Annotations and comments

Bryan has posted 59 annotations/comments since 1 April 2013.

Comments

Second Reading

About Thursday 11 April 1661

Bryan  •  Link

“Goe and bee hanged, that’s good-bye.”

A BALLAD of Old PROVERBS posted above by Brian Barr might not be the sung by SP.

"[The] Youngmans careless Wooing, And the Witty Maids Replication" looks more like the correct one as it starts "Down in an Arbour devoted to Venus" and has the reference: Magdalene College Pepys 3.130.

http://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ball…

About Friday 17 May 1661

Bryan  •  Link

Why is the amount rounded to six and eight pence, or what am I missing?

Six and eight pence = six shillings and eight pence, which is the exact amount. Two thirds (0.66) of a shilling (12d) is 8 pence.

About Monday 12 November 1660

Bryan  •  Link

Sister Pall is still living with mum and dad in London off Fleet Street at this stage. Uncle Robert, who is literally on his last leg, has promised to "raise a portion" for Pall in his will (see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… ). So I don't think it's about Pall's marriage prospects.

Given Pall's "ill-nature" and the weeping for joy, my guess is that things are less than harmonious in the old Pepy's family home and everyone is looking for an exit before dastardly deed are done.

About Thursday 27 September 1660

Bryan  •  Link

"Pepys does nothing but gripe about his workers" Let's see:

Sep 28: All the afternoon among my workmen till 10 or 11 at night, and did give them drink and very merry with them ...
Sep 27: ...thence home to my workmen all the afternoon.
Sep 26: At home with the workmen all the afternoon, ...
Sep 25:...and by coach home, where the plasterers being at work in all the rooms in my house,
Sep 18: At home all the morning looking over my workmen in my house ...
Sep 12: At home all the afternoon looking after my workmen, whose laziness do much trouble me

One negative comment out of six. Hardly "nothing but gripe".

I think you will find if you search through the annotations that the workers who renovated SP's house weren't paid by SP. The workers (and material) came from the dockyards at Deptford or similar. They were Navy employees working on Navy property. SP was just making sure, as always, that the King got value for money. ;-)

About Wednesday 29 August 1660

Bryan  •  Link

"the wench which"

From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
which (pron.) ... In Middle English used as a relative pronoun where Modern English would use who, as still in the Lord's Prayer.

So, Mirabai, this is one sin we can say that Sam is not guilty of.

About St Olave, Hart Street

Bryan  •  Link

A side view of St Olave church showing the covered staircase leading to the Navy Office gallery

"A watercolour by G Robertson of the south east view of the Parish Church of St Olave, Hart Street, London EC3, showing the exterior staircase used by the English diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys, (1633 - 1703), to gain access to the pew in the gallery reserved for the Navy office."

http://www.gettyimages.com.au/det…

About Friday 24 August 1660

Bryan  •  Link

The covered staircase leading to the gallery - here's a treat:

"A watercolour by G Robertson of the south east view of the Parish Church of St Olave, Hart Street, London EC3, showing the exterior staircase used by the English diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys, (1633 - 1703), to gain access to the pew in the gallery reserved for the Navy office."

http://www.gettyimages.com.au/det…

About Sunday 29 July 1660

Bryan  •  Link

"my first quarter’s salary as Secretary to my Lord" July 30

In March SP was appointed secretary to Mountagu in his capacity as General at Sea. SP was Secretary to the Fleet, an official naval position and the salary relates to this position.

About Friday 3 August 1660

Bryan  •  Link

Alan Bedford's post above is a little misleading. The Navy Board consisted of four principal officers (treasurer, comptroller, surveyor and clerk of the acts) in addition to the three commissioners.

About Monday 6 August 1660

Bryan  •  Link

Pepys' salary

I think the L&M Companion might have the figure wrong Terry. According the 7 July entry:
"To the Council Chamber, where I took an order for the advance of the salaries of the officers of the Navy, and I find mine to be raised to 350l. per annum."

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Wednesday 27 June 1660

Bryan  •  Link

Punctuation

The punctuation is Wheatley's, i.e. 19th century. Here's an excerpt from a "future" annotation for the Sunday 30 April 1665 entry by Michael Robinson:

L&M on 'Punctuation' etc.,vol i, p lxiv:-

"The normal marks of punctuation are seldom used in the manuscript, probably because some of them are used instead as arbitrary symbols for common words: the colon and full-stop are thus employed to represent 'owe'/'oh' and 'eye'/'I' respectively. Except for the extremely rare use of a comma (which is used a few times to separate words in series), the only normal punctuation marks found in the manuscript are parentheses (the practice with these is not always the same as ours), new lines for paragraphs (usually flush with the left hand margin, but sometimes indented), hyphens in compound words and compound names (although hyphens are restricted to longhand and even there they are used only seldom), apostrophes for possession (these too are rarely used and only in longhand), colons and full-stops for some abbreviations, dashes and full-stops occasionally in sums of money, full stops and oblique strokes after some title headings, etc., a rarely used square bracket for marking off a quotation."

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Thursday 7 June 1660

Bryan  •  Link

The quotes below are from the Wikipedia pages for "Presbyterianism" and "Episcopal polity". The key political point seems to be that under the Episcopal church governance there are bishops who are appointed by the king, whereas the Presbyterian didn't (don't) accept that there should be bishops at all.

"In 1647, by an act of the Long Parliament under the control of Puritans, the Church of England permitted Presbyterianism. The re-establishment of the monarchy in 1660 brought the return of Episcopal church government in England (and in Scotland for a short time); but the Presbyterian church in England continued in non-conformity, outside of the established church."

