This day my oaths of drinking wine and going to plays are out, and so I do resolve to take a liberty to-day, and then to fall to them again. To the King's Theatre, where we saw "Midsummer's Night's Dream," which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life.
Submissions
Choice Notes on History from Notes and Queries (1858)
publicdomainreview.org
2 points·by pepys··0 comments
Disputing the Declaration of Independence
historytoday.com
10 points·by pepys··0 comments
Venetian Bridge Brawls in 17th and 18th Century Art
publicdomainreview.org
62 points·by pepys··32 comments
How Does History Judge Prime Ministers?
historytoday.com
3 points·by pepys··0 comments
Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore Story (2023)
historytoday.com
174 points·by pepys··186 comments
Heirs and Spares in Early Modern France
historytoday.com
8 points·by pepys··0 comments
Growling in a corner: Samuel Johnson's lost years
commonreader.co.uk
1 points·by pepys··0 comments
Can the Dictionary Keep Up?
thenation.com
17 points·by pepys··5 comments
The British Empire's Brothels
historytoday.com
3 points·by pepys··0 comments
What influence has the BBC had on history?
historytoday.com
42 points·by pepys··72 comments
Are We Doomed?
lrb.co.uk
51 points·by pepys··69 comments
'The Dream Factory' Review: A Building and Its Bard
wsj.com
18 points·by pepys··0 comments
The Aesthete's Progress
sydneyreviewofbooks.com
20 points·by pepys··1 comments
The Battle of Hastings Isn't Over
unherd.com
3 points·by pepys··2 comments
Ouvriers de Luxe
lrb.co.uk
1 points·by pepys··0 comments
Oxford might be best described as a city of books
thecritic.co.uk
13 points·by pepys··0 comments
A Collection of Old English Customs, and Curious Bequests and Charities (1842)
publicdomainreview.org
2 points·by pepys··0 comments
Sikkim and the Himalayan Chess Game (2016)
historytoday.com
34 points·by pepys··20 comments
What it means to be 'culturally' Irish in 2025 is complicated
The date for this one is an estimate based on Lucian's lifespan; looks like the good people at Lapham's Quarterly were mistaken in attributing it to c. 590 Athens, seeing as how he wrote during the Roman Empire. He did set the fictional dialogue in the Athens of that time though.
Just want to point out two truly outstanding eccentric English names mentioned in the article. Straight out of Dickens:
Urania Wallop: "Not long after the botched elopement/abduction, Urania ordered that her son be strapped to his bed."
Coulson Wallop: "[Jane Austen] was, however, less impressed by his dim-witted younger brother Coulson, whom she regarded as a cad given to drunken habits and indelicate language."
A guide for the perplexed - this basically a FAQ related to sex and romance from 1566. Posted it simply because I found it to be interesting. It's written in a question and answer style with the questions demarcated by a ¶. The text is typical of 16th century English, hence u=v, ie=y, etc. Hence:
¶Why were Oysters consecrated by the auncient to Venus?
Bycause Oysters doe prouoke lecherie.
Becomes:
"Why were Oysters consecrated to Venus by the Ancients?
"1. ...Mummy has been esteemed resolvent and balsamick; and besides it, the skull, and even the moss growing on the skulls of human skeletons, have been celebrated for antiepileptick virtues..."