Annotations and comments

Gerald Berg has posted 413 annotations/comments since 4 March 2013.

Comments

Second Reading

About Friday 7 July 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

As with most of the inside gossip Pepys receives it proves to be either wildly inaccurate or completely wrong. I say thank you to the many annotators for that.

About Wednesday 5 July 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Lonely Peeps: it’s been a long time since Pepys has had anything to say to his diary about Liz. The last comment I can recall was where he wasn’t sure he made a good deal with regards marrying Elizabeth. Was that really the last time?

About Tuesday 4 July 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Brilliant CGS! And this would explain why the mole was such a financial sinkhole. For how many years upcoming did they struggle with that damn Tangerian mole? There were tidy profits for the bureaucrats ad naseum in the lighters.

Sjoerd thanks for the Faroe Isle sightings. De Ruyter was a crafty man. He knows nothing of the recent losses of course.

About Monday 3 July 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

RE: Sam, religion and guilt. SP strikes me as unusual for his time. I recall Amanda Vickery reading diary passages from the Georgian period and they were filled with sexual guilt and only 1 person was involved!

Focus:
As a Quebecois sergeant once said to his wayward english speaking reservists; "You think I know f*ck nothing when I really know f*ck all!"

About Thursday 1 June 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Prostitutes hang out around Westminster Hall? Good Lord My Lord!

Death then sex what could be more engrossing?

About Saturday 20 May 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Sam may take a diary rest day but our annotators certainly don't! All of interest no doubt. As I have said before Sam can write about whatever he wants as long as it isn't about how guilty he feels about any of it.

About Wednesday 17 May 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Hilarious Carl in Boston submerged sartorialist of the english world.

JWB I was wondering about what happened to Pett in Pepys estimation also? From brilliant shipwright i.e. catamaran - this is the same man? --to everyday further into falsity.

About Sunday 7 May 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Copyright maybe on the outs but the idea of cultural appropriation is not. Perhaps if it was copyrighted we could all do it with impunity?

About Saturday 22 April 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

WR to CGS' bonnets, they are Victorian and not Restoration? Also "bib and tucker" is a phrase I did not know. As it turns out this comes as starting late 17th century fashion. There, I feel better.

About Thursday 30 March 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

I am so confused!

Not 3 days before: "Thence to Mrs. Martin, who, though her husband is gone away, as he writes, like a fool into France, yet is as simple and wanton as ever she was, with much I made myself merry and away."

With words like "simple" and "wanton" I thought I needed no help parsing "much I made myself merry".

Now, everything is gone open marriage and yet so 'mighty reserved' and 'pleasant to think on' I have no idea what is happening or what to think.

About Saturday 25 March 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

The Jewish holiday of Sukkoth was where Jews traditionally utilized palm fronds for building the sukkah etc.. This was done in the 7th month of the year when palm fronds were supple and readily available (having grown through the summer). I have yet to find a good explanation as to how (or why) palm fronds where used for purpose in the spring. At this point (of the year) the new growth would be minuscule and the old growth dry, stiff and unappealing. The best explanation is it was (like Christmas) a substitution for Roman (spring) festivities. Jesus may well have been executed later in the year.

About Thursday 16 March 1664/65

Gerald Berg  •  Link

If these are not bribes what else could they be? Examples of God’s munificence to one of his favourites of course! How could you possibly expect anyone to feel anything but pleasure in that?

About Monday 6 March 1664/65

Gerald Berg  •  Link

As we get Liz thru Sam it is very hard at times to see who she is exactly. Very nice unexpurgated view today! Hilarious.

About Friday 24 February 1664/65

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Joshua Slocum’s 1895 solo circumnavigation of the world has to be the greatest feat of dead reckoning ever. The apex being his 2000 miles crossing of the Pacific with only 1 lunar sighting and (as I recall) being less than 50 miles off on arrival. A very fine read for anyone interested is his account of the adventure: Sailing Alone Around the World.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J…

About Tuesday 21 February 1664/65

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Spring! Watched Mallard ducks mate yesterday. After much prior nodding between them the act was consummated. It was consensual but there was a struggle. Maybe SP is merely clumsy?

About Saturday 21 January 1664/65

Gerald Berg  •  Link

"amputated rabbit's limb"

Batten had stated Pepy's rabbit foot is a mistake in that the joint was missing. I assume this is the ankle joint? The addition adds a considerable 'creepy' factor. Without the joint Pepys got no immediate reaction but with touching Batten's he farted. Yet the next day all this ignored in favour of feeling better.

Newtonian alchemy.

The thing is alchemists were not wrong in principal. Heavy elements are derived from lighter elements. What they lacked was the ability to calculate the amount of energy required to do this. So have we until very recently. Not a decade ago it was thought that a very large supernova was energy enough to produce anything beyond iron but now we know it takes two stars (white dwarves as of now) colliding to get these elements.

Superstition.

My wife is not religious but she is superstitious. Telling her that it makes no sense (except in the case of walking under ladders- not wise if someone is working on it!) does no good.