"Anyone have a link to an image showing Sam’s latest fashion?"
New link. Sam's descriptions feature a number of times in “The 1660s, Restoration Costume Comes to Life, Part 3 Gentry and Aristocracy": http://www.kipar.org/archive/cost…
https://www.british-history.ac.uk… : In one of Tom D'Urfey's songs, called "A Touch of the Times," published in 1719, occurs the following allusion to "The Folly:"— "When Drapers' smugg'd apprentices, With Exchange girls mostly jolly, After shop was shut up and all, Could sail up to 'The Folly.’"
The above is a long article. For those interested, just search for the term "Folly". It will come up in the second paragraph below the illustration of "The Chinese Junk".
@San Diego Sarah "The Salty One's annotation looks interesting. The link is dead. I Googled for sea battles in December 1667 with no results. Ideas, anyone?"
Apparently wapedia was a mobile version of Wikipedia from 2004 - 2013. “War Prize” on Wikipedia redirects to “Prize of War”. Interestingly, it notes, "This term was used nearly exclusively in terms of captured ships during the 18th and 19th centuries”, and has links at the bottom to lists of ships captured in those centuries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pri…
Looking for a similar list for the 17th century yielded a bunch of other links, the closest being only a list of shipwrecks.
It discusses the 16th and 17th century formulation of international law in this regard, with particular bits on England to 1701, the Anglo-Dutch wars, Great Britain 1707-1801, and so on. There are mentions of some notable awards, but nothing specific to 1667.
My guess is that CSG was aiming at the general rules of the awarding anyway, and the article is full of that. It was a fun search!
"On this date in 1660, a professional female actress appeared on the English stage in a production of Othello. It’s one of the earliest known instances of a female role actually being played by a woman in an English production. Up until this time, women were considered too fine and sensitive for the rough life of the theater, and boys or men dressed in drag to play female characters. An earlier attempt to form co-ed theater troupes was met with jeers and hisses and thrown produce.
But by the second half of the 17th century, the King’s Company felt that London society could handle it. Before the production, a lengthy disclaimer in iambic pentameter was delivered to the audience, warning them that they were about to see an actual woman in the part. This was, the actor explained, because they felt that men were just too big and burly to play the more delicate roles, “With bone so large and nerve so incompliant / When you call Desdemona, enter giant.”"
"English is not a language that uses separate nouns to distinguish between sexes regularly enough for there to be strong rules regarding such usage. The mixture of linguistic roots in English makes it difficult to apply consistent suffix rules to all of the nouns involved and use of suffixes isn't strong in English for other purposes...During the two world wars but particularly during and after WWII, women became active in professions where men had previously filled almost all positions. There was also some expansion of women's roles in the middle-ages after plagues. Where there had previously been no need for separate masculine and feminine versions of such nouns, the lack of any consistent rules that could be applied made it difficult to find satisfactory solutions in many cases. Combined with social pressure for equality between men and women, the result has been neutralisation of nouns so that they are used non-gender specifically.
The exceptions tend to come with latinate words that remain strongly preserved and have clear modifications for gender specificity. These are the ones that still seem to hold on, but are rapidly disappearing as the language becomes more and more neuter oriented.
An example of a language with much more consistent usage of such nouns is German which consistently uses such nouns. The consistency of usage makes differentiation intrinsic to the language itself and there has been little or no social pressure to change this.
It's also noticeabe that languages that use masculine, feminine and neuter pronouns and noun endings to agree with the gender (like French) have also experienced less pressure to neutralise gender specific nouns.
There are a few gender specific nouns that remain very strongly embedded in English though: Husband and Wife being perhaps the best example. Spouse could be used here just as effectively, but despite considerable pressure on nouns defining gender roles, 'husband ande wife' seem remarkably resisilient in usage."
"...Anyone who speaks a language that draws the distinction consistently will tell you how useful it is.
Words that arrived in English from Latin and French often maintained the distinction with Actor/Actress being an example from the french words Acteur/Actrice I belive.
In English though, the lack of rule consitency, noun agreement etc make these inherited distinctions less resilient to being dropped and even encourage these separate forms being lost due to complexity (languages tend toward simplification on the whole)."
