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ye better than yourselves have done in that order published next before this, "that no book be printed, unless the printer's and the author's name, or at least the printer's, be registered." Those [600 Those [600 which otherwise come forth, if they be found mischievous and libelous, the fire and the executioner will be the timeliest and the most effectual remedy that man's prevention can use. For this authentic Spanish policy of licensing books, if I have said aught, will prove the most unlicensed book itself within a short while; and was the immediate image of a Star Chamber decree to that purpose made [610 in those very times when that court did the rest of those her pious works, for which she is now fallen from the stars with Lucifer. Whereby ye may guess what kind of state prudence, what love of the people, what care of religion or good manners, there was at the contriving, although with singular hypocrisy it pretended to bind books to their good behavior. . . . But of these sophisms [620 and elenchs of merchandise I skill not. This I know, that errors in a good government and in a bad are equally almost incident; for what magistrate may not be misinformed, and much the sooner, if liberty of printing be reduced into the power of a few? But to redress willingly and speedily what hath been erred, and in highest authority to esteem a plain advertisement more than others have [630 done a sumptuous bribe, is a virtue (honored Lords and Commons) answerable to your highest actions, and whereof none can participate but greatest and wisest men.

SAMUEL PEPYS (1633-1703)

From his DIARY

Jan. 1, 1660 (Lord's day). This morning (we living lately in the garret), I rose, put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately worn any other clothes but them. Went to Mr. Gunning's chapel at Exeter House, where he made a very good sermon. Dined at home in the garret, where my wife dressed the re

mains of a turkey, and in the doing of it she burned her hand. I stayed at [10 home all the afternoon, looking over my accounts; then went with my wife to my father's, and in going observed the great posts which the City have set up at the Conduit in Fleet Street.

Mar. 5th. To Westminster by water, only seeing Mr. Pinkney at his own house, where he showed me how he had always kept the lion and unicorn, in the back of his chimney, bright, in ex- [20 pectation of the King's coming again. At home I found Mr. Hunt, who told me how the Parliament had voted that the Covenant be printed and hung in churches again. Great hopes of the King's coming again. To bed.

6th. Everybody now drinks the King's health without any fear, whereas before it was very private that a man dare do it.

22nd. To Westminster, and re- [30 ceived my warrant of Mr. Blackburne to be secretary to the two Generals of the Fleet.

23rd. My Lord, Captain Isham, Mr. Thomas, John Crewe, W. Howe, and I in a hackney to the Tower, where the barges stayed for us; my Lord and the Captain in one, and W. Howe and I, &c., in the other, to the Long Reach, where the Swiftsure lay at anchor; (in our way we [40 saw the great breach which the late high water had made, to the loss of many £1,000 to the people about Limehouse). Soon as my Lord on board, the guns went off bravely from the ships. And a little while after comes the Vice-Admiral Lawson, and seemed very respectful to my Lord, and so did the rest of the commanders of the frigates that were thereabouts. I to the cabin allotted for [50 me, which was the best that any had that belonged to my Lord.

May 1. To-day I hear they were very merry at Deal setting up the King's flag upon one of their maypoles, and drinking his health upon their knees in the streets, and firing the guns, which the soldiers of the castle threatened, but durst not oppose.

2nd. In the morning at a breakfast [60 of radishes in the Purser's cabin. After that, to writing till dinner. At which

time comes Dunne from London, with letters that tell us the welcome news of the Parliament's votes yesterday, which will be remembered for the happiest Mayday that hath been many a year to England. The King's letter was read in the House, wherein he submits himself and all things to them, as to an Act of [70 Oblivion to all, unless they shall please to except any.

13th (Lord's day). Trimmed in the morning, after that to the cook's room with Mr. Sheply, the first time I was there this voyage. Then to the quarter-deck, upon which the tailors and painters were at work cutting out some pieces of yellow cloth into the fashion of a crown and C. R. and put it upon a fine sheet, and that [80 into the flag instead of the State's arms; which, after dinner, was finished and set up, after it had been shown to my Lord, who liked it so well as to bid me give the tailors 20s. among them for doing of it.

