The Diary Samuel Pepys (love books to read .TXT) 📖

it is: A Briefe Discourse of the True (but neglected) use of charact’ring the Degrees by their perfection, imperfection, and diminution in measurable Music against the common practise and custome of these times; examples whereof are exprest in the Harmony of 4 voices concerning the Pleasure of 5 usuall recreations, 1 Hunting, 2 Hawking, 3 Dancing, 4 Drinking, 5 Enamouring, 1614.” ↩

The Duke of York’s Instructions for the Government of the Navy Office (see note 1323). ↩

William Caesar, musical composer and teacher of the lute, is frequently mentioned in the Diary. Some of his songs are found in different collections of the time under the name of William Caesar alias Smegergill. ↩

Charles Berkeley, created Baron Berkeley of Rathdown in 1661, Viscount Fitzharding of Bearhaven in 1663, and Earl of Falmouth in 1665. He was appointed Keeper of the Privy Purse to Charles II in October, 1662. ↩

Eldest son of the Earl of Clancarty and nephew of the Duke of Ormonde. He had served with distinction in Flanders, as colonel of an infantry regiment, and was killed on board the Duke of York’s ship in the sea-fight, 1665. Ormonde, writing to his mother to announce the sad news, says, “his death is a great loss to his friends and family, and is as generally lamented here (Whitehall) as anybody’s.” ↩

Because so many of the Irish were Roman Catholics. —⁠B. ↩

This comet produced a large amount of literature. The eminent astronomer Mr. J. R. Hind, F.R.S., has a short anonymous article on it in Nature, February 7th, 1884, p. 345. ↩

See ante, note 2204. ↩

Roger L’Estrange, Licenser of the Press and pamphleteer. See note 1924. ↩

To buckle = to give way or to prepare to give assent. ↩

A brunette, see note 878. ↩

Jonson’s Catiline was not revived until December 19th, 166S, when it was acted by the King’s Company. Hart took the character of Catiline; Mohun, Cathegus; and Burt, Cicero. Mrs. Corey was Sempronia. ↩

Coying = stroking or caressing with the hand. ↩

Captain John Taylor, see ante, note 2327. ↩

John Mordaunt, second son of John, first Earl of Peterborough, born June 18th, 1626; created Baron Mordaunt of Reigate and Viscount Mordaunt of Avalon, July 10th, 1659. Died June 5th, 1675. ↩

Sir Theophilus Biddulph, of Westcombe, Kent, who had been previously knighted, was made a baronet, November 2nd, 1664. He was then serving in parliament for Lichfield. —⁠B. ↩

Pepys was wrong as to the name of Sir William Petty’s new doublekeeled boat. On February 13th, 1664⁠–⁠65, he gives the correct title, which was The Experiment. ↩

Sir George Downing wrote to Lord Chancellor Clarendon from the Hague on the 29th December, “I need not tell your Lordshipp what a noise the business of De Ruyter’s success in Guiny hath made here, and how much it hath putt life into ye com̃on people; on the other hand, those that looke higher and neerer into businesse say that this doth justifie, beyond all dispute, what his Majestie hath done here in ye Channell” (Lister’s Life of Clarendon, vol. iii, p. 358). ↩

It is one of the twenty-four comets of which the observations have been collected in Halley’s Astronomiæ Cometicæ Synopsis. —⁠B. ↩

St. Dionis Backchurch. The rector in 1664 was John Castilion, D.D., afterwards Bishop of Exeter. The preacher may have been Richard Meggot, D.D., who was appointed Canon of Windsor in 1677 and Dean of Winchester in 1679. He died December 7th, 1692, and was buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. ↩

As a charm against the colic, see post, January 20th, 1664⁠–⁠65. ↩

This family register is written in longhand. ↩

The word “mort” must have been in some instances added long after the entry was first made. —⁠B. ↩

To this name is affixed in shorthand the following note: “Went to reside in Magd. Coll. Camb. and did put on my gown first, March 5, 1650⁠–⁠51.” —⁠B. ↩

The first of these charms is written in longhand, but the remainder are in shorthand. ↩

There can be no reasonable cause for doubting this to refer to the famous song, “To all you ladies now at land,” written by Lord Buckhurst (afterwards Earl of Dorset), and the reference has therefore a very distinct literary value, because it proves that the song was not “made the night before the engagement” of June 3rd, 1665, an opinion which was universally held until this passage was printed. There is nothing in the song itself to indicate any particular time when it was written, and it appears that the first to fix the exact period was Prior the poet (who was born in 1664). In the dedication of his poems to Lionel, Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, Prior states that the earl’s father wrote the celebrated sea song “the night before the engagement with the Dutch in 1665.” Dr. Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets, says, “seldom any splendid story is wholly true,” and adds that Lord Orrery told him that Lord Buckhurst had been a week employed upon it, and only retouched or finished it on the memorable evening. Lord Braybrooke was criticised for supposing that Pepys referred to Buckhurst’s song, and therefore he entered fully into his own defence, summing up as follows: “In the absence of certain evidence, we cannot decide upon the