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PAGE PREFACE v

INDEX 297

SAMUEL PEPYS AND THE WORLD HE LIVED IN.

PEPYS BEFORE THE DIARY.

Samuel Pepys was the first of a well-established stock to make a name in the outer world, but since his time the family can boast of having had amongst its members a Court physician, a bishop, and a lord chancellor.

The branch from which Samuel was descended had not much money; and his father, being a younger son, came to London and became a tailor. This descent in the social scale has caused much misapprehension, and his enemies did not forget to taunt him on his connection with tailoring; but it is a well-accredited axiom that trade does not injure gentry. Some remarks of Pepys himself upon his family have been greatly misunderstood. Referring to the non-appearance of any account of the Pepyses in Fuller's "Worthies," he writes:--"But I believe, indeed, our family were never considerable." Dr. Doran paraphrased this into: "Let others say of his family what they might: he, for his own part, did not believe that it was of anything like gentle descent." This is a pure blunder, for Pepys merely meant that none of the family had made much mark; and he would have been very indignant had any one told him that they were not gentle.

In 1650, his name occurs as a sizar on the boards of Trinity College, Cambridge; but before going to reside at the University, on March 5, 1650-51, he was entered at Magdalene College, having probably been led to make the change by the greater inducements held out to him by the latter college. Here he was elected into one of Mr. Spendluffe's scholarships in the following month; and two years later, on October 14, 1653, he was preferred to one on Dr. John Smith's foundation. His father was at this time described as a citizen of London.

Little is known of Samuel's academic career, during which he does not appear to have gained much distinction; and remarks in various parts of the "Diary" show that his conduct was not such as became a Puritan. The College books can be brought as a witness against him, for we learn from that source that, on October 21st, 1653, "Peapys and Hind were solemnly admonished ... for having been scandalously over-served with drink the night before." Still, we must not jump to the conclusion that his time was entirely wasted, for he evidently carried into his busy life a good stock of classical learning. It was while he was at the University that he made the acquaintance of the learned Selden, from whom he borrowed the collection of ballads which formed the basis of the famous Pepysian collection. He relates that, while at Cambridge, he wrote a romance entitled, "Love a Cheate," which he tore up on the 30th of January, 1663-64. This work of destruction must have been performed with some feelings of regret, for he tells us that he rather liked the tale, and wondered that he had ever been able to write so well. His previous literary performances had consisted in the concocting of some anagrams upon Mrs. Elizabeth Whittle, afterwards the wife of Sir Stephen Fox. It is not recorded at what time Pepys left college, but it must have been either in 1654 or 1655. He was made Master of Arts by proxy, in June, 1660, the grace being passed on the 26th of that month.

In course of time they all went to France, and the father, in command of a company of foot, assisted at the taking of Dunkirk. He occupied his time with propositions of perpetual motion and other visionary schemes, and consequently brought himself and all dependent upon him to the brink of poverty. While he was away from Paris, some devout Roman Catholics persuaded Madame St. Michel to place her daughter in the nunnery of the Ursulines. The father was enraged at this action, but managed to get Elizabeth out of the nunnery after she had been there twelve days. Thinking that France was a dangerous place to live in, he hurried his family back to England, and shortly afterwards Elizabeth married Pepys. Her father was greatly pleased that she had become the wife of a true Protestant; and she herself said to him, kissing his eyes, "Dear father, though in my tender years I was by my low fortune in this world deluded to popery by the fond dictates thereof, I have now a man to my husband too wise, and one too religious in the Protestant religion, to suffer my thoughts to bend that way any more."

There are several references in the "Diary" to Mrs. Pepys's father and mother, who seem never to have risen out of the state of poverty into which they had sunk. On May 2, 1662, Mons. St. Michel took out a patent, in concert with Sir John Collidon and Sir Edward Ford, for the purpose of curing smoky chimneys; but this scheme could not have been very successful, as a few months afterwards he was preparing to go to Germany in order to fight against the Turks. Pepys gave him some work to do in 1666, and Mrs. Pepys carried the account-books that he was to rule; but such jobs as these must have given him but a sorry living, and in the following year he again proposed to go abroad. Pepys sent him three jacobuses in gold to help him on his journey. We hear nothing more of either father or mother, with the exception of an allusion to their pleasure at seeing the prosperous state of their daughter--a prosperity in which they certainly did not share.

