The Diary of Samuel Pepys | Page 5

his
pen, and his ingenious fancy at his finger's end.
The original MS. of the Diary, which gives so vivid a picture of
manners in the reign of Charles II., is preserved in Magdalene College,
Cambridge; it is in six volumes, containing upwards of 3000 pages,
closely written in Rich's system of shorthand, which Pepys doubtless
adopted from the possibility of his journal falling into unfriendly hands
during his life, or being rashly communicated to the public after his
death. The original spelling of every word in the Diary, it is believed,
has been carefully preserved by the gentleman who deciphered it; and
although Pepys's grammar has been objected to, it is thought that the
entries derive additional interest from the quaint terms in which they
are expressed.
The period of the Diary was one of the most interesting and eventful
decades in our history. We have here the joyous pictures of the
Restoration, as well as much about "the merry monarch," his gaieties
and his intrigues. The Plague of 1665, with the appalling episodes of
this national calamity, is followed by the life-like record of the Great
Fire, and the rebuilding of London. Then, what an attractive period is
that of the history of the London theatres, dating from the Restoration,
with piquant sketches of the actors and actresses of that day. Pepys, in
his love of wit and admiration of beauty, finds room to love and admire
Nell Gwyn, whose name still carries an odd fascination with it after so
many generations. In those busy times coffee-houses were new, and we
find Pepys dropping in at Will's, where he never was before, and where
he saw Dryden and all the wits of the town. The Diarist records sending
for "a cup of tea, a China drink he had not before tasted." Here we find
the earliest account of a Lord Mayor's dinner in the Guildhall; and
Wood's, Pepys's "old house for clubbing, in Pell Mell,"--all pictures in
little of social life, with innumerable traits of statesmen, politicians,
wits and poets, authors, artists, and actors, and men, and women of wit
and pleasure, such as the town, court, and city have scarcely presented
at any other period.
Shortly after the publication of the Diary, there appeared in the

Quarterly Review, No. 66, a charming paper from the accomplished
pen of Sir Walter Scott, upon this very curious contribution to our
reminiscent literature. Sir Walter's parallel of Pepys and Evelyn is very
nicely drawn. "Early necessity made Pepys laborious, studious, and
careful. But his natural propensities were those of a man of pleasure.
He appears to have been ardent in quest of amusement, especially
where anything odd or uncommon was to be witnessed. To this thirst
after novelty, the consequence of which has given great and varied
interest to his Diary, Pepys added a love of public amusements, which
he himself seems to have considered as excessive." "Our diarist must
not be too severely judged. He lived in a time when the worst examples
abounded, a time of court intrigue and state revolution, when nothing
was certain for a moment, and when all who were possessed of any
opportunity to make profit, used it with the most shameless avidity, lest
the golden minutes should pass away unimproved.
"In quitting the broad path of history," says Sir Walter, "we seek for
minute information concerning ancient manners and customs, the
progress of arts and sciences, and the various branches of antiquity. We
have never seen a mine so rich as the volumes before us. The variety of
Pepys's tastes and pursuits led him into almost every department of life.
He was a man of business, a man of information if not of learning; a
man of taste; a man of whim; and to a certain degree a man of pleasure.
He was a statesman, a BEL ESPRIT, a virtuoso, and a connoisseur. His
curiosity made him an unwearied as well as an universal learner, and
whatever he saw found its way into his tables. Thus, his Diary
absolutely resembles the genial cauldrons at the wedding of Camacho,
a souse into which was sure to bring forth at once abundance and
variety of whatever could gratify the most eccentric appetite.
"If the curious, affect dramatic antiquities--a line which has special
charms for the present age--no book published in our time has thrown
so much light upon plays, playwrights, and play- actors.
"Then those who desire to be aware of the earliest discoveries, as well
in sciences, as in the useful arts, may read in Pepys's Memoirs, how a
slice of roast mutton was converted into pure blood; and of those
philosophical glass crackers, which explode when the tail is broken off
(Rupert's Drops) of AURUM FULMINANS, applied to the purpose of
blowing ships out