The Diary of Samuel Pepys

There is a neat linkage with the end of the previous year on January 1, as Pepys hears a report from Mrs. Sarah, a family friend, that the king is carrying on an ill-concealed affair with Lady Castlemaine.

As the Christmas season comes to an end on January 6 (Twelfth Day), Pepys is happy with the pleasures he experienced during the holiday yet mindful that he must now apply himself to “do my duty” (141) and obey his vows to abstain from pleasure. Yet, typically, Pepys’s resolution is weak: Two days later he is again attending a play with his wife (141).

On February 4 Pepys attends Apposition Day at St. Paul’s School, from which he graduated. Pepys visits London schools and colleges several times in the Diary to see graduation ceremonies or to attend scientific discussions. 

Pepys reaches a milestone on February 23 when he celebrates his 30th birthday. He marks the occasion by attending a play in contravention of his vow, which fills him with remorse and renews his resolve to deny himself pleasure.

As the year begins, Pepys and his wife experience intense domestic strife. First, they have a falling out about some clothes of Elizabeth’s that got left in a coach. Although Pepys admits that Elizabeth had entrusted the clothes to him to look after, he blames her for the oversight. Typically, Pepys concentrates on the monetary loss: “I believe it might be as good as 25s. loss or thereabouts” (141).

The disagreement between the couple intensifies on January 9. Elizabeth complains of her loneliness and need for companionship, then she reads her husband a letter she had previously written lamenting her unhappiness. Upset at the letter and worried it might be read by strangers, Pepys tears it up in front of Elizabeth, then proceeds to tear up all their letters and his will bequeathing his possessions to her, amidst her cries of protest. Pepys then brings the torn pieces to his room and burns them, feeling “troubled in mind” (143) afterward. This episode marks one of Pepys’s major fits of temper against his wife. The previous day, Pepys beats his boy servant “for a lie he told me” (141).

The tension between the Pepys’s increases in May. The Pepys have hired a new maid, Mary Ashwell. When Pepys teaches her music and seems to take pleasure in conversing with her, Elizabeth becomes jealous. Later in the month the tables are turned: When Mr. Pembleton is hired to teach Elizabeth dancing for a month, Pepys becomes “deadly full of jealousy” (162) at the sight of his wife and the dancing master alone together; yet he keeps his feelings bottled up. In a notable moment of introspection, Pepys admits that he has little right to be jealous since “upon a small temptation I could be false to her” and pleads “God pardon both my sin and my folly herein” (163).

Pepys becomes worried that allowing his wife to take the dancing lessons will distract her from her duties and cause him to “lose […] my command over her” (163). His suspicions increase when he sees his wife and Pembleton looking at each other at church on Sunday, then curtseying to each other after the service. Pepys admits that his jealousy is creating “a very hell in my mind” (166); that night he tells Elizabeth what is troubling him.

The next day, however, Pepys enjoys dancing with his wife and Pembleton. Then, the month of lessons being over, they pay Pembleton, and he leaves. The issue thus comes to a close.

This sequence of episodes centering on marital jealousy features music, considered a symbol of personal and romantic concord during the 17th century. Although music-making ironically leads to discord for the Pepys’s, it ultimately effects a reconciliation between Pepys, his wife, and Pembleton.

In June, Pepys’s wife goes to stay in the country with Ashwell; Pepys confesses to his diary that he misses his wife “whom I love with all my heart, though of late she has given me some troubled thoughts” (170). Receiving a letter from her several days later expressing a desire for a new petticoat in the latest style, Pepys goes into town to buy her one (171). These episodes show Pepys’s enduring love for his wife despite some of his actions.

On July 31 Pepys is pleased to discover that he is worth £730—“the most I ever had yet” (176). However, he is still worried about his financial condition. When he receives word that his wife and Ashwell have had a fight, he resolves that if Ashwell leaves, he will hire no more servants but instead “live poorly and low again for a good while” (178). On August 17 Pepys and Elizabeth let Ashwell go.  

Also in August, Pepys takes action to manage and distribute his late Uncle Robert’s estate. With his wife and his cousin Thomas he travels to the country and stays with some relatives; Pepys’s descriptions of their poor manner of living show disparagement on the part of a Londoner for country ways. They inquire about Robert’s estate of Blinkhorne, a miller who is in charge of the estate.

They are surprised to learn that Blinkhorne is the next heir to the estate and that Pepys’s family is effectively shut out. However, Blinkhorne agrees to share part of the estate with the Pepyses, who are amused at this turn of events.

Back in London, on October 14 Pepys and his wife visit the Jewish synagogue during one of its services. This episode shows the attitudes of an Englishman of the day toward Jews, who were a small minority in London at this time. Jews had been absent from England from their expulsion in the 1300s until their readmission under Cromwell in 1656. Thus, Jews and Jewish rituals would have been a novel sight to London residents in 1663.

Pepys’s account shows typical curiosity about the ritual; however, he is bewildered by the “disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention” (186) evident in the service. What Pepys apparently did not know is that he had gone to the synagogue on the feast day of Simchat Torah, or “the most euphoric day in the Jewish calendar” in celebration of the Jewish Law (aish.com). The episode might be viewed as a classic case of cultural misunderstanding due to lack of background knowledge on the part of the observer.

The queen falls seriously ill around October 17; the king weeps at her bedside, thus showing his genuine love for her despite his infidelities. Pepys notes that the plague is in Amsterdam and getting worse, so there is a growing fear about it in England.

On October 21, Pepys announces his intention to teach his wife arithmetic so she can study geography. Pepys shows that he is in favor of his wife pursuing intellectual knowledge and hopes “with great pleasure, I shall bring her to understand many fine things” (187).

In November, Pepys bears witness to a major change in fashion: the wearing of periwigs instead of one’s natural hair. Pepys has his hair cut off and is fitted with a periwig, occasioning great comment from his servants and friends. However, upon arriving in church he is surprised that “my coming in a perriwigg did not prove so strange to the world as I was afeared it would” (190). The wearing of powdered wigs would remain standard fashion for men until the end of the 18th century.

Will Hewer tearfully leaves Pepys’s service on November 14, thus continuing the turnover of servants in the Pepys household.

Later in November, there is tension in Pepys’s professional life. Lord Montagu has been negligent in his duties at court, spending his time instead with his mistress and in playing cards. To save his lord’s reputation, Pepys writes Montagu a letter informing him of the rumors about his frivolous behavior. Lord Montagu, with “a very serious countenance” (194), thanks Pepys for his concern in writing the letter. This episode shows the consequences of the increasing frivolity of King Charles’s court as well as Pepys’s strong sense of duty and loyalty toward his employers and superiors. Pepys indeed speaks of his “tenderness and good will” (195) toward Lord Montagu and goes so far as to weep in his presence.

The year ends with Pepys and his wife “pleased with one another’s company, and in our general enjoyment one of another better we think than most other couples do” (196). Pepys is also happy to learn that he has more than £800; part of this is in Lord Montagu’s hand, showing that Pepys is partly financially dependent on Montagu. Although Pepys is happy at these circumstances, he is also worried about the fate of Pall, for whom he intends to find a husband.