23rd. The Doctor and I waked very merry, only my eye was very red and ill in the morning from yesterday's hurt. In the morning came infinity of people on board from the King to go along [90 with him. . . . The King, with the two Dukes, and Queen of Bohemia, Princess Royal, and Prince of Orange, came on board, where I in their coming in kissed the King's, Queen's, and Princess's hands. . . . Infinite shooting off of the guns, and that in a disorder on purpose, which was better than if it had been otherwise. . . . After dinner the King and duke altered the names of some [100 of the ships; viz., the Naseby into Charles; the Richard, James; the Speaker, Mary; the Dunbar, the Henry. . .

All the

afternoon the King walked here and there, up and down (quite contrary to what I thought him to have been), very active and stirring. Upon the quarter-deck he fell into discourse of his escape from Worcester, where it made me ready to weep to hear the stories that he told [110 of his difficulties that he had passed through, as his travelling four days and three nights on foot, every step up to his knees in dirt, with nothing but a green coat and a pair of country breeches on, and a pair of country shoes that made

him so sore all over his feet that he could scarce stir. Yet he was forced to run away from a miller and other company that took them for rogues. His sitting (120 at table at one place, where the master of the house, that had not seen him in eight years, did know him, but kept it private; when at the same table there was one that had been of his own regiment at Worcester, could not know him, but made him drink the King's health, and said that the King was at least four fingers higher than he. At another place he was by some servants of the house made to drink, [130 that they might know him not to be a Roundhead, which they swore he was. In another place at his inn, the master of the house, as the King was standing with his hands upon the back of a chair by the fireside, kneeled down and kissed his hand, privately, saying that he would not ask him who he was, but bid God bless him whither he was going. . . . Under sail all night, and most glorious weather. [140

24th. Up, and make myself as fine as I could, with the linen stockings on and wide canons that I bought the other day at Hague. Extraordinary press of noble company, and great mirth all the day.

25th. By the morning we were come close to the land, and everybody made ready to get on shore. The King and the two dukes did eat their breakfast before they went, and there being set some [150 ship's diet before them, only to show them the manner of the ship's diet, they eat of nothing else but peas and pork and boiled beef. I had Mr. Darcy in my cabin; and Dr. Clerke, who eat with me, told me how the King had given £50 to Mr. Sheply for my Lord's servants, and £500 among the officers and common men of the ship. I spoke with the Duke of York about business, who called me Pepys by [160 name, and upon my desire did promise me his future favor. Great expectation of the King's making some knights, but there was none. About noon . . went in a boat by ourselves, and so got on shore when the King did, who was received by General Monk with all imaginable love and respect at his entrance upon the land of Dover. Infinite the crowd of people, and the horsemen, citizens, and noble- 170

men of all sorts. The Mayor of the town came and gave him his white staff, the badge of his place, which the King did give him again. The Mayor also presented him from the town a very rich Bible, which he took, and said it was the thing that he loved above all things in the world.

September 2nd, 1666 (Lord's day). Some of our maids sitting up late [180 last night to get things ready against our feast today, Jane called us up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire they saw in the city. So I rose and slipped on my night-gown, and went to her window, and thought it to be on the back side of Mark Lane at the farthest; but, being unused to such fires as followed, I thought it far enough off; and so went to bed again and to sleep. About [190 seven rose again to dress myself, and there looked out at the window, and saw the fire not so much as it was and further off. So to my closet to set things to rights after yesterday's cleaning. By and by Jane comes and tells me that she hears that above three hundred houses have been burned down tonight by the fire we saw, and that it is now burning down all Fish Street, by London Bridge. So I made [200 myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower, and there got up upon one of the high places, Sir J. Robinson's little son going up with me; and there I did see the houses at that end of the bridge all on fire, and an infinite great fire on this and the other side the end of the bridge; which, among other people, did trouble me for poor little Michell and our Sarah on the bridge. So down, with my heart full [210 of trouble, to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who tells me that it begun this morning in the King's baker's house in Pudding Lane, and that it hath burned St. Magnus's Church and most part of Fish Street already. So I down to the waterside, and there got a boat, and through bridge, and there saw a lamentable fire. Poor Michell's house, as far as the Old Swan, already burned that way, and the [220 fire running further, that in a very little time it got as far as the Steel-yard, while I was there. Everybody endeavoring to