"Presbyterian government is by councils (known as courts) of elders. Teaching and ruling elders are ordained and convene in the lowest council known as a session or consistory responsible for the discipline, nurture, and mission of the local congregation."

"Episcopal polity is a form of church governance that is hierarchical in structure with the chief authority over a local Christian church resting in a bishop. ... Churches having episcopal polity are governed by bishops, who have authority over dioceses, conferences, or synods (in general referred to as a judicatory). Their presidency is both sacramental and political; as well as performing ordinations, confirmations, and consecrations, the bishop supervises the clergy within the judicatory and is the representative to both secular structures and in the hierarchy of the church. ... For much of the written history of Christianity, episcopal government was the only known form of church organization. This changed at the Reformation. Many Protestant churches are now organized by either congregational or presbyterian church polities,"

About Thursday 3 May 1660

Bryan  •  Link

This entry makes it fairly clear that Mountagu kept Sam in the dark about his negotiations with Charles. For example:

"And I found by the letters, and so my Lord told me too, that there had been many letters passed between them for a great while, and I perceive unknown to Monk ... This was very strange to me, that my Lord should carry all things so wisely and prudently as he do,..."

If that's the case, then the "characters" that Sam produced earlier were cypher tables used to encrypt and decrypt messages (as suggest by Dick Wilson) rather than the encrypted messages themselves.

About Tuesday 24 April 1660

Bryan  •  Link

"And every man begins to be merry and full of hopes."

On the uncertainty mentioned by Eric and Nix above, Wikipedia have a nice, two-sentence summary of the political events over the last 6 months:

"After the second dissolution of the Rump, in October 1659, the prospect of a total descent into anarchy loomed as the Army's pretence of unity finally dissolved into factions. Into this atmosphere General George Monck, Governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his army from Scotland."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engl…

Very few, apart from Lambert, were keen to re-ignite the civil wars.

About Friday 20 April 1660

Bryan  •  Link

"To-night Mr. Sheply told me that he heard for certain at Dover that Mr. Edw. Montagu did go beyond sea when he was here first the other day, and I am apt to believe that he went to speak with the King."

This is a fairly clear indication that my Lord hasn't taken Sam into his confidence entirely regarding his (my Lord's) role in the current negotiations with the king. Sam's comment on the day (18 April) regarding Ned Montagu's visit; "but what was the business of his coming ... I cannot guess."

It seems more likely that my Lord was sharing information on a need to know basis. For example, it was only on 17 April that Sam reported this exchange: "For I was with him [my Lord] an hour together, when he told me clearly his thoughts that the King would carry it, and that he did think himself very happy that he was now at sea, as well for his own sake, as that he thought he might do his country some service in keeping things quiet."

It was only the next day that Sam was confident enough to report that the situation was favouring the king: "That it is evident now that the General and the Council do resolve to make way for the King’s coming."

Earlier Judy Bailey asked "Is this ship actually moving towards anywhere?" I think there are two reasons for not venturing further. First negotiations with the king are haven't been finalised so Mountagu has to stay close to shore to be in ready contact with both Monck and Charles. For the same reason Mountagu can't really be sure that they will be going to collect Charles. Second, England doesn't have a head of state and parliament has been dissolved. This is potentially a very vulnerable time. Monck is keeping the lid on things domestically with his army. Mountagu is in (joint) control of the other source of power, the navy. Surely part of his role is to guard the Channel in case Spain or France decides to take advantage of the situation.

About Tuesday 10 April 1660

Bryan  •  Link

Putting together Sam's journal entry for today and that of Mountagu/Sandwich (see Jeannine's post above), the meeting of of the senior officers of the fleet must have been a significant one.

It's interesting that Sam missed the presence of "Ned" Mountagu. He must have come aboard amongst the crowd of commanders, stayed with the senior officers while Sam was mixing with the others in the roundhouse, then quietly left. Maybe Sam isn't "in the loop" quite as much as has sometimes been assumed.

Spoiler
Sam definitely notices when Ned returns so he isn't just being discrete in this entry.

About Tuesday 3 April 1660

Bryan  •  Link

"They are after all plotting to overthrow the current Government!"

Is that the case? We know where this voyage is heading, but does Sam? The situation is fluid. Monck knows what is going on and probably Mountagu, but Charles' Declaration of Breda won't be made public for another month. And, isn't the reason that people want Charles back because there is barely an effective government at the moment?

If we take the diary at face value, then all Sam knows is that Mountagu, the newly appointed General at Sea, has hired Sam as his secretary and is getting the fleet ready to take it out for the summer sailing season.

As for Sam’s heavy heart, I think the simple answer is that he is 26, she is 19 and we know he didn’t marry her for money.

About Saturday 31 March 1660

Bryan  •  Link

These diagrams are from A Ship of War, Cyclopaedia, 1728, Even though they were drawn nearly 70 years later I think they give a good idea of the ships Sam is sailing in.

The top diagram represents a third rate ship of the line, such as the Swiftsure (42 guns) in which Sam is currently sailing.

The Naseby (80 guns) is a first rate ship of the line similar to the lower diagram. Notice that the State Room (S) and the Ward Room (T) both have cannons in them. From the legend: "The State Room out of which the Bed Chamber and other Con...(illegible) for the Commander in Chief"; "The Ward Room. Allotted for Voluntier(?) and Land Officers".

Spoiler

There is also The Cuddy (R) just below the Poop Deck (P) "which is commonly divided for the Masters and Secretaries Officers". Would this be where our favorite secretary finds lodging?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikip…