[119] Harl. MS. 7,031, pp. 208, 209. “Samuel Pepys, his disposition and settlement of his Library.”
[123] Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. i. p. 247.
[127] “Allas! what hath this lovers the agylte? Dispitous Day, thyn be the pyne of Helle! For many a lover hastow slayn, and wilt; Thi pourynge in wol nowher lat hem dwelle: What? profrestow thi light here for to selle? _Go selle it hem that smale seles grave_, We wol the nought, as nedeth no day have!”
_Troylus and Cryseyde_, book iii. ll. 1408–14.
[128] This is so interesting a fact that I think Dryden’s letter to Pepys on the subject may well appear in full at this place:--
“I remember last year when I had the honour of dining with you, you were pleased to recommend to me the character of Chaucer’s “Good Parson.” Any desire of yours is a command to me, and accordingly I have put it into my English, with such additions and alterations as I thought fit.
“Having translated as many fables from Ovid, and as many novels from Boccace, and tales from Chaucer, as will make an indifferent large volume in folio, I intend them for the press in Michaelmas term next. In the mean time my Parson desires the favour of being known to you, and promises if you find any fault in his character, he will reform it. Whenever you please, he shall wait on you, and for the safer conveyance, I will carry him in my pocket, who am
In Pepys’s answer, dated on the same day, he writes: “You truly have obliged me, and, possibly, in saying so, I am more in earnest than you can readily think, as verily hoping from this your copy of one ‘Good Parson’ to fancy some amends made me for the hourly offence I bear with from the sight of so many lewd originals.”--Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. ii. pp. 254–55.
[129] Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. i. pp. 169–81.
[131] Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. i. p. 343.
[134] “Notes and Queries,” 1st S. vi. 534.
[135] “The little knowledge in music which I have, never was of more use to me than it is now, under the molestations of mind which I have at this time more than ordinary to contend with.”--Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. i. p. 199.
[137] “Diary,” Dec. 6, 1665; Feb. 23, 1665–66; Nov. 9, 1666.
[138] Letter dated Sept. 25, 1679, in Smith’s “Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. i. p. 200.