remove their goods, and flinging into the river, or bringing them into lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs by the waterside to another. And among [230 other things, the poor pigeons, I perceive, were loth to leave their houses, but hovered about the windows and balconies till they were some of them burned, their wings, and fell down. Having stayed, and in an hour's time seen the fire rage every way, and nobody, to my sight, endeavoring to quench it, but to remove their goods, and leave all to the fire, and having seen it get as far as the Steel- [240 yard, and the wind mighty high and driving it into the city, and every thing, after so long a drought, proving combustible, even the very stones of the churches, and among other things the poor steeple by which pretty Mrs. lives, and whereof

my old schoolfellow Elborough is parson, taken fire in the very top, and there burned till it fell down: I to Whitehall (with a gentleman with me who de- [250 sired to go off from the Tower, to see the fire, in my boat); to Whitehall, and there up to the King's closet in the Chapel, where people come about me, and I did give them an account dismayed them all, and word was carried in to the King. So I was called for, and did tell the King and Duke of York what I saw, and that unless his Majesty did command houses to be pulled down nothing could stop [260 the fire. They seemed much troubled, and the King commanded me to go to my Lord Mayor from him, and command him to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way. Here meeting with Captain Cock, I in his coach, which he lent me, and Creed with me, to Paul's, and there walked along Watling Street, as well as I could; every creature coming away loaden with [270 goods to save, and here and there sick people carried away in beds. Extraordinary good goods carried in carts and on backs. At last met my Lord Mayor in Canning Street, like a man spent, with a handkercher about his neck. To the King's message he cried, like a fainting

woman, "Lord! what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses; but the fire [280 overtakes us faster than we can do it." That be needed no more soldiers; and that for himself, he must go and refresh himself, having been up all night. So he left me, and I him, and walked home, seeing people all almost distracted, and no manner of means used to quench the fire. The houses, too, so very thick thereabouts, and full of matter for burning, as pitch and tar, in Thames Street; and [290 warehouses of oil, and wines, and brandy, and other things.

Met with the King and Duke of York in their barge, and with them to Queenhithe, and there called Sir Richard Browne to them. Their order was only to pull down houses apace, and so below bridge at the waterside; but little was or could be done, the fire coming upon them so fast. Good hopes there was of stop- [300 ping it at the Three Cranes above, and at Buttolph's wharf below bridge, if care be used; but the wind carries it into the city, so as we know not by the waterside what it do there. River full of lighters and boats taking in goods, and good goods swimming in the water. . . . So near the fire as we could for smoke; and all over the Thames, with one's face in the wind, you were almost burned [310 with a shower of fire-drops. This is very true; so as houses were burned by these drops and flakes of fire,-three or four, nay, five or six houses, one from another. When we could endure no more upon the water, we to a little ale-house on the Bankside, over against the Three Cranes, and there stayed till it was dark almost, and saw the fire grow; and as it grew darker, appeared more and more, and [320 in corners and upon steeples, and between churches and houses, as far as we could see up the hill of the city, in a most horrid, malicious, bloody flame, not like the fine flame of an ordinary fire.

We stayed till, it being darkish, we saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long: it made me weep to see [330 it. . . . So home with a sad heart.

3rd. About four o'clock in the morning, my Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things, to Sir W. Rider's at Bednall Green. Which I did, riding myself in my night-gown in the cart; and Lord! to see how the streets and the highways are crowded with people running and riding, and getting of carts at any rate to [340 fetch away things. . . . At night lay down a little upon a quilt of W. Hewer's in the office, all my own things being packed up or gone; and after me my poor wife did the like, we having fed upon the remains of yesterday's dinner, having no fire nor dishes, nor any opportunity of dressing anything.

