Pepys's letter to Evelyn would
have little in common with that other one to Mrs. Knipp which
he signed by the pseudonym of DAPPER DICKY; yet each would be
suitable to the character of his correspondent. There is no
untruth in this, for man, being a Protean animal, swiftly
shares and changes with his company and surroundings; and
these changes are the better part of his education in the
world. To strike a posture once for all, and to march
through life like a drum-major, is to be highly disagreeable
to others and a fool for oneself into the bargain. To Evelyn
and to Knipp we understand the double facing; but to whom was
he posing in the Diary, and what, in the name of
astonishment, was the nature of the pose? Had he suppressed
all mention of the book, or had he bought it, gloried in the
act, and cheerfully recorded his glorification, in either
case we should have made him out. But no; he is full of
precautions to conceal the "disgrace" of the purchase, and
yet speeds to chronicle the whole affair in pen and ink. It
is a sort of anomaly in human action, which we can exactly
parallel from another part of the Diary.
Mrs. Pepys had written a paper of her too just complaints
against her husband, and written it in plain and very pungent
English. Pepys, in an agony lest the world should come to
see it, brutally seizes and destroys the tell-tale document;
and then - you disbelieve your eyes - down goes the whole
story with unsparing truth and in the cruellest detail.
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