"Another consideration is that, if you don’t use “actor” in a gender-neutral manner, there’s really *no* gender-neutral term to people who act. This is as distinct from "husband/wife", where there is always a term "spouse" that one can use in generic situations."
Was wondering if the phrase "wear and tear" originated during this time period.
From https://www.etymonline.com/word/w… : "wear (n.) "action of wearing" (clothes), mid-15c., from wear (v.). Meaning "what one wears" is 1560s. To be the worse for wear is attested from 1782; noun phrase wear and tear is first recorded 1660s, implying the sense "process of being degraded by use.""
And, to extend the literary vein, but retreat a little further back in time, Robert Louis Stevenson finished "Treasure Island" in a Swiss sanatorium as well.
I was just thinking many of the same things about people in the future, Al. And Nate, I envy you your pasty.
I’ve been reading for two to three-ish years now. Drawn by Steven Pressfield’s discussion of the portion of Roseanne Cash’s book about her evolution as an artist, I listened to a talk she did at the New York Public Library and she mentioned this site.
I also wonder about the folks from the first round as to whether are following along again or have moved on to other pursuits. In any event, all the best to everyone in the coming year!
Comments
Second Reading
About Thursday 2 July 1668
JB • Link
Yes, please continue, Sarah. It adds so much! Many thanks.
About Monday 25 May 1668
JB • Link
Just want to say I really enjoyed the whole "vezes" mystery from a decade past!
About Sunday 17 May 1668
JB • Link
"Anyone have a link to an image showing Sam’s latest fashion?"
New link. Sam's descriptions feature a number of times in “The 1660s, Restoration Costume Comes to Life, Part 3 Gentry and Aristocracy":
http://www.kipar.org/archive/cost…
About Monday 13 April 1668
JB • Link
https://www.british-history.ac.uk… :
In one of Tom D'Urfey's songs, called "A Touch of the Times," published in 1719, occurs the following allusion to "The Folly:"—
"When Drapers' smugg'd apprentices,
With Exchange girls mostly jolly,
After shop was shut up and all,
Could sail up to 'The Folly.’"
The above is a long article. For those interested, just search for the term "Folly". It will come up in the second paragraph below the illustration of "The Chinese Junk".
More on The Folly:
https://www.layersoflondon.org/ma…
The next few links are sourced from the preceding one, with additional info:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/col…
https://www.britishmuseum.org/col…
https://victorianweb.org/art/illu…
A final look:
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo…
About Monday 23 December 1667
JB • Link
Nothing new to add, just want to echo the chorus of gratitude and good wishes above. Thanks to Phil and everyone who is a part of this.
About Saturday 14 December 1667
JB • Link
@San Diego Sarah
"The Salty One's annotation looks interesting. The link is dead. I Googled for sea battles in December 1667 with no results. Ideas, anyone?"
Apparently wapedia was a mobile version of Wikipedia from 2004 - 2013. “War Prize” on Wikipedia redirects to “Prize of War”. Interestingly, it notes, "This term was used nearly exclusively in terms of captured ships during the 18th and 19th centuries”, and has links at the bottom to lists of ships captured in those centuries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pri…
Looking for a similar list for the 17th century yielded a bunch of other links, the closest being only a list of shipwrecks.
So, I looked for the Pepys term of “prize-goods” instead, which brought me to “Prize money”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pri…
It discusses the 16th and 17th century formulation of international law in this regard, with particular bits on England to 1701, the Anglo-Dutch wars, Great Britain 1707-1801, and so on. There are mentions of some notable awards, but nothing specific to 1667.
My guess is that CSG was aiming at the general rules of the awarding anyway, and the article is full of that. It was a fun search!
About Saturday 8 June 1667
JB • Link
SDS - really enjoyed the "matrimonial dispute" in the link, thanks very much!
About Sunday 10 March 1666/67
JB • Link
And at the end of the 20th century, John Shelby Spong was the controversial Bishop of Newark, NJ.
About Saturday 2 March 1666/67
JB • Link
@RobertGertz, with reference to the first annotation a decade ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9…
About Monday 17 December 1666
JB • Link
San Diego Sarah - Thanks for the reminder regarding the cheese! I had been wondering about that as well.
