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

glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least £2,000 in gold before them; upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days after was all in the dust.” —⁠Diary, February, 1685. —⁠B. ↩

See note 3005. ↩

Intended as retaliation, perhaps, for the humiliation experienced by D’Estrades in London. See October 4th, 1661. —⁠B. ↩

Pepys might be thinking of Francis I’s

“Souvent femme varie,
Bien fol est qui s’y fie.”

—⁠B. ↩

Nicholas Osborne. ↩

Antigua, one of the West India Islands (Leeward Islands), discovered by Columbus in 1493, who is said to have named it after a church at Seville called Santa Maria la Antigua. It was first settled by a few English families in 1632, and in 1663 another settlement was made under Lord Willoughby, to whom the entire island was granted by Charles II. In 1666 it was invaded by a French force, which laid waste all the settlement. It was reconquered by the English, and formally restored to them by the treaty of Breda. ↩

The passage between brackets is written in the margin of the MS. ↩

Annus Mirabilis; the Year of Wonders, 1666, an historical Poem. ↩

Rupert. ↩

James Molines, Moleyns, or Mullins, one of a family of distinguished surgeons, born 1628. He was elected, November 8th, 1665, in compliance with a recommendation from Charles II, surgeon to St. Thomas’s Hospital as to ordinary avocations, and joint-surgeon with Mr. Hollyer for the cutting of the stone. He was afterwards appointed Surgeon in Ordinary to Charles II and James II, and received the degree of M.D. from the University of Oxford, September 28th, 1681. He died February 8th, 1686, and was buried in St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, where his monumental tablet still exists. This information is obtained from a valuable article by Dr. J. Y. Payne on the various surgeons bearing the name of Molines in the Dictionary of National Biography. ↩

See January 15th, 1664⁠–⁠65. ↩

Michael Nostradamus, a physician and astrologer, born in the diocese of Avignon, 1503. Amongst other predictions, one was interpreted as foreshowing the singular death of Hen. II of France, by which his reputation was increased. In the 49th quatrain of his ninth century, the lines:

“Gand et Bruxelles marcheront contre Anvers,
Sénat de Londres mettront à mort leur roi,”

may well be applied to the death of Charles I. Some coincidences in modern times are also curious. He speaks of the “renovation de siècle,” in 1792, in which year, in fact, the French revolutionary kalendar took its rise. The landing of Bonaparte from Elba, at Fréjus, was supposed to be predicted in cent. x, quatrain xxiii:

“Au peuple ingrat faites les remonstrances,
Par lors l’armée se saisera d’Antibe,
Dans l’arc Monech feront les doléances,
Et à Fréjus l’un l’autre prendra ribe.”

Jodelle’s clever distich on Nostradamus is worthy of a place:

“Nostra damus, cum falsa damus, nam fallere nostrum est,
Et cum falsa damus, nil nisi nostra damus.”

As well as the reply by Nostradamus’s followers:

“Nostra damus, cum verba damus, quæ Nostradamus dat,
Nam quæcumque dedit, nil nisi vera dedit.”

He succeeded too in rendering assistance to the inhabitants of Aix, during the plague, by a powder of his own invention. He died at Salon, July, 1566. —⁠B. ↩

Roger L’Estrange, whose office it was to license the Almanacs, told Sir Edward Walker, “that most of them did foretell the fire of London last year, but hee caused itt to bee put out.” —⁠Ward’s Diary, p. 94. —⁠B. ↩

John Booker, an eminent astrologer and writing-master at Hadley. The words quoted by him from Nostradamus are (cent. ii, quatrain li):

“Le sang du juste à Londres fera faute,
Bruslez par foudre de vingt trois les six,
La dame antique cherra de place haute,
De mesme secte plusieurs seront occis.”

—⁠B. ↩

In Windsor Forest. ↩

Sir C. Wren, it is well known, took up a stone from the ruins of St. Paul’s having the word “Resurgam” inscribed, which he adopted. —⁠B. ↩

Rear-Admiral John Kempthorne, a distinguished and gallant officer. His squadron was still in port on February 12th (Calendar of State Papers, 1606⁠–⁠67, p. 509). He was knighted in 1670, and in 1675 made Commissioner at Portsmouth, which place he represented in parliament. Died 1679. ↩

An Apology or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World. By George Hakewill, a learned divine. Oxford, 1627. The work was frequently reprinted. —⁠B. ↩

See note 2088. ↩

Lord John Butler was born in 1643, and in January, 1676, married Anne, only daughter of Arthur Chichester, Earl of Donegal. In April, 1676, he was created Earl of Gowran. Died s. p., 1677. —⁠B. ↩

See November 25th. ↩

A comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher, of which an alteration was produced by the Duke of Buckingham. The play which Pepys saw was probably the duke’s revised version, although it was not published until 1682. ↩

This song is not in Beaumont and Fletcher, as printed, nor in the alteration of the play by the duke. —⁠B. ↩

“Captain Seely, captain of the fire-ship that deserted the Patrick, was this day (March 7th) shot to death on board his