Editing Samuel Pepys (section)

===Personal life===
[[File:Punch Plaque Covent Garden.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Plaque in [[St Paul's, Covent Garden|St Paul's Church]], [[Covent Garden]], London commemorating Pepys as a witness to the first performance of the puppet show [[Punch and Judy]] in 1662]]
The diary gives a detailed account of Pepys' personal life. He was fond of [[wine]], plays, and the company of other people. He also spent time evaluating his fortune and his place in the world. He was always curious and often acted on that curiosity, as he acted upon almost all his impulses. Periodically, he would resolve to devote more time to hard work instead of leisure. For example, in his entry for New Year's Eve, 1661, he writes: "I have newly taken a solemn oath about abstaining from plays and wine…" The following months reveal his lapses to the reader; by 17 February, it is recorded, "Here I drank wine upon necessity, being ill for the want of it."

Pepys was one of the most important civil servants of his age, and was also a widely cultivated man, taking an interest in books, music, the theatre, and science. Aside from English, he was fluent in French and read many texts in [[Latin]]. His favourite author was [[Virgil]]. He was passionately interested in music; he composed, sang, and played for pleasure, and even arranged music lessons for his servants. He played the [[lute]], [[viol]], [[violin]], [[flageolet]], [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorder]], and [[spinet]] to varying degrees of proficiency.{{sfnp|Knighton|2004}} He was also a keen singer, performing at home, in coffee houses, and even in [[Westminster Abbey]].{{sfnp|Knighton|2004}} He and his wife took flageolet lessons from master [[Thomas Greeting]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://flageolets.com/biographies/greeting.php |title=Biography of Thomas Greeting |website=The Pleasant Companion-The Flageolets Site|last1=Head |first1=Jacob }}</ref> He also taught his wife to sing and paid for dancing lessons for her (although these stopped when he became jealous of the dancing master).

Pepys was an investor in the [[Royal African Company|Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa]], which held the Royal monopoly on trading along the [[West Africa|west coast of Africa]] in [[gold]], [[silver]], [[ivory]], and [[Atlantic slave trade|slaves]].{{sfnp|Parker|2011|p=126}}

====Sexual relations====

Propriety did not prevent him from engaging in a number of extramarital liaisons with various women that were chronicled in his diary, often in some detail when relating the intimate details. The most dramatic of these encounters was with [[Deb Willet|Deborah Willet]], a young woman engaged as a [[Lady's companion|companion]] for Elisabeth Pepys. On 25 October 1668, Pepys was surprised by his wife as he embraced Deb Willet; he writes that his wife "coming up suddenly, did find me imbracing the girl con ''[with]'' my hand sub ''[under]'' su ''[her]'' coats; and endeed I was with my main ''[hand]'' in her cunny. I was at a wonderful loss upon it and the girl also...." Following this event, he was characteristically filled with remorse, but (equally characteristically) continued to pursue Willet after she had been dismissed from the Pepys household.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/6051128.stm |title=Mystery of Pepys's affair solved |publisher=BBC News 24 |date=14 October 2006}}</ref> Pepys also had a habit of fondling the breasts of his maid Mary Mercer while she dressed him in the morning.{{sfnp|Bryson|2010|p=123|ps=: "Of one maid, Mary Mercer, the Dictionary of National Biography serenely notes: "Samuel seems to have made a habit of fondling Mercer's breasts while she dressed him in the morning"…When they weren't dressing him, absorbing his blows, or providing roosts for his gropes, Pepys's servants were expected to comb his hair and wash his ears."}}

Pepys may also have dallied with a leading actress of the Restoration period, [[Mary Knep]]. "Mrs Knep was the wife of a [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]] horsedealer, and the mistress of Pepys"—or at least "she granted him a share of her favours".{{sfnp|Cunningham|1908|pp=12, 171}} Scholars disagree on the full extent of the Pepys/Knep relationship, but much of later generations' knowledge of Knep comes from the diary. Pepys first met Knep on 6 December 1665. He described her as "pretty enough, but the most excellent, mad-humoured thing, and sings the noblest that I ever heard in my life." He called her husband "an ill, melancholy, jealous-looking fellow"<ref>Pepys's Diary entry of 8 December 1665.</ref> and suspected him of abusing his wife. Knep provided Pepys with backstage access and was a conduit for theatrical and social gossip. When they wrote notes to each other, Pepys signed himself "Dapper Dickey", while Knep was "[[Barbara Allen (song)|Barbry Allen]]" (a popular song that was an item in her musical repertory).
Pepys' reference to purchasing the pornographic book ''[[L'Escole des Filles]]'' appears to be the first English reference to pornography. He writes in his diary that it was a "mighty lewd book", and burned it after reading it.{{sfnp|Foxen|1963}}

Much of Pepys' behavior towards women, which he cataloged himself in his diary, would today be considered sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.<ref name=Loveman>{{cite journal | url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/women-and-the-history-of-samuel-pepyss-diary/8470046189D88A8805F8B1ACC886475F | doi=10.1017/S0018246X21000716 | title=Women and the History of Samuel Pepys's Diary | date=2022 | last1=Loveman | first1=Kate | journal=The Historical Journal | volume=65 | issue=5 | pages=1221–1243 }}</ref> Despite his kindness and emotional loyalty towards some women in his life, Pepys ultimately believed men were entitled to the bodies of girls and women. Kate Loveman of Cambridge University describes this belief: "[In his diary] Pepys's sexual language of being 'kind', 'touching', and 'tumbling' emphasized his indulgence and playfulness, while masking coercion and violence; meanwhile, [his victim] Lane's claims of assault he regarded as exemplifying a woman's 'falseness', not because he thought there had been no violence, but because she had no moral right to protest."<ref name=Loveman/>