Samuel Pepys: diary-the fire of London 1666 Flashcards
when was the extract written?
2 september 1666 (whole diary kept from 1660-1690)
first sentence
2nd (Lord’s day)
-Sunday the 2nd of September
‘a great fire’
a simple modifier
-more engaging
-size is large
-powerful fire
‘thought it to be on the back side of Marke-lane’
‘fish street by London Bridge’
semantic field of geography/places affected by the fire.
-good geographical knowledge
-he is well educated/wealthy
‘I thought it far enough off’
prepositional phrase
detached POV-factual
‘so to my closet to set things right’
personal housework-sense of vanity-unbothered by the fire
‘high places’
vantage point-see the fire from further away
‘infinite great fire’
double intensifier
‘poor little Michell and our Sarah’
concerned for his friends-sympathetic
however, he is not worried about other people affected by the fire.
‘poor people’
modifier-lower class or pitiful
‘loth to leave their houses’
archaism-loathe/hate
‘in an hour’s time’
‘about twelve o’clock’
time adverbials-chronology
‘where people come about me’
prepositional-suggests high social standing
‘every creature coming away’
dehumanising the poor
‘burning, as pitch and tar, in Thames-street; and warehouses of ole, and wines, and brandy, and other things’
olfactory imagery (smells)
polysyndetic listing
‘the churches all filling with goods by people’
on the sabbath-rest-juxtaposition
the church is seen as a place of sanctuary
‘extraordinary good dinner, and as merry as at this time as we could be’
not overly concerned about the fire-selfish
positive modifiers ‘good’, ‘merry’ - ironic giving the situation (fire)
‘the wind carries it’
wider theme of nature’s power over man-the insignificance of man
‘horrid malicious flame’
hyperbole list
‘cracking houses at their ruin’
phonology
frequent discourse marker ‘so’
(adverb)
piling on of detail. development of the account
diary schema
time and place adverbs typical