This account of Mrs. Pepys's parentage has led us away from the early days of Pepys, when, with improvident passion, he married his young wife; and we will therefore return to the year 1655. Early marriages were then far from uncommon, and Mrs. Pepys's beauty was considered as forming a very valid excuse for the improvidence of the match. There seems to be some reason for believing that she was of a dark complexion, for her husband on one occasion was mad with her for dressing herself according to the fashion in fair hair. Sir Edward Montagu, who was Pepys's first cousin one remove , gave a helping hand to the imprudent couple, and allowed them to live in his house. The Diarist alludes to this time, when, some years afterwards, he writes of how his wife "used to make coal fires, and wash" his "foul clothes with her own hand," in their little room at Lord Sandwich's.

Samuel does not appear to have lived with his father after he had grown up, and as old John Pepys was not a very thriving tradesman, it seems likely that Montagu had previously assisted his young kinsman. Indeed, it was probably under his patronage that Samuel went to the University.

The Diarist seems to have held some official position in the year 1656, because on Thursday, August 7th, a pass was granted "to John Pepys and his man with necessaries for Holland, being on the desire of Mr. Sam??. Pepys." John Pepys had probably long been in the habit of going backwards and forwards to Holland, for Samuel writes : "We went through Horslydowne, where I never was since a little boy, that I went to enquire after my father, whom we did give over for lost coming from Holland." Whether these journeys were undertaken in the way of business, or whether they had any connection with Montagu's affairs, we cannot now tell. That Samuel acted as a sort of agent for Montagu, we have evidence; and among the Rawlinson Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library is a memorandum of the payment to him on General Montagu's part for the ransom of the Marquis of Baydez .

On March 26th, 1658, he underwent an operation for the stone, a disease that seems to have been inherited. The operation was successfully performed, and ever after he made a practice of celebrating the anniversary of this important event in his life with thanksgiving.

On Pepys's return to England he was employed in the office of Mr., afterwards Sir George, Downing, as a clerk of the Exchequer connected with the pay of the army, and soon afterwards commenced to keep the "Diary" which we now possess.

Pepys was a great lover of shorthand, and he was always ready to invent a character, as it was then called, for a friend. He used the art in drafting his public and private letters; and although he was forced to discontinue his "Diary" in 1669, on account of the weakness of his eyesight, he continued its use throughout his life.

We learn from the "Diary" itself some particulars of how it was written. The incidents of each day were dotted down in short, and then the writer shut himself up in his office to fill up all the details. Sometimes he was in arrear: thus we read, on January 1st, 1662-63, "So to my office to set down these two or three days' journal;" on September 24th, 1665, "Then I in the cabin to writing down my journal for these last seven days to my great content;" and on November 10th, 1665, "Up and entered all my journal since the 28th of October, having every day's passage well in my head, though it troubles me to remember it."

Lord Braybrooke, who first introduced the "Diary" to the public, had no very accurate notions of the duties of an editor; and he treated his manuscript in a very unsatisfactory manner. Large portions were omitted without explanation, and apparently without reason; and although much was added to succeeding editions, still the reader might well say--

"That cruel something unpossess'd Corrodes and leavens all the rest."

The third edition, published in 1848, contained a large mass of restored passages, amounting, it is said, to not less than one-fourth of the entire work. Some fresh notes were added to the fourth edition, published in 1854; but no alteration of the text was made beyond "the correction of a few verbal errors and corrupt passages hitherto overlooked." Subsequent editions have been mere reprints of these. In 1875 appeared the first volume of the Rev. Mynors Bright's entirely new edition, with about one-third of matter never yet published, all of which was of the true Pepysian flavour. Here was a treat for the lovers of the "Diary" which they little expected.

