Another business associate gave him "a present for his wife," a package said to contain a pair of gloves. On the evening of February 2, 1664, Pepys noted: "When I came home, Lord! in what pain I was to get my wife out of the room without bidding her go, that I might see what these gloves were; and by and by, she being gone, it proves a payre of white gloves for her and forty pieces in good gold, which did so cheer my heart that I could eat no victuals almost for dinner for joy to think how God do bless us every day more and more."
Plague, Fire, and Fortune
Ironically, biographer Tomalin says the plague year of 1665 was one of Pepys's happiest. During it his fortune quadrupled, thanks in part to two additional appointments: treasurer for Tangier and surveyor-general of victualling for the navy. Meanwhile, as his fortune grew, so did the plague. From June to September, deaths from the disease doubled nearly every week.
"But, Lord! to see how the plague spreads," wrote Pepys on June 16. "It being now all over King's Streete, at the Axe, and next door to it, and in other places." At its height, in the last week of August 1665, the plague killed nearly 10,000 Londoners. "Thus this month ends with great sadness upon the publick, through the greatness of the plague every where through the kingdom almost," wrote Pepys on August 31. "Every day sadder and sadder news of its encrease."
The Great Fire of London, which began on September 2, 1666, and engulfed most of the central part of the city, helped quell the plague by killing the city's disease-infected rats. As the fire raged toward his home, Pepys packed up his gold and silver and rode by cart in his nightshirt to a friend's, safely outside the city. What he could not transport, he buried. Luck was on his side, however, and his neighborhood was spared.
As for the Lord of Sandwich, embezzlement was his downfall. While at war with the Dutch, Sandwich's fleet captured several Dutch ships, including some loaded with goods from the East Indies. Instead of delivering these spoils of war to the King, Sandwich let the hatches be broken and divvied up the prizes with his fleet's captains. His share's worth came to 5,000 pounds. When news of this reached the King, Sandwich was stripped of his command. (He would later be reappointed and died in battle in 1672.)
Pepys's assessment of the fall of "his Lord" is less forgiving. On December 31, 1665, he wrote: "The great evil of this year, and the only one indeed, is the fall of my Lord of Sandwich. The Duke of Albemarle goes with the Prince to sea this next year, and my Lord very meanly spoken of; and, indeed, his miscarriage about the prize goods is not to be excused, to suffer a company of rogues to go away with ten times as much as himself, and the blame of all to be deservedly laid upon him."
Fearing for his eyesight, Pepys brought his diary to a close in 1669. He would later keep two other journals before his death in 1703, but Tomalin notes that they have "none of the qualities of the first Diary. Something essential was missing — some grit that had caused him to produce his pearl." The luster of that pearl, and the qualities of the man, can be seen in the entry for Christmas day, December 25, 1666:
"To church in the morning, and there saw a wedding in the church, which I have not seen many a day; and the young people so merry one with another, and strange to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition, every man and woman gazing and smiling at them. Here I saw again my beauty Lethulier. Thence to my Lord Bruncker's by invitation and dined there, and so home to look over and settle my papers, both of my accounts private, and those of Tangier, which I have let go so long that it were impossible for any soul, had I died, to understand them, or ever come to any good end in them. I hope God will never suffer me to come to that disorder again."
Observations from Samuel Pepys's Diary
On dog days: "By coach to St. James's and there did our business, which is mostly every day to complain of want of money." (July 13, 1666)
On hard work: "How little merit do prevail in the world, but only favour; and for myself, chance without merit brought me in; and diligence only keeps me so, and will, living as I do among so many lazy people that the diligent man becomes necessary, that they cannot do anything without him." (November 1, 1665)
On success: "But, Lord! to see what successe do, whether with or without reason, and making a man seem wise notwithstanding never so late demonstration of the profoundest folly in the world." (August 15, 1666)
Reader Comments» Post a comment