"... being seen, as I have lately been, to walk up and down doing nothing."
Oh no!
And this on the very day where we criticised the priest for his lazy sermon.
#Pepys
The sermon lazy, the beef good but a little too salty.
Yup, ordinary life, with its ordinary flaws and little dissonances.
Better than the grand life with its grand crimes and pitiful self-deceptions.
Heute das Jahr 1665 (das ist Bd. VI) von Samuel #Pepys Tagebuch zuendegelesen und was soll ich sagen: es gibt keine schönere Seitenlektüre, die uns zeigt, wie wenig sich im Alltag seit über 350 Jahren geändert hat.
Maloche, Alltag, Alltagsärger, Routine, Gespräche, kleine Freuden, große dumme Politik, Pest (oh!), Liebe & Betrug, Pub, das Geld zählen, bucklige Verwandtschaft und dumme Kollegen - alles da.
Das ist erbauend und frustrierend zugleich.
Schönes 2026!
#Neujahr #SamuelPepys
📚
And our Lady Joan Mastodon spoke to her knights about whom to follow.
Follow those whose toots resonate with you. Seek out the unknown tooter who speaketh honestly. Boost the tiny observation and the gentle gesture.
But most urgently, my friends, follow Samuel Pepys, for he is our first tooter, and his toots are true. He is our rock.
There was muted whispering and rustling in the hall as the knights took out their ancient refurbished Blackberries and looked up Sam's account.
This makes for a fine movie scene. Pepys up on the overcrowded gallery, fearing to be pushed off it, looking down on the Russian ambassadors' greeting the king, and then the camera zooms in onto the ambassador's son, camply dressed in layers of finest tissue and pearls, haughtily presenting himself. Pepys meanwhile taking mental notes, curious as ever.
"Die Zahl der Pesttoten ist, Gott sei Dank, um 400 Fälle zurückgegangen. Insgesamt waren es in dieser Woche knapp über 1300 Tote - der Herr sei gepriesen."
Samuel #Pepys, 15. November 1665
#SamuelPepys #Tagebuch #Literatur
You are doing it right, Sam. To the office on the 25th of December. Couldn't agree more. And "practicing arithmetique alone" sure is a welcome relief after all that socialising. You are doing it right.
#Pepys #HowToGetThroughFestiveDays #PracticingArithmetiqueAlone
"My wife and I to read 'Ovid's Metamorphoses' ..."
As one does.
"brave discourse": presumably meaning something akin to "stimulating and engaging conversation"?
Shall make it part of my active vocab.
"Yes Peter, that's right, I did run into Karl at tye Chez Charlotte the other day, we did manage to fix the missing lease clause, and we had brave discourse too. He's great company."
Harsh frost followed by an overwhelming thaw that causes equal trouble.
This is our Sam's actual experience in a cold December in 1662 London, but no doubt it also serves as a powerful poetic or cinematic allegory for something else. Though I'm not quite sure for what!
How to report on a potential infedility without even mentioning it. All meaning comes entirely from the context. Beautiful.
"... though I perceive great neglect & indifference in all my colleagues in what they do for the department."
Oh, absolutely, Sam. I too am annoyed by those slackers and freeriders.
"... whom they did play upon for his surrendering of Dunkirk."
Surrender of Dunkirk not the scene of tragedy and heroism from 300 years later, rather a sober transaction between Charles II and Louis XIV. When the Treaty of the Pyrenees ended the long Franco-Spanish in 1659, it happened to assign Dunkirk to England. Just one of those semi-random outcomes of a war. Charles sold Dunkirk to Louis a few years later, cleaning things up.
Henry Norwood, a loyal Royalist from the time the Civil War, was deputy governor of Dunkirk during the short period of English rule. And here our Sam has dinner with him, a little later, joking about the surrender of Dunkirk.
"... and I did here see the great pleasure to be had in discoursing of publique matters with men and women that are particularly acquainted with this or that business."
Indeed. Sam, you are a fine Mastodonian.
"Discoursing of publique matters" is what the Fedi lets us do, and being "particularly acquainted with this or that business" is what we bring into it.
"laughing and jeering at everything that looks strange"
You are right to be upset, Sam. Bigotry and narrowmindedness are so annoying.
And that is why I warm to you, Sam: the complete absence of such narrowness in your outlook on life; your unbounded curiosity; your childlike joy in experiencing new things. Bless you, Sam.
One "may know the temper of the City by him and can tell how matters go".
Again, the fear of reversal of power. Pepys want to see the warning signs early.
Reminded of the Taoist / I Ching notion of incipience: learning to spot the earliest signs of change.
https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Divination.htm#INCIPIENCE
Always the fear of disorder, Sam, subtly lingering in all your posts. Being on the side of the King and the state when the King and the state may not be permanent, I can see how this is frightening.
Pepys walking the city on Sunday, stepping into church services along the way. Not as a member of any congregation but as an observer, looking for elements of order.
Is he a troubled citizen, or an agent of the state machine, or both?
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