Having traced the particulars of Pepys's life to the year 1659, and described the way in which the "Diary" was written, and the means by which it first saw the light, I will now pass on to notice, in the next chapter, the chief personal incidents recorded in the book itself.

FOOTNOTES:

"Diary," ed. Mynors Bright, vol. iv. p. 366; vol. vi. p. 306.

"Diary," Feb. 10, 1661-62.

"Habits and Men," p. 300.

I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Herbert Bree, Rector of Brampton, for this information.

"Diary," Dec. 31, 1664.

"Notes and Queries," 1st S. vol. xii. p. 102.

"Diary," May 12, 1667.

Jan. 22, 1660-61.

Nov. 1, 1660.

"Did put on my gown first, March 5, 1650-51," Dec. 31, 1664 .

"Diary," Nov. 11, 1660.

Lord Braybrooke says October, but the "Athenaeum" says December 1st.

"Life, Journals, and Correspondence of S. Pepys," vol. i. p. 146.

"Diary," Sept. 22, 1663. In the original patent St. Michel's name appears as Alexander Merchant of St. Michaell.

Jan. 4, 1663-64.

June 21, 1667.

Dec. 28, 1668.

"Diary," May 11, 1667.

Feb. 25, 1666-67.

Entry-Book No. 105 of the Protector's Council of State, p. 327 .

"Diary," June 21, 1660.

March 8, 1664-65.

Nov. 7, 1660.

Smith afterwards took orders, and was presented to the rectory of Baldock in Hertfordshire by Lord Brougham in 1832, at the instigation of Harriet Martineau. In 1841 he published two octavo volumes, entitled, "The Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Esq., F.R.S." This wretchedly edited book contains the Tangier "Diary" and much valuable information; but I cannot find that the information has been used by the successive editors of the "Diary." He died in 1870.

"Tachygraphy. The most exact and compendious methode of short and swift writing that hath ever yet beene published by any. Composed by Thomas Shelton, author and professor of the said art. Approued by both Unyuersities. Ps. 45, 1, My tongue is as the pen of a swift writer." 1641.

PEPYS IN THE "DIARY."

On the 1st of January, 1659-60, Samuel Pepys commenced to write his famous "Diary." If, as seems more than probable, he had previously kept a journal of some kind, all traces of it are now lost; and our earliest glimpses of the circumstances of his life are to be obtained only from the "Diary," which is by far the most remarkable book of its kind in existence. Other men have written diaries and confessions, but they have been intended either for the public or at least for a small circle of friends to see. This "Diary" was only intended for the writer's eye. He wrote it in secret, and when he unguardedly told Sir William Coventry in the Tower that he kept a diary, he was sorry for his indiscretion immediately afterwards. Pepys has been likened to the barber of King Midas, who relieved his mind by communicating to a bundle of reeds the fact that his master had the ears of an ass; and assuredly no other writer has so unreservedly stripped his soul bare. It is, therefore, only fair to bear in mind what is said in the motto at the head of this chapter, and not to forget that very few could bear the accusing witness of such a truthful record of thoughts as well as actions as is here. The "Diary" extends over nearly ten eventful years in the history of England, and contains a voluminous record of both public and private events. The fascination of Pepys's garrulity is so great, that most of those who have written about him have found it difficult to restrain their praise within bounds. A writer in the "Athenaeum" was quite carried away by his subject when he wrote--"He has the minuteness of Dee and Ashmole without their tediousness, the playfulness of Swift in his best moments without his prejudice and his party feelings, and a charm over Byron and Scott, and, indeed, above all other memorialists that we can call to mind, in that his Diary was kept without the slightest view to publication."

I will now first note some of the chief circumstances of Pepys's life during the period covered by the "Diary," and then say something about his character as it is painted by himself.

