The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VIII. The Age of Dryden.
X. Memoir and Letter Writers.
§ 2. Narcissus Luttrell’s Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs.
| The latter must be the rarer of the two, and Pepys’s work is supreme in its class. Of the former class, two examples covering somewhat the same period as that occupied by Evelyn and Pepys are known. The Diurnall of Thomas Rugge, which covers the years 1659 to 1672, still remains unprinted; but Narcissus Luttrell’s Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs (1678–1714) was published in 1857. 1 It ends abruptly, with an unfinished sentence, on 1 April, 1714. As Luttrell lived more than eighteen years after this date, dying on 27 June, 1732, it is possible that some volumes of the diary have been lost. He was well known as a collector of books, broadsides and manuscripts; but Thomas Hearne, in his diary, gives a very unflattering portrait of the man. Luttrell’s diary contains passages of interest concerning Evelyn, Pepys, Dryden and many of their contemporaries. These two books are of historical value, but they are largely compiled from the newsletters of the time and are not of any literary value. The diaries of Evelyn and Pepys, besides being of great historical interest as contemporary records, also hold a high position among literary works. |
2 |
|