![]() ![]() Pepys did revert to the diary format on several later occasions, though always restricted to some particular business of special importance. There are nevertheless a few sketches for this unachieved masterpiece. This is indeed one of the most important and interesting books never written. Even so, we must regret that Pepys did not leave us a record, of whatever artistic merit, of those great events of the 1670s and 1680s in which he was an active participant: the Third Dutch War, the Exclusion Crisis and the development of party politics, the Revolution of 1688. It would be churlish to complain that he gave us no more than those nine and a half years as to berate eminent composers who did not deliver a tenth symphony. ![]() He suspected that the Diary, written in shorthand and usually by candlelight, had been much to blame, and with his great reluctance he decided not to continue it.Īlthough his eyes recovered after a few months’ rest, and in time he resumed his habitual shorthand, he never again kept a comparable diary. For some while his eyesight had been weakening, and he feared that complete blindness was imminent. The great Diary for which Pepys is universally known was closed on. ![]()
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