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Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In

Chapter 14: CHAPTER XIII. CONCLUSION
By Henry B. Wheatley
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BiographiesHistory - BritishHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

The author assembles biographical information, diary excerpts, and contemporary documentation to portray Samuel Pepys’s life, career, and the social milieu of his era. Chapters follow his background before the diary, his daily activities and observations during its composition, and his later years, and address specific topics such as his time in Tangier, his books and collections, and the fabric of Restoration London. Separate sections examine his relations and acquaintances, naval and court service, public figures, social manners, and entertainments. A concluding discussion is followed by appendices offering portraits, manuscript inventories, play lists, and other documentary material that illuminate the narrative.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CONCLUSION.

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.”
Ecclesiastes xii. 13.

Now that all the divisions of our subject have been discussed, there is little to add in a concluding chapter. We have seen Pepys in his poverty, when he and his wife struggled to keep up a decent appearance with an empty larder and a fireless grate at home. We have seen the sudden change, when he became rich and increased his expenses with an ever-present sense of the effect of his movements upon the outer world. And, lastly, we have seen how he lived to an honoured old age, and passed out of life as a worthy example of virtue and honour. We have peeped into some of his dearly-loved books, and seen how the “Bibliotheca Pepysiana” helps to illustrate the character of its founder.

Having thus looked at the man as he lived, we passed on to his surroundings. First, we dealt with the town he loved and knew so well, then made the acquaintance of the relations and friends that surrounded him, and lastly, tried to understand the arrangements of the office where he spent so large a portion of his life. This was the inner circle. The frequenters of the Court and the public characters with whom he came into occasional contact or knew only from observation at a distance, formed the outer circle of his life.

Byron, in allusion to the question, “Where is the world?” asked by Dr. Young at the age of eighty, cried out:—

“Alas!
Where is the world of eight years past? ’Twas there—
I look for it—’tis gone, a globe of glass
Crack’d, shiver’d, vanish’d, scarcely gazed on, ere
A silent change dissolves the glittering mass.
Statesmen, Chiefs, Orators, Queens, Patriots, Kings,
And Dandies, all are gone on the wind’s wings.”

Yet we may point to the pages of Pepys’s “Diary,” and say that there the globe is still whole, and that there men and women of nearly three times eighty years ago live and move before our eyes.

In taking leave of the official, the gossip, the musician, and the man of letters, I can only express the hope that these pages may be found a useful companion to one of the most interesting books in the English language.