Yes, and then suddenly, someone is being beheaded publicly, the bubonic plague is ravaging everyone, servants run away and get whipped when caught, everyone is making forceful advances on women without their consent, and people are gambling on c*ck fights in the streets.

Kisses dead queens on the mouth, gets sent to the tower, just like us

Definitely still a time to use isn’t and a time to use aren’t… centuries passing doesn’t mean rules of languages should be disregarded…

Nothing changes world over or date. Learnt that with immig immigrants have same problems. Beauty of nursing

@@chewyourmilk Well, we have some weird folks now that could certainly outdo Pepys in the weirdness department. Is a lot harder now to get sent to the Tower. ;) But I agree with the commentator. Reading the diary, is mostly just day to day stuff. "had to go to work early today, but had a nice dinner at so-and-so's house, happy that my wife is prettier than his wife, went to a play and what a waste of time that was, got new clothes, gosh do I look good, etc.

There are so many interesting entries in the diary! I found it really hard to whittle down to the ones I spoke about here!

It’s such a thrill to read or see something with an ancestors name, isn’t it! This is a terrific connection between you and your ancestor, lucky you!

@@lindahart6049 Samuel Pepys’ diary is a work I have been reading on and off for many years, long before I had heard or knew anything about John Swinfen or my family connection with him. It was whilst researching my family tree that I found the connection with John and Pepys’ reference to him in his diary.

You still have it? Can you say a little about it, please.

That's wonderful, I'm so jealous. Can you give more details? Please?

Wow!! That is so cool, I would love that 🤗😍 to have a little bit of history in my possession.

Peppys raped a child WTF is wrong with your family 🤢🤢🤢

I have a signed t shirt

When something like quarantines have been around since the Black Death, it would make sense for ppl like Pepys to use common sense during a pandemic. I mean epidemic, but the way this current decade's been playing out, you never know.

Being a diarist was considered academic following the rediscovery of ancient texts translated during the renaissance. The mundane details were actually the point. The historians from Ancient Greece and Rome were the inspo. You can tell it is NOT OCD and what I just described because of the short specific period he did it. He didn't record the entirety of his life nor his day. Some entries are short one word sentences. Becareful throwing around words like OCD if all you know about it is what you see on TV.

You obviously haven't read Pepy's diaries yourself or you would realise that he was in fact probably OCD. Fussy does not cover his attention to detail. Also, your main thesis is wrong because no other diary of the period in existence goes into as much detail as Pepys', insluding such personal information as the frequency and consistency of his stools. It's not just about 'mundane details' - it's about sharing his every thought and action, inclusing some that were treasonous. Also, he only gave up the diary because his eyesight was starting to fail. @@SelinaCat

Given what you have written, I do not think you have actually read Pepys' diaries. He never made 'one word entries'. Also, no other diary of the period has as many details about the diarist's thoughts, actions, work life, relationships, health, sex life, bodily functions and home improvement plans. If you read his full diaries, you will see that he probably was OCD. He detested dirt and mess to the point of it making him angry and depressed. He was also painstaking about everything he did and obsessively jealous. I do not 'throw around' such terms lightly as I have known many people with the condition. Finally, he kept the diary for seven years and only gave it up because his eyesight began to fail. @@SelinaCat

@@iainsan I meant one sentence entries my apologies. But my point still stands. He was living at a time when the streets were LITERALLY laiden with feces. Trash and sanitation was non existent and he worked with the navy where the hygiene was famously worse. It would upset anybody especially someone who was in the newly developing middle class. You're escaping the muck, but not enough to avoid it like the ruling class. It's not unique to Pepys. Sure he was a weirdo but you do not know many people with OCD. Because it's a crippling neurological trauma condition with serious quality of life impacting behaviours. Rather, you likely know undiagnosed people on the Autistic spectrum who are fussy. I can tell because what you think is telling is the kinds of things you see on TV shows like Monk. It's not reality. He was NOT the only person to keep such a record, he was the only one whose records survived & voluntarily donated it. It was meant as a PRIVATE record of his thoughts that he gave to Cambridge for posterity after he was going blind. He was around at a historically significant time, but if you studied the American Civil War at all, you'd know that alone doesn't matter. It's his connection to so many historically significant events & people that made his diary worthy of study in the first place. Anne Frank's Diary also holds a lot of details, observations, and general thoughts and fears. I have read both. Pepys possesses none of the traits you'd actually attribute to OCD. I am Neurodivergent. I have experienced true OCD symptoms when under extreme stress. They are not rational or logical. They are a sense of impending catastrophe related to impulse control. If you don't do X, you will die. It's a bizarre trauma response not a genetic condition. Part of me doesn't want to educate you on the specifics since you are obviously someone who will now use my words to pretend you are an expert elsewhere. But I hope me seeing through you will teach you a lesson about pretending to be an expert. It's really insulting to those of us who deal with these things, and it doesn't make you sound smart, just arrogant. Learn some humility. Maybe then you'd actually be interesting.

