Life is Like a Song: Samuel Pepys’s Diary as a Collection of the Ephemeral

Abstract

The present study focuses on the question of the narrative models that the early modern individual was able to draw upon in composing a diary autobiographical narrative, and what image of everyday life was formed thereby. This question is explored on the basis of the famous diary of English naval official Samuel Pepys. Pepys was also known as a collector of one of the types of ephemera that were extremely popular in the 17th century: broadside ballads. Certain features of Pepys’ diary allow us to discuss a possible influence of broadside ballads on the image of everyday life which is shaped in the diary. By analysing the range of meanings which have developed around the broadside ballads and the practices associated with them, and comparing them to those of the diary, we can conclude that there is a similar image of everyday life as part of an elusive, fleeting and actual present, which may be understood in the future and which therefore needs to be preserved.