The Diary by Samuel Pepys (children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

Nicholas Lanier, composer of the symphonies to several of the masques written by Ben Jonson, and performed at Court, had died, æt. 78, November 4th, 1646, and was buried at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields (Somerset House Gazette, vol. i, p. 57). The Letters-Patent under which the Society of Musicians was incorporated at the Restoration, mention a Lanier, possibly a son of Nicholas, as first Marshal, and four others of his name as Wardens or Assistants of the Company. There is an engraved portrait of him in the British Museum (Addit. MS. 15,858, fol. 55), and a letter to his niece, Mrs. Richards, “at her house in the Old Aumery, Westminster.” —⁠B. ↩

M.P. for Bury St. Edmunds, and in the list of proposed Knights of the Royal Oak for Suffolk. —⁠B. ↩

Charles Wager was captain of the Yarmouth in the fleet at Scheveling attending Charles II on his return to England. He died at Deale, February 24th, 1665⁠–⁠66. Pepys says that even the Moors mentioned him with tears (see post, March 27th, 1668). ↩

This must surely have been Evelyn’s Sculptura, or the History and Art of Chalcography and Engraving in Copper, published in 1662. The translation of Freart’s Idea of the Perfection of Painting Demonstrated was not published until 1668. ↩

The Duke of Albemarle had more than one chaplain. Thomas Gumble, D.D., who wrote the life of his patron (1671), was one of these. ↩

Evelyn described the new art of mezzotint in his Sculptura. He published several works on gardening, and left MSS. on the same subject. We have no record of the plays referred to by Pepys. ↩

The tide of popular indignation ran high against Lord Sandwich, and he was sent to Spain as ambassador to get him honourably out of the way (see post, December 6th). ↩

The phrase “set up my rest” is a metaphor from the once fashionable game of Primero, meaning, to stand upon the cards you have in your hand, in hopes they may prove better than those of your adversary. Hence, to make up your mind, to be determined (see Nares’s Glossary). ↩

This was Bagwell’s wife. See February 14th, 1664⁠–⁠65. ↩

See note 3075, for the number of deaths from the plague as given in the Bills of Mortality. ↩

Origines Sacræ, or a rational Account of the Christian Faith, by Edward Stillingfleet, afterwards Dean of St. Paul’s and Bishop of Worcester, was published in 1662. ↩

There was a once famous King’s Head at the corner of fleet Street and Chancery Lane. ↩

Captain Crispe had only been made an Elder Brother on April 19th, 1665. ↩

Alderman Isaac Penington, Sheriff of London 1638, was elected Member of Parliament for the City of London in 1640, and in 1642 chosen Lord Mayor, and afterwards appointed Lieutenant of the Tower. He was one of the Commissioners for the trial of Charles I, but he did not sign the warrant for his execution, and a member of the Council of State, 1649. In 1660 he was committed to the Tower as one of the King’s judges, and his estates confiscated. He died there on December 17th, 1661. “Dec. 19th, 1661. Warrant to Sir John Robinson, Lieutenant of the Tower, to deliver the corpse of Isaac Penington, who died in prison there [Dec. 17], to his relations” (State Papers). He had two sons: Isaac, a well-known Quaker, and Arthur, who became a Romish priest; and a daughter Judith. ↩

Erith. ↩

John Ashburnham, a Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I, whom he attended during the whole of the Rebellion, and afterwards filled the same post under Charles II. He was, in 1661, M.P. for Sussex. Ob. 1671. The late Earl of Ashburnham, who was lineally descended from him, wrote an excellent vindication of his ancestor, against the insinuations of Clarendon and others. —⁠B. ↩

Colonel Francis Wyndham, a distinguished loyalist. Governor of Dunster Castle, Somersetshire. He was created a baronet November 18th, 1673. —⁠B. ↩

Known as Handsome Sidney. He was fourth son of Robert, second Earl of Leicester, created Earl of Romney, 1694. He was Warden of the Cinque Ports, 1691⁠–⁠1702; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1692⁠–⁠95; and Master of the Ordnance, 1693⁠–⁠1702. He died, unmarried, April 8th, 1704. ↩

Henry Saville, sometime one of the Grooms of the Bedchamber to the Duke of York. —⁠B. ↩

Dr. Hueffer says that this song of Henry Lawes is evidently the one given to “Ariadne sitting upon a rock in the Island of Naxos deserted by Theseus,” opening the first book of the Ayres and Dialogues; and he adds, “Pepys shows his keen perception of the characteristics belonging not only to a single piece, but to a whole school of music. Lawes’s songs, even those of the most lyrical type, partake of the nature of the recitative in the sense that the declamatory element is never lost sight of” (Hueffer’s Italian and Other Studies, 1883, p. 293).

Henry Lawes, son of William Lawes of Steeple Langford, and born at Dinton, co. Wilts. He was baptized January 1st, 1595⁠–⁠6, was sworn in as Pistler of the Chapel Royal January 1st, 1625⁠–⁠6, and afterwards became Gentleman and Clerk of the Cheque. He composed the music for Milton’s Comus, performed at Ludlow Castle in 1634, and performed the part of the attendant spirit. He continued in the service of Charles I until the king’s execution. He then had recourse to teaching. At