The Great London Fire Breaks
The single most famous historical event covered in the diary of Pepys is the Great London Fire of 1666. The diary covers the fire itself and the aftermath in great detail, but among the most interesting is the initial entry describing the outbreak of the fire well before the full extent of its devastation would be known. Imagine coming across a diary of the events of September 11, 2001 in that period after the first crash, but before the second and apply the seemingly prosaic response to what was a once-in-a-lifetime event to the following:
“a horrid great fire; and by and by we saw and heard part of it blown up with powder. The ladies begun presently to be afeard: one fell into fits. The whole town in an alarme. Drums beat and trumpets, and the guards everywhere spread, running up and down in the street. And I begun to have mighty apprehensions how things might be at home, and so was in mighty pain to get home”
Domestic Tribulations
Like any extensive diary account of the goings-on in a person’s life, some imagery is inevitably devoted to detailing the intricacies of family problems. For instance, at one point Pepys discovers that his son Will has apparently taken to stealing. This occasions one particular passage which almost sounds like something from a horror film script in which it will turn out the thievery is merely a cover for something more sinister:
“But after we were all a-bed, the wench (which lies in our chamber) called us to listen of a sudden, which put my wife into such a fright that she shook every joint of her, and a long time that I could not get her out of it. The noise was the boy, we did believe, got in a desperate mood out of his bed to do himself or William [Hewer] some mischief. But the wench went down and got a candle lighted, and finding the boy in bed, and locking the doors fast, with a candle burning all night, we slept well, but with a great deal of fear.”
About a Bout
Pepys went through extensive effort to write his diary in a code in order to keep his prodigious sexual appetites secret from wives and girlfriends. On occasion, he does openly discuss his sexual urges, usually content to engage the singularly mundane term “bout” as an all-encompassing euphemism for sexual intercourse:
“after dinner and some discourse ordinary by coach home, it raining hard, and so at the office all the afternoon till evening to my chamber, where, God forgive me, I was sorry to hear that Sir W. Pen's maid Betty was gone away yesterday, for I was in hopes to have had a bout with her before she had gone, she being very pretty. I had also a mind to my own wench, but I dare not for fear she should prove honest and refuse and then tell my wife.”
Creepy Under Peepers
It is not just that Pepys possesses a desire for sexual conquest; he is obsessed with sex. And not in a good way. Over time, little offhand comments serve to come together to paint a portrait of every creepy uncle that teenage girls do their best to avoid being alone with. Such is the extent of his creepy quality that even though Pepys lived and is writing about that revolutionary moment in the history of theater when women began to take to the stage to play female parts heretofore assayed by males, the best he seems capable of doing is turning it into yet another opportunity to display his sophomoric attitude toward women:
“Hither I sent for Captain Ferrers to me, who comes with a friend of his, and they and I to the Theatre, and there saw `Argalus and Parthenia,’ where a woman acted Parthenia, and came afterwards on the stage in men's clothes, and had the best legs that ever I saw, and I was very well pleased with it.”
