Pepys

peps, Samuel (1633-1703), an English gentleman. He was the son of a London tailor. He was educated at Cambridge, and, having the faculty of making himself useful and agreeable, he soon obtained the patronage of those in power and was for many years in one branch or another of the public service. A peculiar light is thrown on the education of that day by a note to the effect that, on entering upon a secretaryship in the navy department, he found it necessary to learn the multiplication table of which he had never heard before. Interest in Pepys arises from a diary which he began January 1, 1660, and discontinued May 31, 1669, on account of defective eyesight. It was written from day to day in a peculiar shorthand that preserved it from the eye of the curious. It was deposited with the rest of his books in the library of his old college, where it was discovered and deciphered by the Rev. J. Smith. The first edition appeared in 1825, a more complete edition in 1893. It is a quaint and curious jotting of domestic affairs and the gossip of the court. He set down the happenings--good and bad--just as they appeared to a mind apparently without delicacy or imagination. It is a moving panorama of the streets, social functions, and politics of the day, enabling the historian to construct an adequate picture of the court of Charles II, the most brilliant and the most wicked that ever surrounded a British king. Pepys himself left a reputation for uprightness in office and meanness in private life. His wife was a spirited Huguenot woman. He treated her in a petty, sordid way that provoked family discord.