1666

[stoutfellow]

I'm a little more than halfway through Pepys' Diary - February 1666; the Great Plague is ebbing, and the Great Fire is about half a year off. I just ran into a passage about a London Jew talking up the possibility that "a certain man who is now in Smyrna" would be revealed to be the true Messiah; a quick check of Wikipedia confirmed that he was talking about the unfortunate Sabbatai Zevi. Pepys also mentions having written a book, some twenty years before, connecting 1666 with the number of the beast.

When I finally finish with Pepys - probably around midyear - I think I might write something about the differences between Pepys' world and ours. I keep getting hit with little culture-shock moments.