Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys, (23 February 1633 - 26 May 1703) was a leading 17th century English civil servant, latterly famous for his diary. The diary is a fascinating combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London.

The Diary

Amongst the most important items in the Library are the original bound manuscripts of Pepys' diary. Although it is clear from the content that they were written as a purely personal record of his life and not for publication, there are indications that Pepys actively took steps to preserve them. Apart from the fact that he wrote his diary out in fair copy from rough notes, he also had the loose pages bound into six volumes, and catalogued them in his library with all his other books, and must have known that eventually someone would find them interesting.

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The diary was written in one of the many standard forms of shorthand used in Pepys' time, but by the time that the college took an interest in the diary, it was thought to be ciphered. The Reverend John Smith was engaged to transcribe the diaries into plain English, and he laboured at this task for three years from 1819 to 1822, apparently unaware that a key to the shorthand system was stored in Pepys' library a few shelves above the diary volumes. Smith's transcription (which is also kept in the Pepys Library) was the basis for the first edition of the diary, published in two volumes in 1825.

Related Topics:
Shorthand - Ciphered - John Smith - 1819 - 1822 - Pepys Library

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A second transcription, done with the benefit of the key, but often less accurately, was completed in 1875 by Mynors Bright, and published in 1875–1879. Henry Wheatly, drawing on both his predecessors, produced a new edition in 1893–1899, revised 1926, with extensive notes and an index. The complete and definitive edition, edited and transcribed by Robert Latham

Related Topics:
1875 - Mynors Bright - 1879 - Henry Wheatly - 1893 - 1899 - 1926 - Robert Latham

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and William Matthews was published in nine volumes, plus separate Companion and Index volumes, between 1970 and 1983. Various single volume abridgements of this text are also available.

Related Topics:
William Matthews - 1970 - 1983

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Pepys recorded his daily life for almost ten years in breathtaking honesty; the women he pursued, his friends, his dealings are all laid out. His diary reveals his jealousies, insecurities, trivial concerns, and his fractious relationship with his wife. It is an important account of London in the 1660s. Included are his personal account of the restoration of the monarchy, the Great Plague of 1665, the Great Fire of London of 1666, and the arrival of the Dutch fleet and other events of the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667).

Related Topics:
1660s - Restoration - Great Plague - 1665 - Great Fire of London - 1666 - Arrival of the Dutch fleet - Second Anglo-Dutch War - 1667

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His job required that he meet with many people to dispense monies and make contracts. He often laments over how he "lost his labour" having gone to some appointment at a coffee house or tavern, there to discover that the person he was seeking was not within. This was a constant frustration to Pepys.

Related Topics:
Coffee house - Tavern

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The diary similarly gives a detailed account of Pepys' personal life. He liked wine and plays, and the company of other people. He also spent a great deal of time evaluating his fortune and his place in the world. He was always curious and often acted on that curiosity, as he acted upon almost all his impulses.

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He was passionately interested in music and he both composed, and sang & played for pleasure. He taught his wife to sing, and paid for dancing lessons for her (although these stopped when he became jealous of the dancing master).

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He had a rather Puritan outlook on life, and periodically he would resolve to devote more time to hard work instead of leisure. For example, this entry on New Year's Eve, 1661, "I have newly taken a solemn oath about abstaining from plays and wine..." The following months reveal his lapses to the reader as by 17 February "And here I drank wine upon necessity, being ill for the want of it."

Related Topics:
Puritan - New Year's Eve - 1661 - 17 February

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The diary gives a detailed account of the pattern of Pepys' life. Reading it, one cannot help thinking how very much we must all be alike. His characteristic closing sentence was: "And so to bed."

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