As in times of anarchy every one wishes to talk, the Rota, or Coffee Club founded by James Harrington, the author of "Oceana," was found to be a congenial resort by those who wished to express their opinions on passing events. The principle of the club was political, and the plan formed there for the government of the country was, that every official should be chosen by ballot. Every year a third part of the House of Commons were to "rote out by ballot," and no magistrate was to continue in his position more than three years. Other than politicians attended the meetings, and many distinguished men, such as Dr. Petty, Dr. Croon, Sir William Poultney, and Cyriack Skinner, were to be found in the evening at the Turk's Head, in the New Palace Yard. The room was usually as full as it would hold, and Aubrey gives it as his opinion that the arguments heard in Parliament were flat as compared with those delivered at the Rota Club. The object of worship was the ballot-box, and the company sat round an oval table, which had a passage in the middle for Miles, the landlord, to deliver his coffee. Pepys paid his eighteen-pence on becoming a member of the club, on the 9th of January, 1659-60, and he frequently attended after this. If the following can be considered as a good illustration of proceedings, there must have been considerable divergence in the opinions of the members:--"I went to the Coffee Club and heard very good discourse; it was in answer to Mr. Harrington's answer, who said that the state of the Roman government was not a settled government, and so it was no wonder that the balance of property was in one hand, and the command in another, it being therefore always in a posture of war; but it was carried by ballot, that it was a steady government; so to-morrow it is to be proved by the opponents that the balance lay in one hand and the government in another." On the 20th of February, Pepys writes: "After a small debate upon the question whether learned or unlearned subjects are best, the club broke up very poorly, and I do not think they will meet any more." After the Restoration Harrington was put in the Tower, and then removed to Portsea Castle. His imprisonment turned him mad, so that he fancied his perspiration turned sometimes to flies and sometimes to bees, but all his hallucinations were inoffensive. One of the first steps taken by Monk towards obtaining a free Parliament was the admission of the secluded members who had been previously purged out. Pepys describes the marching-in of these men on the 21st of February, and specially notices Prynne's "old basket-hilt sword." The editors of the "Diary" might have illustrated this by an amusing passage from Aubrey's "Lives." It appears that as the members were going to the House, Prynne's long rusty sword "ran between Sir William Waller's short legs, and threw him down;" which caused laughter, as Aubrey takes care to add. About this time Pepys seems to have discerned the signs of the times, for we find him, on a visit to Audley End, drinking the health of the King down in a cellar. Sir Edward Montagu now comes to the front, and is intent upon benefiting his kinsman. Pepys hopes to be made Clerk of the Peace for Westminster, but finds the place already promised to another. Montagu offers him the post of Secretary to the Generals at Sea, which he joyfully accepts; and he receives his warrant on the 22nd of March. The following day sees the party on board the "Swiftsure" at Longreach, where Pepys receives a letter directed to "S. P., Esq.," and this superscription seems to have delighted him greatly, for he says, "of which God knows I was not a little proud." On the 30th inst. Montagu and his people went on board the "Naseby," which was the ship in which he had gone to the Sound in the previous year. They remain for a time in the neighbourhood of Deal, and on the 3rd of May the King's declaration and letter to the two generals is received by Montagu, who dictates to Pepys the words in which he wishes the vote in favour of the King to be couched. The captains all came on board the "Naseby," and Pepys read the letter and declaration to them; and while they were discoursing on the subject he pretended to be drawing up the form of vote, which Montagu had already settled. When the resolution was read, it passed at once; and the seamen all cried out, "God bless King Charles!" a cry that was echoed by the whole fleet. A little piece of Pepys's vanity here peeps out, for he tells us that he signed all the copies of the vote of the Council of War, so that if it should by chance get into print his name might be attached to it. The English fleet lies off the Dutch coast about the middle of May, and our Diarist avails himself of the opportunity to visit the Hague and some of the chief towns of Holland. The Dukes of York and Gloucester came on board the "Naseby" on the 22nd inst., and the King followed them on the following day, when the opportunity of his visit was taken to change the objectionable names of the ships. The "Naseby" became the "Charles," the "Richard" the "James," the "Speaker" the "Mary," and the "Lambert" the "Henrietta."

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