Annotations and comments

john has posted 347 annotations/comments since 14 March 2013.

Comments

Second Reading

About Tuesday 9 July 1667

john  •  Link

"This day my Lord Anglesey, our new Treasurer, come the first time to the Board, and there sat with us till noon; and I do perceive he [...] will do things regular, and understand them himself, [...] and will solicit soundly for money, [...]"
Having a manager understand what is needed and willing to lobby for it higher up the chain should not be over-rated.

About Tuesday 2 July 1667

john  •  Link

" that there is not a good word said of any of us but of me; and me they all do speak mightily of, which, whether true or no, I am mighty glad to hear"
Personal succour in bitter times.

About Sunday 30 June 1667

john  •  Link

As did Sean, I recommend cutting a strip of paper the same length and looping it -- a hefty chain, indeed. Though L&M footnote this: "It was however of inferior (Spanish) iron."

About Monday 1 July 1667

john  •  Link

Well, I have some acquaintance with farms but sows were never spayed. Given the state of medicine then, I shudder to think of the procedure.

About Saturday 29 June 1667

john  •  Link

"ugly dreams" -- Nightmares originally meant something slightly different:

nightmare, n.
1. a. A female spirit or monster supposed to beset people and animals by night, settling upon them when they are asleep and producing a feeling of suffocation by its weight.
   c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 306/228 Ofte huy ouer-liggez [men]: and men cleopiet þe niȝt-mare.    c 1340 Nominale (Skeat) 701 Wolf, fox, and nytmare [F. pesarde].    [et cetera] OED

"Gentleman-captains" -- "lions led by donkeys" or the pirates of Penzance.

About Thursday 20 June 1667

john  •  Link

Regarding his will, one entry is 27 May 1666 (https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…):
"Rose betimes, and to my office till church time to write two copies of my Will fair, bearing date this day, wherein I have given my sister Pall 500l., my father for his owne and my mother’s support 2,000l., to my wife the rest of my estate, but to have 2500l. secured to her, though by deducting out of what I have given my father and my sister."
He rewrote since then but I cannot find the reference.

About Wednesday 19 June 1667

john  •  Link

I note that Elizabeth decided to return to London without telling Samuel first. How did she decide it safe to return? I also note that Pepys was worried enough about the outcome to give Hater his key. I presume that Pett's comment about models refers to the Dutch learning their construction. Finally, I suspect that the poor choice of hiding place was his father's idea.

About Tuesday 18 June 1667

john  •  Link

Perhaps Peg Pen found his influence to be an aphrodisiac. (De gustibus and all that ...)

About Sunday 16 June 1667

john  •  Link

Oh, please, please, gentle readers, no politics or a firestorm will erupt. And by the way:

bigly, adv. (ˈbɪglɪ)

2. Loudly, boastfully, haughtily, pompously.

   1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 397/1 And bereth it out bigly wt shameles deuelyshe heresie.    1585 Abp. Sandys Serm. (1841) 104 Goliah thought bigly of himself.    1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xlvi. 218 Oftentimes Authoritie lookes biglier than a Bull.  
[OED]

About Thursday 13 June 1667

john  •  Link

How shall we judge Pepys in such times? Having never been in such a situation, I cannot truthfully say how I would act and I am loathe to judge him.

About Monday 10 June 1667

john  •  Link

"Yet partly ourselves, being used to be idle and in despair, and partly people that have been used to be deceived by us as to money, won’t believe us;"

Home to roost and such.

About Saturday 1 June 1667

john  •  Link

Nap time explained by yesterday's entry: "and to the office, where the weather so hot now-a-days that I cannot but sleep before I do any business"

About Friday 31 May 1667

john  •  Link

"he was a kind of an atturny" was not necessarily a slur.

attorney, n.1

1. One appointed or ordained to act for another; an agent, deputy, commissioner. In later times only fig. and perhaps with conscious reference to sense 2. Obs.

1347 Ord. R. Househ. 9 Clerkes, attorneys of the Victualles in sondry shiers.    c 1430 Lydg. Bochas viii. vi. (1554) 181 a, From occupacion hys rest for to take Hys attorney Maximian he doth make.    c 1440 Promp. Parv., Atturneye, suffectus, attornatus.    1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 100, I will attend my husband‥for it is my Office, And will haue no atturney but my selfe.    1642 Rogers Naaman 382 His Minister, whom he hath made his Attorney to receiue our acknowledgement.

OED

About Thursday 30 May 1667

john  •  Link

"her lady would bid her show her face and kill the gallants."
I checked the OED and the closest contemporary meaning that seems to fit this use is the following.

4. fig. a. To destroy, do away with, put an end to, suppress (a feeling, desire, project, or other non-material thing).

   1435 Misyn Fire of Love 81 Well vsyd in prayinge‥all wykkydnes kylland & vnclennes.    1573 Cartwright Repl. Answ. Admonit. 26 Sufficient to quench her thirst and kill her hunger.    1579–80 North Plutarch (1595) 236 Too sodaine honour in youth killeth further desire of fame.    1617 R. Wilkinson Barwick-bridge 22 Yea, warre and contention kill up even conscience it selfe. [Later quotations omitted.]

About Monday 27 May 1667

john  •  Link

"It was pleasant to see".
The following from the OED probably applies.

pleasant, a.
[...]
A. adj.
†4. Amusing, laughable, ridiculous, funny. Obs.

   1583 T. Stocker Civ. Warres Lowe C. i. 15 With such other like pleasant iestes.    1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies i. xiv. 47 From our Peru‥they might well bring gold, silver, and pleasant monkies.    1688 S. Penton Guard. Instruct. (1897) 43 It was pleasant to see how my Son trembled to see the Proctour come in. [...]

Reading this, I recalled his anger at the maids letting in Watermen.

About Friday 24 May 1667

john  •  Link

With the help of the Devil? People would say the same 150y later of Paganini.

About Tuesday 21 May 1667

john  •  Link

Mrs Turner is probably a useful source of information, at least to know what "the street" is thinking.

Interesting that Carcasse's fraud did not seem to financially benefit Brouncker.

About Saturday 18 May 1667

john  •  Link

Luce seems to have had an alcohol problem. Back then, as now, alcohol problems tend to be dismissed and not regarded as a debilitating addiction.