Samuel Pepys is probably one of the most famous diarists in history and his words are treasured throughout the English speaking world.
A politician from the 1600's, he captured the spirit and soul of Britain in those days of an era we no longer recognise. Though, in some cases, perhaps we do, all rather too well.
I read Mr Pepys most excellent diary entries for Christmas Day and Boxing Day 1665. Back during the days of the Plague, 400 years ago. So much has changed, yet so little.
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What will our words look like in 500 years time?
Or will Shakespeare and Pepys reign and all our shallow words have disappeared into a sea of " not worth remembering. "
How many words will be remembered? The tweet from some long gone social media star or a television host who said something dramatic in 2023?
We will fight "If necessary, for yearsIf necessary, alone"
How many articles written here or elsewhere will survive the storms of history? How many will survive the tempests of politics and words gone wrong?
The sages who wrote with poetic English will survive. Our current dumbed down and " in the moment " stars of social media and media in general will be long gone.
It will be the voices of the Generals, the Leaders and the visionaries; the people who factually recorded history and those who taught us that words matter. They are the people who will be remembered and will survive to be the voices of history.
People who use words sparingly and delivered messages of fact, hope, optimism and reality. Or weasel words for polls, votes and personal gratification do not factor.
Our English language was used to tell us how it is, how it was and how it will be.
It will be the words of Churchill. Thatcher. Patton. Reagan.
They may not survive a thousand years but they will survive long after this blog has fallen into the dust of oblivion. Perhaps even Samuel Pepys will fall into the abyss of " no longer relevant "
But we need to keep these words alive as long as we can.
Words written that capture history. Words that record the ultimate" I remember when... "Samuel Pepys wrote eloquently and we often think that we can dumb words down and turn them into trite modern day speak. But despite the changes in our language, the intent of the words is still clear. But are they as potent?
In 1665, describing the Great Plague:
‘I did in Drury-lane see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and “Lord have mercy upon us” writ there – which was a sad sight to me’.
Any house where plague was identified was shut up for 40 days with the family inside, marked with a cross and guarded by watchmen.
He wrote :
‘nobody but poor wretches in the streets’, ‘no boats upon the River’, ‘fires burning in the street’ to cleanse the air and ‘little noise heard day or night but tolling of bells’ that accompanied the burial of plague victims. As the bodies piled up, Pepys wrote to a friend, ‘the nights (though much lengthened) are grown too short to conceal the burials of those that died the day before’. He also writes in his diary about the desensitization of people, including himself, to the corpses of plague fatalities, ‘I am come almost to think nothing of it.’
“The streets were mighty thin of people,” he wrote on July 22, adding that the Royal Exchange was also eerily empty; the nation’s commerce had slowed nearly to a halt in the face of the plague.
Elsewhere in London, a family faced steep fines for rescuing a healthy child from a plague-stricken house; by law, she was supposed to have been left locked inside with her dying parents.
“This disease is making us more cruel to one another than if we are doggs,” wrote Pepys.
Against this backdrop of pestilence, fear and apprehension, however, much of Pepys’s life in 1665 went on as usual. He still worked at the Navy Office, continued his adulterous liaisons, celebrated his cousin’s wedding, and pursued many of his interests. Surprisingly the year brought much opportunity and wealth Pepys’s way and, as the plague subsided, he wrote in his final diary entry for the year, ‘I have never lived so merrily (besides that I never got so much) as I have done this plague-time’.
Sounds like old mate Pepys made a bob or two out of the plague. I suppose, at the end of the day, he was a politician...
As we look at Christmas Day 2023, we should remember the diarists of 2000 years ago as recorded in the Bible and consider that their Diaries were the greatest story ever told.
And then we have politicians. ‘I have never lived so merrily (besides that I never got so much) as I have done this plague-time’.
Sounds about right.
Merry Christmas. And may God bless us.
