The Diary of Samuel Pepys

As the year begins, Pepys’s wife is “troubled” at his friendship with Mrs. Pierce and Mrs. Knepp, and she makes him promise not to see them anymore. Elizabeth’s suspicions of her husband’s relationships with other women will color the remainder of the book.

On New Year’s Pepys goes with Mr. Brisband to visit a gaming house and is dismayed at the “prophane, mad entertainment” (452) and the desperate behavior of the gamblers. Although “pressed hard” by Brisbane, he feels no temptation to gamble. Despite his love for food, music, and women, gambling holds no attraction for Pepys, perhaps because of the influence of the Puritan work ethic and his liking for frugality.

On January 21, Pepys’s cousin Kate Joyce’s husband, an innkeeper, is dying after having attempted suicide by drowning. Everyone thinks his reason for doing so was despair at his “great loss by the fire” (453). This incident shows a notable personal fallout from the Great Fire and has a notable economic consequence, detailed on Page 454: The innkeeper’s relatives fear that, if his death is judged to be suicide, then his property will fall to the king. However, Pepys intervenes with the king himself, who assures Pepys that the death will not count as suicide and estate will go to the innkeeper’s widow and children.