I am a teacher who worked for 40 years with special needs children, many of whom were OCD and/or on the autistic spectrum, so I think I do know what I am talking about. Pepys didn't write one sentence entries either - not one in seven years! He was also not a 'weirdo'. Furthermore, not even the ruling class could escape 'muck' as you call it. They had little concept of hygeine or the causes of infection and were almost as prone to disease as the poor. Two of Charles II's siblings died of smallpox soon after the Restoration, as did his niece Queen Mary II in 1694. Finally, if you cannot join in a historical discussion without being rude and abusive, perhaps you should not try to do so. @@SelinaCat

Thank-you. Yes!

I agree, he was an immoral sex predator that used his position for his gratification. On the 17th September 1663 he visited a village close to where I live Parsons Drove. to his uncle and aunt Perkins. he hated the place and his visit except for "the mayde who was indifference handsome, and so I had a kiss or two of her, and I to bed"

I disagree. Had you been brought up in that time I have no doubt you’d see the world in a different light and behave differently.

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it 🤩

Oe

Have you seen the TV movie The Private Life of Samuel Pepys?@@ReadingthePast

20 women is a lot?..in only 9 years?

Good point, though I would have made it a point never to sit next to him at church!

@Sarah Watts at least, not without a pocket full of pins!!

If she was about to get him with pins, I doubt that it was acceptable back then either.

Hurting and harrassing others is not justifiable in any century whenever it was. He knew he was hurting his wife and distressing those young women. There's no 'it was a different time' about it.

It was a different time in the sense that he knew he could get away with it, because that sort of abuse was normalized within the society. It doesn't make it any less abusive, it just shows that he was the sort of man who had no problem with abusing others as long as he wouldn't face punishment for it.

What can I say… sharing is caring 🤣🤣🤣

Yes - I have finished the (Wheaton ed.) diary and have wondered the whole time about the dates, e.g., "1663/64." So helpful having this explanation.

I was dismayed that the diary ended before Elizabeth's death so we have no information about what led up to it or how Samuel took it (I expect poorly). I have wondered if we have surviving letters of his in which he speaks of it? (My daughter, knowing my obsession, gave me a book purportedly telling the story from Elizabeth's point of view - called "Poor Wretch." Sadly, not as well writen as the diaries. )

I was actually going to ask how typical his behaviour was for the time. Do we have many other primary sources from the time?

@@--enyo-- yeah, I would like to know this too. In a time where childbirth could be fatal, disease was common, and virginity was important, I doubt that this behaviour was socially acceptable by everyone. Maybe like today, the people who feel entitled to do so, do it, and the rest of us dislike them for it?

We know he was a gross horndog and can safely assume he was having titillating thoughts in this incident, but it is also good to remember that these undergarments were not quite as private as ours are now. Women’s fashion of the day displayed the neckline, hem and sleeves of the petticoats quite prominently. That lace was meant to be seen by anyone who saw her when she was fully dressed. So him looking at her smocks wasn’t quite the invasion of privacy it would be for a man to be seeking out a woman’s bra and panties now, even if his dirty mind did clearly cross more than a few lines in the process.

@@slinky.blackcat9965 childbirth is still fatal in 2022.

@@--enyo-- in an era when women had even less rights than we do now, I would think it was not uncommon for males to think it was quite alright to do things then that would net them time in jail today. Samuel just recorded it.

Wasn't he supposedly Henry VIII half brother, is is that merely a myth?

@@jeraldbaxter3532 Really!? I did not know that! The relationship between he and Henry is fascinating

Have you read the book 'the autobiography of Henry VIII' by Margaret George. Its written as if Henry himself wrote a journal of his life story and Will is a kind of narrator reading it and commenting. It's a fine book 900 odd pages, I really enjoyed it. Margaret George also wrote a fabulous account of Elizabeth I called 'Elizabeth', also a 900 pager. If you haven't read them I highly recommend. Shakespeare, Letice knolleys, Bacon's both senior and junior and many others make an appearance in the elizabeth book. I loved it so much I've read it 4 times 💯❤️

Pepys not only wrote in code, but when he was writing about his various "amours, " he would often slip into French or some other language than English, I suppose as insurance to make sure Elizabeth wouldn't be able to figure out what he had been up to...

I remember my old school history teacher saying something along those lines, many years ago. She certainly wasn't a fan of Sam!

I believe he had a 'housekeeper' later in life she never had children either

He certainly doesn’t appear to have fathered any children and so, considering how he spent his time, it seems likely that he was infertile.

@@ReadingthePast I have a friend called Gillian Bagwell (relation to Mrs Bagwell maybe?) who has written a book called 'The Darling Strumpet' about Nell Gwyn, I think Sam makes an appearance in it

@@bogarte7185 oh yes, I enjoyed that book!

@@markanderson0022 Very well thank you, Robert.

@@markanderson0022 Would you care to have a guess?

@@markanderson0022 Very close. I'm from California. And yourself? Where are you from? I feel that it's farther away than Texas, but I have no idea.

Aaargghgh - Wheatley, not Wheaton.

As someone who has had complicated health problems pertaining to those nether regions, I'm off to Google. I already know I will regret it! Okay, I'm back. I don't regret it...interesting...makes me wonder about misdiagnosis in my younger days tbh

There’s a suggestion that the wound never fully closed either… but he still celebrated 😱

@@ReadingthePast Wow!

Hello, thank you for watching and commenting ☺️ so Pepys only mentions Hammersmith a couple of times in the diary but he mentions goes to Islington much more often.

@@ReadingthePast Thank you, Dr. Kat.