Event Comment: Lord Preston (in
Paris) to the
Duke of York, 22 Sept. 1683, N.S.: I should not have presumed to give your Highness the trouble of this if something of charity had not induced me to it. I do it at the instance of a poor servant of
his Majesty's who some time since was obliged by a misfortune to leave
England. It is
Mr Grahme [
Grabut?], sir, whom perhaps your Highness may remember.
Mr Betterton coming hither some weeks since by his Majesty's command, to endeavour to carry over the Opera, and finding that impracticable, did treat with Monsr Grahme to go over with him to endeavour to represent something at least like an Opera in England for his Majesty's diversion. He hath also assured him of a pension from the House, and finds him very willing and ready to go over. He only desireth his Majesty's protection when he is there, and what encouragement his Majesty shall be pleased to give him if he finds that he deserves it (
HMC, 7th Report, Part I, p. 290).
W. J. Lawrence (
Early French Players in England, p. 149) argued that Grahme should be
Grabut, who had once been
Master of the King's Music (to 1674) and who had settled in Paris. Grabut was certainly back in
London in the spring of 1684