Diary by John Evelyn
"Diary by John Evelyn" serves as a significant historical document that offers insight into the tumultuous events of seventeenth-century England through the eyes of John Evelyn, a well-connected royalist and Anglican. Documenting his observations from a calm and balanced perspective, the diary covers a wide range of topics, including political upheavals, social conditions, and personal experiences during critical moments such as the Great Fire of London and the plague of 1665. Throughout his narrative, Evelyn reflects on his interactions within high society, his opposition to cruelty, and his firm religious beliefs, making it a valuable resource for understanding the era's complexities.
Evelyn's life was marked by his commitment to the Church of England and the monarchy, alongside a general tolerance toward different religious sects, despite holding reservations about certain groups. His writings also touch on his extensive intellectual pursuits, including gardening, environmental issues, and support for the arts, emphasizing his role within the Royal Society and his contributions to English culture. While his style may lack the emotional depth found in contemporaries like Samuel Pepys, Evelyn’s formal and cerebral approach provides a structured view of a society shaped by conflict and change, making his diary an essential reference for those interested in the cultural and political history of the time.
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Subject Terms
Diary by John Evelyn
First published: 1818-1819
Type of work: Diary
Time of work: 1620-1706
Locale: England and the Continent
Principal Personages:
John Evelyn Charles I Charles II James II Oliver Cromwell Samuel Pepys Queen Mary William of Orange Queen Anne Jeremy Taylor , English divine
Analysis
An intimate of people in high places, John Evelyn was able to observe at first hand many of the significant events and developments of his time. To his observation, he brought a mind remarkable in a turbulent era for its calmness, balance, and acuity. His diary is a contribution of exceptional value to our understanding of seventeenth-century England.
Evelyn, the son of a large landowner, was a royalist and an Anglican. He served briefly in the army of Charles I, but, after the king’s retreat in 1641, he resigned, believing that further service would mean financial ruin for himself and would little aid the royalist cause. Finding it difficult to maintain a neutral position, he left England in 1643 for the Continent, where he spent most of the next nine years traveling and studying European culture. After his return to England in 1652, he occupied himself with gardening and with improving his estate. He refused a position under Cromwell and maintained secret correspondence with Charles II. From the Restoration until his death in 1706, he enjoyed the favor of the crown and held several important minor positions in the government.
Evelyn lived in an era of unrest and calamity. Three times he saw the existing English government overthrown; he observed the Dutch war from the vantage point of an official position; he remained in London during the plague of 1665; he watched the progress of the Great Fire from its start to its engulfment of the city; he noted with disapproval the licentiousness of the court of Charles II; he attended the spectacular trials of the men accused of complicity in the Popish Plot. In religion, he witnessed the shifting fortunes of the various sects; in politics, he saw the rise and the fall of a multitude of favorites.
The diary, in addition to providing an inside view of these major events, reveals the ordinary conditions of existence in the seventeenth century. Life was filled with hazards. On voyages, pirates were frequently a threat, Evelyn himself barely escaping them on one occasion. For travel on the Continent, an armed escort was often necessary for protection against highwaymen. Within a brief period, Evelyn was robbed three times; and once, in England, he was robbed and bound, and narrowly missed being killed. Also in the seventeenth century, many barbarous practices were still sanctioned by law. Evelyn tells of beheadings that required several blows of the ax, of men put on the rack to elicit confessions, of the public display of bodies that had been hanged, then drawn, and quartered. The plague, smallpox, and other diseases constantly reminded men of their mortality. Evelyn made frequent references in his diary to death among his friends and his children, seven of whom never reached adulthood.
Amid the public tumult and private insecurity, Evelyn was throughout a truly civilized man. While many were dominated by the emotions that religious and political controversy aroused, he retained his sanity. Of a compassionate nature, he deplored acts of cruelty, and expressed his opposition to many accepted practices, such as the harsh treatment of criminals and the baiting of animals. During the Dutch war he served as commissioner for the care of the sick, wounded, and prisoners of war. He was not deterred from his duties by the plague or by the frustrating difficulties involved in securing funds.
At a time when apostasy was commonplace, Evelyn remained firm in his religious and political convictions. His life was guided, first, by his belief in the Church of England and, secondly, by his belief in the monarchy. A large part of the diary is concerned with church affairs, ranging from discussions of major issues to records of fasting days. A devoutly religious man, he based his conduct upon his conception of the Christian ideal, and accepted blessings and misfortunes alike as the will of God. Although he feared rival sects—the Jesuits, in particular—and believed that certain laws were necessary to protect the Church of England, he was a generally tolerant man and opposed punitive laws against Catholics and Nonconformists.
As a monarchist, he felt that the execution of Charles I was the blackest spot on English history. He regarded the Restoration as the greatest blessing God could bestow, and he continued to celebrate its anniversary even after King James II was deposed in 1688. Initially, he had misgivings about the Glorious Revolution, but, probably because of its preservation of the Church of England, he came to approve of it.
However unwavering he may have been in his royalist sympathies, he was no absolutist, nor did he hesitate to criticize the actions of royalty. When the king overstepped his traditional authority—as Charles II did, for example, in revoking the charter of London, and as James II did in dispensing with the Test Act—Evelyn was firm in his objections. He frequently protested against the profligacy of the court; and once, after having observed some disabled soldiers, he wrote: “What confusion and mischief do the avarice, anger, and ambition of Princes, cause in the world!”
Evelyn apparently could have aspired to higher positions than he attained, but he enjoyed his “private condition” and cared not for “the extreme slavery and subjection that courtiers live in.” There was in him none of the sycophant. Generally he avoided offices that might beget a clash between his personal interests and his principles. In one position which did create such a conflict, he followed his principles. As a commissioner of the Privy Seal, he twice refused, against the wishes of James II, to license the illegal sale of Catholic literature.
His independent nature can also be seen in his loyalty to friends. When Samuel Pepys was placed in the Tower on suspicion of treason, Evelyn immediately went to see him. He was the last person to visit Clarendon before that deposed official fled England to escape the wrath of Parliament and king. Many others found in Evelyn a friend who was unmoved by the tergiversations of courtly favor.
Despite the heavy demands of private business and public service, Evelyn found time to acquire a vast amount of knowledge. His range of interests was prodigious, with the novel as well as the important attracting his attention. Amid more weighty topics, such subjects as fire-eating and knife swallowing are soberly discussed in the diary. Much of his intellectual curiosity, however, was directed toward practical matters. His concern with the depletion of forests in England led him to write SYLVA (1664), a highly significant book on afforestation. His knowledge of gardening was considerable, and his gardens at Saves Court attracted thousands of visitors. The smoke nuisance in London was attacked by Evelyn as early as 1661. After the Great Fire he drew up plans for rebuilding the city. His publications include works on government, education, English customs, horticulture, science, chalcography, and architecture.
Evelyn was also active in promoting the work of others. He was closely associated with England’s creative leaders, men such as Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren. A patron of the arts, he introduced Grinling Gibbons to the notice of Charles II, and he persuaded the Duke of Norfolk to present the Arundel marbles to Oxford University. His most productive efforts of this kind were those connected with the Royal Society, of which he was an original promoter and, for many years, an active member.
Unlike the other great diarist of the seventeenth century, Samuel Pepys, Evelyn had little talent for bringing warm, personal touches to his writing. In reading the objective, factual presentation of the earlier part of the diary—with its absence of feeling and with little, even, of personal opinion—one wishes that more of John Evelyn were in the work. In the later part of the diary there is greater freedom of expression. Never, however, is Evelyn able truly to share his emotional experiences with the reader. He was a man of reason, and his writing is formal, dignified, and cerebral.