4th. Up by break of day to get away the remainder of my things; which [350 I did by a lighter at the Iron Gate; and my hands so few, that it was the afternoon before we could get them all away. . . . Sir W. Batten not knowing how to remove his wine, did dig a pit in the garden, and laid it in there; and I took the opportunity of laying all the papers of my office that I could not otherwise dispose of. And in the evening Sir W. Penn and I did dig another, and put our wine in it, and [360 I my Parmezan cheese, as well as my wine and some other things. . . . Now begins the practise of blowing up of houses in Tower Street, those next the Tower; which at first did frighten people more than anything; but it stopped the fire where it was done, it bringing down the houses to the ground in the same places they stood; and then it was easy to quench what little fire was in it, though it [370 kindled nothing almost.

January 2nd, 1667. Up, I, and walked to Whitehall to attend the Duke of York, as usual. My wife up, and with Mrs. Penn to walk in the fields to frost-bite themselves. . . . With Sir W. Penn by coach to the Temple, and there 'light and eat a bit at an ordinary by, and then alone to the King's House, and there saw The Custom of the Country, the second [380 time of its being acted, wherein Knipp does the Widow well; but, of all the plays that ever I did see, the worst-having neither plot, language, nor anything in

the earth that is acceptable; only Knipp❘ sings a little song admirably. But fully the worst play that ever I saw or I believe shall see. So away home, much displeased for the loss of so much time, and disobliging my wife by being there with- [390 out her. So, by link, walked home, it being mighty cold but dry, yet bad walking because very slippery with the frost and treading. Home and to my chamber to set down my journal, and then to thinking upon establishing my vows against the next year, and so to supper and to bed.

August 19th. Up, and at the office all the morning very busy. Towards [400 noon I to Westminster about some tallies at the Exchequer, and then straight home again and dined, and then to sing with my wife with great content, and then I to the office again, where busy, and then out and took coach and to the Duke of York's House, all alone, and there saw Sir Martin Mar-all again, though I saw him but two days since, and do find it the most comical play that ever I saw in my [410 life.

20th. Up, and to my chamber to set down my journal for the last three days, and then to the office, where busy all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and then with my wife abroad; set her down at the Exchange, and I to St. James's. Thence with my Lord Bruncker to the Duke's playhouse (telling my wife so at the 'Change, where I left her), and [420 there saw Sir Martin Mar-all again, which I have now seen three times, and it hath been acted but four times, and still find it a very ingenious play, and full of variety. So home, and to the office, where my eyes would not suffer me to do anything by candle-light, and so called my wife and walked in the garden. She mighty pressing for a new pair of cuffs, which I am against the laying out [430 of money upon yet, which makes her angry. So home to supper and to bed.

21st. Up, and my wife and I fell out about the pair of cuffs, which she hath a mind to have to go to see the ladies dancing tomorrow at Betty Turner's school; and do vex me so that I am resolved to deny them her. However, by-and-by a

way was found that she had them, and I well satisfied, being unwilling to let [440 our difference grow higher upon so small an occasion and frowardness of mine.

22nd. After dinner with my Lord Bruncker and his mistress to the King's playhouse, and there saw The Indian Emperor; where I find Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her being put to act the Emperor's daughter, which is a great and serious part, which she [450 do most basely. The rest of the play, though pretty good, was not well acted by most of them, methought; so that I took no great content in it.

October 19th. At the office all the morning, where very busy, and at noon home to a short dinner, being full of my desire of seeing my Lord Orrery's new play this afternoon at the King's House, The Black Prince, the first time it is [460 acted; where, though we come by two o'clock, yet there was no room in the pit, but we were forced to go into one of the upper boxes, at 4s. a piece, which is the first time I ever sat in a box in my life. And in the same box come, by and by, behind me, my Lord Berkeley and his lady; but I did not turn my face to them to be known, so that I was excused from giving them my seat; and this pleas- [470 ure I had, that from this place the scenes do appear very fine indeed, and much better than in the pit. The house infinite full, and the King and Duke of York was there. . . So after having done business at the office, I home to supper and to bed.

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