Samuel Pepys | The Diary

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Samuel Pepys was a British Naval Administrator and a Diarist, one of the founders of The Royal Society who later became the president of the scientific organization. However, he was a scientist, nor he had any maritime experience. Yet, he was an able administrator. He is most known for his diary which he continuously wrote every day for 10 years. He was close to both King Charles II and King James II. He was born on 23rd February 1633 and died on 26th May 1703. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. Unlike John Evelyn, he was more consistent about his diary entries. Many of Evelyn’s diary entries were made as memoirs. On the other hand, Samuel made a habit of making accounts of happenings in his diary daily. The diary provides personal revelations and eyewitness accounts of some of the very important incidences of the Restoration Period, including the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, and the Great Fire of London.

Samuel Pepys began writing his diary at a very crucial point in British history and this offers great importance to his entries. Oliver Cromwell died in September 1658 and his son Richard became the new Protector of England. Many factions had tried to establish Oliver as the King of England but Oliver Cromwell refused because of the fear of a possible revolt by Republicans. However, after his death, Richard found it difficult to maintain power and was overthrown in April 1659. The Republicans were gaining strength. The Rump government favored a Parliamentary republic system, however, the army officer opposed it and took control of the offices in 1659. The only possible peaceful solution to these new situations was a return to Monarchy.

Samuel Pepys began writing his diary on January 1^st, 1660. It was a period of political turmoil and the public was fearing of another war and anarchism. Samuel Pepys began noting all the important incidences of the time. On April 4^th, 1660, King Charles II returned to the thrown. Pepys continued writing his diary for 10 years. His diary contains a decade-long record of his private life, his thoughts, and the current socio-political events in more than 1 million words.

Pepys never thought that his diary will become public and will be seen by his contemporaries or other people. He wrote in short hands and used words from other languages including French, Spanish, and Italian. Since he never planned to publish his personal diary, he used many profanities in native English while recording his views in the diary.

Samuel Pepys was not healthy in 1669 and his eyesight was getting weaker. He believed that writing in dim light will cause more problems to him and he may go blind. Thus, he stopped writing his diary in 1669. He made the last entry in his diary on 31^st May 1669.

While his fears could have been correct, he gained better health and never lost his eyesight. However, he never returned to writing his diary again.

John Evelyn’s diary was successfully published in 1818, which inspired John Smith to transcribe Pepys’s diary in simple English. There were many other transcriptions of Pepys’ Diary but all of them omitted the entries in which Pepys mentioned his sexual adventures which were considered too crude by the transcribers. Pepys chronicled the various extramarital liaisons that he had with other women.

Historians use Samuel Pepys's diary to gather greater details of life during the Restoration period. It offers a greater insight into the daily public life of that period because Samuel Pepys wrote about almost everything including personal finances, when he got up in the morning, what he ate, and so on. Not only he chronicled his personal life, but he also mentioned all the important socio-political events of Britain during those 10 years.

Samuel Pepys started chronicling his day-to-day life from New year’s day in 1660 (1^st January 1660) and continued writing every day consistently for 10 days. He broke this habit of his on 31^st May 1669.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!