History and Evolution

Abstract

There being no novel form in 1606 with which to mock or mimic the noting of events in a diary, Jonson’s Volpone has to stand as the first piece of literary irony aimed at the diary form.¹ More important still, the very existence of such an ironical comment suggests that the writing of diaries was a recognised social fact at the time, and the formula with which a Lady Margaret Hoby ended one immensely boring account of a day in 1599 (‘And so to bed’) prefigures Pepys, the innovating genius, by over 60 years.² While the scope of our inquiry into diary novels makes it unnecessary to analyse in any depth the early centuries of diary writing, it should be pointed out that William Matthews’s Annotated Bibliography of British Diaries (1950) goes back as far as 1442 for its first example: it would be very strange if the aims and characteristics of such journals did not vary enormously in the course of more than 500 years.

Notandum,

A rat had gnawn my spur-leathers: notwithstanding,

I put on new, and did go forth: but, first,

I threw three beans over the threshold. Item,

I went, and bought two tooth-picks, whereof one

I burst, immediately, in a discourse

With a Dutch merchant, ’bout ragion del stato.

From him I went, and paid a moccenigo,

For piecing my silk stockings; by the way,

I cheapened sprats: and at St Mark’s I urined.