About Friday 7 December 1666
JB • Link
And, in an interesting coincidence given the timing, just ran across this at http://www.garrisonkeillor.com/ra… :
"On this date in 1660, a professional female actress appeared on the English stage in a production of Othello. It’s one of the earliest known instances of a female role actually being played by a woman in an English production. Up until this time, women were considered too fine and sensitive for the rough life of the theater, and boys or men dressed in drag to play female characters. An earlier attempt to form co-ed theater troupes was met with jeers and hisses and thrown produce.
But by the second half of the 17th century, the King’s Company felt that London society could handle it. Before the production, a lengthy disclaimer in iambic pentameter was delivered to the audience, warning them that they were about to see an actual woman in the part. This was, the actor explained, because they felt that men were just too big and burly to play the more delicate roles, “With bone so large and nerve so incompliant / When you call Desdemona, enter giant.”"
About Friday 7 December 1666
JB • Link
I've long wondered about the actor/actress usage thing. Some thoughts (circa 2006) from https://painintheenglish.com/case… :
"English is not a language that uses separate nouns to distinguish between sexes regularly enough for there to be strong rules regarding such usage. The mixture of linguistic roots in English makes it difficult to apply consistent suffix rules to all of the nouns involved and use of suffixes isn't strong in English for other purposes...During the two world wars but particularly during and after WWII, women became active in professions where men had previously filled almost all positions. There was also some expansion of women's roles in the middle-ages after plagues. Where there had previously been no need for separate masculine and feminine versions of such nouns, the lack of any consistent rules that could be applied made it difficult to find satisfactory solutions in many cases. Combined with social pressure for equality between men and women, the result has been neutralisation of nouns so that they are used non-gender specifically.
The exceptions tend to come with latinate words that remain strongly preserved and have clear modifications for gender specificity. These are the ones that still seem to hold on, but are rapidly disappearing as the language becomes more and more neuter oriented.
An example of a language with much more consistent usage of such nouns is German which consistently uses such nouns. The consistency of usage makes differentiation intrinsic to the language itself and there has been little or no social pressure to change this.
It's also noticeabe that languages that use masculine, feminine and neuter pronouns and noun endings to agree with the gender (like French) have also experienced less pressure to neutralise gender specific nouns.
There are a few gender specific nouns that remain very strongly embedded in English though: Husband and Wife being perhaps the best example. Spouse could be used here just as effectively, but despite considerable pressure on nouns defining gender roles, 'husband ande wife' seem remarkably resisilient in usage."
"...Anyone who speaks a language that draws the distinction consistently will tell you how useful it is.
Words that arrived in English from Latin and French often maintained the distinction with Actor/Actress being an example from the french words Acteur/Actrice I belive.
In English though, the lack of rule consitency, noun agreement etc make these inherited distinctions less resilient to being dropped and even encourage these separate forms being lost due to complexity (languages tend toward simplification on the whole)."
"Another consideration is that, if you don’t use “actor” in a gender-neutral manner, there’s really *no* gender-neutral term to people who act. This is as distinct from "husband/wife", where there is always a term "spouse" that one can use in generic situations."
About Thursday 25 October 1666
JB • Link
Was wondering if the phrase "wear and tear" originated during this time period.
From https://www.etymonline.com/word/w… :
"wear (n.)
"action of wearing" (clothes), mid-15c., from wear (v.). Meaning "what one wears" is 1560s. To be the worse for wear is attested from 1782; noun phrase wear and tear is first recorded 1660s, implying the sense "process of being degraded by use.""
About Friday 23 March 1665/66
JB • Link
No, I think you are spot on, San Diego Sarah.
About Friday 23 February 1665/66
JB • Link
Indeed. Thank you, Phil.
About Sunday 4 February 1665/66
JB • Link
And, to extend the literary vein, but retreat a little further back in time, Robert Louis Stevenson finished "Treasure Island" in a Swiss sanatorium as well.
About Sunday 24 December 1665
JB • Link
I was just thinking many of the same things about people in the future, Al. And Nate, I envy you your pasty.
I’ve been reading for two to three-ish years now. Drawn by Steven Pressfield’s discussion of the portion of Roseanne Cash’s book about her evolution as an artist, I listened to a talk she did at the New York Public Library and she mentioned this site.
I also wonder about the folks from the first round as to whether are following along again or have moved on to other pursuits. In any event, all the best to everyone in the coming year!