Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 05: May 1660
Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 05: May 1660
Translated by Mynors Bright
May 1660. England holds its breath as the monarchy returns. In London, crowds roar for Charles II; aboard the warships, Samuel Pepys watches history unfold with the wide-eyed wonder of a man who knows he's living through something enormous. This volume captures the Restoration in its first incandescent weeks, when everything feels possible and the old order crumbles in real time. Pepys records it all with a gossip's precision and a novelist's eye: the parliamentary maneuvering, the royalist celebrations, the May Day festivities, the gossip about Cromwell's death. But the public drama is only half the story. His private entries reveal a man navigating ambition, jealousy, and longing with startling honesty. He obsesses over his health, his wife's moods, his colleagues' politics, and the actresses at the King's Theatre. Pepys wrote like no one else in his century could: with genuine self-awareness, sharp social comedy, and a willingness to show himself as ridiculous as he truly was. Four centuries later, his diary remains the most vivid portrait we have of seventeenth-century English life.
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“Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.””
— Samuel Pepys
“The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and, out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it.””
— Samuel Pepys
“He that will not stoop for a pin will never be worth a pound.””
— Samuel Pepys
“And so to bed.””
— Samuel Pepys
“Great talk among people how some of the Fanatiques do say that the end of the world is at hand, and that next Tuesday is to be the day. Against which, whenever it shall be, good God fit us all!””
— Samuel Pepys
“I find it a hard matter to settle to business after so much leisure and pleasure.””
— Samuel Pepys
“Now public business takes up so much of my time that I must get time a Sundays or a nights to look after my own matters.””
— Samuel Pepys
“neighbour of ours, Mr. Hollworthy, a very able man, is also dead by a fall in the country from his horse, his foot hanging in the stirrup, and his brains beat out.””
— Samuel Pepys
“I saw the girl of the house, being very pretty, go into a chamber, and I went in after her and kissed her.””
— Samuel Pepys
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Pepys, Samuel. Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 05: May 1660. Lex, lex-books.com/book/diary-of-samuel-pepys-volume-05-may-1660-5c0606a7-d83e-4a71-bdca-05f14511e49b.Pepys, S. (n.d.). Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 05: May 1660. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/diary-of-samuel-pepys-volume-05-may-1660-5c0606a7-d83e-4a71-bdca-05f14511e49bPepys, Samuel. Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 05: May 1660. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/diary-of-samuel-pepys-volume-05-may-1660-5c0606a7-d83e-4a71-bdca-05f14511e49b.
