Comet: pace Andy, it's not in fact particularly difficult to predict the maximum elevation of a celestial object whose declination (elevation with respect to the celestial equator) is known. Just depends on latitude, as any navigator would have been able to tell Sam. Presumably the astronomers of the day knew the celestial co-ordinates of the comet, which would change, of course, but not so much from day to day as to make them useless. Or, of course, someone might just have measured the elevation recently and told Sam. Sandwich was making observations among others. The orbits of comets would not be solved for another generation or so.
Bill, the circumflex on the a indicates the suppression of an s with which the word would earlier have been spelt. The systematic use of the circumflex dates, according to French wikipedia, from 1740. So Pepys has it right, for his time.
Interesting to see 'friend' for 'relative' here. From the OED, it looks as though this would be gone from southern English not long after Pepys's time.
Yes, I was surprised that no-one pointed out last time that the Royal Assent continues to be in Norman-French to this day. (The statement that Sam lived in the last days of Law French is true but irrelevant; by then it was only used in court reports not as a spoken language, in any case.)
I don't see that 'I might have been worried' can be read as anything other than your second meaning, even if the first had been current English in Pepys's time, which, from your quotation, it wasn't.
Irrespective of the encoding problems, the Greek here is messed up. Should be τὰ ἐφ ἡμῖν καί τὰ οὐχ ἐφ ἡμῖν, as it (almost) was the previous time that it's used in this version of the diary.
Terry's wikipedia quote is a bit anachronistic for the 17th century. In Pepys's time there would have been Regent and non-Regent houses consisting of the resident and non-resident MAs respectively. Collectively these were the governing body; the non-resident MAs had a great deal of power, in principle, and that remained the situation until the early 20th century. So when Sam talks about being carried into the Regent House I take it to mean the place where the Regents were meeting for the election; he would have been aware that he was part of the governing body of the University.
Demean herself: Bill has it right. The French 'se demener' would now be translated as 'behave oneself' but it looks as though a more etymologically direct option was available in the 17th century.
Comments
About Friday 23 December 1664
Martin • Link
Comet: pace Andy, it's not in fact particularly difficult to predict the maximum elevation of a celestial object whose declination (elevation with respect to the celestial equator) is known. Just depends on latitude, as any navigator would have been able to tell Sam. Presumably the astronomers of the day knew the celestial co-ordinates of the comet, which would change, of course, but not so much from day to day as to make them useless. Or, of course, someone might just have measured the elevation recently and told Sam. Sandwich was making observations among others. The orbits of comets would not be solved for another generation or so.
About Thursday 15 December 1664
Martin • Link
"to try the charge": to see how expensive it'll be? charge = cost, expense. OED definition 10 (a).
About Saturday 4 June 1664
Martin • Link
Bill, the circumflex on the a indicates the suppression of an s with which the word would earlier have been spelt. The systematic use of the circumflex dates, according to French wikipedia, from 1740. So Pepys has it right, for his time.
About Tuesday 24 May 1664
Martin • Link
Interesting to see 'friend' for 'relative' here. From the OED, it looks as though this would be gone from southern English not long after Pepys's time.
About Sunday 9 August 1663
Martin • Link
Wikipedia thinks John was the first baronet, for what that's worth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_baronets
About Monday 27 July 1663
Martin • Link
Yes, I was surprised that no-one pointed out last time that the Royal Assent continues to be in Norman-French to this day. (The statement that Sam lived in the last days of Law French is true but irrelevant; by then it was only used in court reports not as a spoken language, in any case.)
About Monday 11 May 1663
Martin • Link
I don't see that 'I might have been worried' can be read as anything other than your second meaning, even if the first had been current English in Pepys's time, which, from your quotation, it wasn't.
About Tuesday 21 October 1662
Martin • Link
Irrespective of the encoding problems, the Greek here is messed up. Should be τὰ ἐφ ἡμῖν καί τὰ οὐχ ἐφ ἡμῖν, as it (almost) was the previous time that it's used in this version of the diary.
About Friday 10 October 1662
Martin • Link
Terry's wikipedia quote is a bit anachronistic for the 17th century. In Pepys's time there would have been Regent and non-Regent houses consisting of the resident and non-resident MAs respectively. Collectively these were the governing body; the non-resident MAs had a great deal of power, in principle, and that remained the situation until the early 20th century. So when Sam talks about being carried into the Regent House I take it to mean the place where the Regents were meeting for the election; he would have been aware that he was part of the governing body of the University.
About Sunday 25 August 1661
Martin • Link
Demean herself: Bill has it right. The French 'se demener' would now be translated as 'behave oneself' but it looks as though a more etymologically direct option was available in the 17th century.