest find it hard to manage, we should be grateful for the free education and other benefits not available in Pepys’ day.