SAMUEL PEPYS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 19 May 1928, Page 11

SAMUEL PEPYS

F you wish to do him justice you must not speak of, him as Peppis, or Pecpis, or Peps. His name is pronounced Peeps. He had no family, but his sister’s descendants, bearing the name of Pepys Cockerell, insist on being caaled Peeps Cockerell. Magdalene College, Cambridge, preserves the same tradition. So that’s that.

But who is the man whoso shining place in English literature makes him the wonder of the world? What did he do to set such numbers of people writing about him and filling library shelves with biographies and appreeiatives ? What did he write, and what place in life did he fill? Thereby hangs a tale. When Pcpys died he left his library to Magdalene College, and among his books was his diary, filling six substantial volumes —about 3000 pages in all. It covered a period of nine years and five months, and most wonderful of all was written in shorthand. For over .100 years the diary slumbered on the shelves. Pepys died in 1703, and the publication of “Evelyn’s Diary" in 1918 suggested to the then master of Afagdalene College that the volumes lettered. as “journal” in the Pcpysian library might contain material quite as interestilng as that of Evelyn. But nobody knew r the system of shorthand, and no one was aware that another volume in the library containing the account of Charles ll.\s escape from Worcester would have given the key. The diary was shown to Lord Grenville, who deciphered a few pages,’* and in three years the whole diary was transcribed; portions of it were published, and Pepys came into a. fame which is not likely to fade these many centuries. The charm of the diary is its candour and sincerity. What made him tell so fully the story of his own lapses, and make the whole world his confessor? When he began to write it was for his own pleasure. Why did he not destroy so frank a record of his shortcomings, foibles, and vices, lie who was so mortally afraid of public opinion? And why (lid he write in shorthand, and intersperse that with “rogueisli" passages in bits of other languages? No man was more feverishly anxious to apycar respectable, and nobody ever took such pains to prove he ivas nothing of the kind. Even if one admits that he wrote with a view to future publicity and fame, why was he so explicit (indetailed? Cromwell told the artist who •painted his portrait, to “put in the warts," and Pepys who painted his own portrait, certainly did not forget bis warts. Perhaps his biographers have omitted one solution of the problem. Pepys wrote the diary as a salve to his conscience. Here he confessed his shortcomings, and in the act found a kind of vicarious peace:

HIS PLACE IN HISTORY AN UNPARALLELED FIGURE

Born of a good Cambridgeshire family, schooled at St. Paul’s, London, and entered as a student at Cambridge, his grand ambition was to win a solid place in the world; to possess money, plate, servants and a carriage anil pair. He succeeded, and in the process developed a curious compound of character which is described naively in his diary, and, as lie would say, “is mightily divertising." In his own way he was a religious rnau, but also a considerable sensualist.

A REGULAR “PETER PAN." There are passages in his diary which show him as a Peter Pan, refusing to grow up, and exhibiting the most childish pleasure in some new possession. He buys a watch and writes, “I could not forbear carrying it in may hand and seeing what o’clock it w r as an hundred times." Everything fresh and striking delighted him, a drunken sailor, a Quaker’s testimony, an evening at Vauxhall, a talk with a boy who lights him home, glow-worms,, and shepherds anil sheep. Nothing was without interest. He had n. gusto for life. When he was 22 years of age he married the daughter of a Frenchman, a pretty girl called Elizabeth St. Aliehel, then only 3 5 years of age. The union was not. an entire success. She was rather a scatter-brained wife, who could never keep things in order, was unpunctual, slipshod, and irritating. On the whole, she was submissive, and one must frankly admit had much to put up with in her husband. Their quarrels were frequent, but quickly made up again. He was given to finding fault with the way she dressed. He fell out with her about ill-matched ribbons, and on another occasion because she appeared in a “black niovre waistcoat and shot petticoat, laced with silver so basely that I could not endure to see her." “She is a fool," is Ids comment, upon her. He kept her short of money, and spent much more, on his own clothes than on hors. Occasionally a fit of generosity would seize him, and he would make her a present of jewellery.

DOAIESTTC DIFFERENCES. He was jealous, although he knew in Ids heart lie had no right to be. Sulks, recriminations and threats were constant. Afore than once he pulled her nose, and on a memorable occasion she threatened him with a pair of red-hot tongs. Their differences, though violent. were generally brief. “So home to dinner with my wife, very pleasant and pleased with one another’s company." She had reason, poor woman, to bo fiercely jealous of him. The story of

his multiplied infidelities would scarcely bear telling anywhere but in his diary. Stevenson says, "The man grew so involved with Saturnalian manners and companions that he was shot almost unconsciously into the grand domestic crash of HJtfS." Till now he had been living a double life, this man so careful of keeping up appearances. One of his servants, Deb Willett, attracted him, and one night after supper he and Deb were discovered by his wife in a base intrigue. "Mv wife was struck mute and grew angry, and so her voice came to her, grew quite out of order, and I to say little, but to bed, and my wife said little also, 'but could not sleep all night." Deb was dismissed, but not from the desire of Pepys, and his wife found out that he had not broken off the liaison. She insisted that since she eou£d not trust him, he should have his friend Hewer with him everywhere, and' poor Pepys penitently agreed to the arrangement. "Hewer goes up down with me like a jaylour. ’’ Mrs Pepyis died at the age of 29, and he never married again. As Secretary to the Navy, he rendered conspicuous service to his country, and it was owing to his businesslike habits that the exploits of the great admirals, Hawke, .Rodney and Nelson, were possible. He was called "the right hand of the navy," and was continually consulted bv Charles 11. and .lames 11, It was a perpetual sorrow to his honest soul that the King lavished upon his mistresses huge sums of money that had been voted for the navy. He sat in Parliament as member for Harwich, and when .Tames 11. fled before the storm of revolution Pepy's career was at an end. He was committed to prison on a charge of betraying naval sercets to the French, but the charge was dropped for lack of evidence. He had been previously committed to the Tower on suspicion of taking part in the Popish plot, but was discharged. By one of the ironies, of history the man who was so keen on making money was cheated by the thrown out of £25,000, being arrears of salary and sums advanced to Charles 11. and James 11., which their successors refused to pay. He died in 1703 at the age of 71, without having received a pension. The Government was in' debt to him, and so is the whole world. He has provided laughter and mirth for multitudes, and even those who most scathingly condemn his lapses admit his candour and praise his patriotism. His diary is one of the- most lively and picturesque books in the language. Call him if you choose a slave to convention,. and a fellow without moral vision, and adventures recorded so scrupulously by himself will remain 'a perennial fountain of delight.