The Diary of Samuel Pepys

The new year opens with Pepys’s sister Pall coming to live in his house, having previously lived with Pepys’s parents. Pepys implies that Pall is troublesome and does not get along with her father. From the start Pepys conveys his somewhat remote attitude to his sister: He declines to let her sit down at table with him, “that she may not expect it hereafter from me” (64). Pepys makes it clear to Pall that she has a subservient status in the house. Later on in the Diary, however, Pepys will regret his tendency to slight people.

On January 3, Pepys goes to the theater and remarks that he saw women act on the stage for the first time. During the Commonwealth, theaters were closed, and drama was banned in accordance with the ideals of Puritanism, so many plays were performed in secret at taverns or private homes. As was the case before the Commonwealth, women were not allowed to act, and female roles were taken by boys. This situation changed in 1660 with the Restoration; the theaters opened again, and female actresses were allowed for the first time. Pepys’s Diary captures the moment when this change occurred. Pepys’s infatuation with actresses, particularly one named Mrs.