Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: After dinner with my wife to the Duke's Theatre, and saw the second part of Rhodes, done with the new Roxalana; which do it rather better in all respects for person, voice, and judgment, than the first Roxalana [Mrs Davenport]. Home with great content with my wife, not so well pleased with the company at the house to-day, which was full of citizens, there hardly being a gentleman or woman in the house; a couple of pretty ladies by us that made sport in it, being jostled and crowded by prentices

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's House, where we saw The Villane again; and the more I see it, the more I am offended at my first undervaluing the play, it being very good and pleasant, and yet a true and allowable tragedy. The house was full of citizens, and so the less pleasant, but that I was willing to make an end of my gaddings, and to set to my business for all the year again to-morrow. Here we saw the old Roxalana [Mrs Davenport] in the chief box, in a velvet gown, as the fashion is, and very handsome, at which I was glad

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: And so carried her [Mrs Pepys] to the fayre [bf], and showed her the monkeys dancing on the ropes, which was strange, but such dirty sport that I was not pleased with it. There was also a horse with hoofs like rams hornes, a goose with four feet, and a cock with three. Thence to another place, and saw some German Clocke works, the Salutation of the Virgin Maryv, and several Scriptural stories; but above all there was at last represented the sea, with Neptune, Venus, mermaids, and Ayrid on a dolphin, the sea rocking, so well done, that had it been in a gaudy manner and place, and at a little distance, it had been admirable

Event Comment: Flora's Figarys appears in Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 148, under this date. As Flora's Vagaries, it had been acted at Christ Church, Oxford, on 8 Jan. 1663. The play was not published before 1670, and the entry in Herbert's list has sometimes been regarded as the date of licensing, sometimes as the date of a performance in London. Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 427, assigned it to ca. January 1662@3 at Vere St, presumably because "Mr Bird" in the cast in the quarto of 1670 referred to Theophilus Bird, who died before 3 Nov. 1663. But the cast in the edition of 1670 is presumably that for 5 Oct. 1667, when Pepys saw the play and referred to Nell Gwyn and Mrs Knepp as acting in it; they, too, are listed in the quarto of 1670 but could hardly have played in it in 1663. If the cast in the 1670 edition is not that for 3 Nov. 1663 and if the "Mr Bird" is Theophilus Bird Jr, then the obstacles to consiuering 3 Nov. 1663 as the date of a performance rather than of licensing are less formidable. [I am indebted to professor John Harold Wilson for much of this argument.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. William Hamon (or Hammond) saw a performance near the end of the period between Michaelmas 1663 and Lady Day 1664. The entry in his journal (which I owe to the courtesy of Dr. Giles Dawson) reads: Item spent in carrying Mrs & sistar to King Lear 00 09 06 (Folger MS. v. a. 422)

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: And took my wife out immediately to the King's Theatre, it being a new month, and once a month I may go, and there saw The Indian Queen acted; which indeed is a most pleasant show, and beyond my expectation; the play good, but spoiled with the ryme, which breaks the sense. But above my expectation most, the eldest Marshall did do her part most excellently well as I ever heard woman in my life; but her voice not so sweet so Ianthe's [Mrs Betterton's]; but, however, we came home mightily contented

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Mrs Pepys] and I to the King's house, and saw The Silent Woman; but methought not so well done or so good a play as I formerly thought it to be, or else I am now-a-days out of humour. Before the play was done, it fell such a storm of hayle, that we in the middle of the pit were fain to rise; and all the house in a disorder

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: I got her [Mrs Pepys] to rise and abroad with me by coach to Bartholomew Fayre, and our boy with us, and there shewed them and myself the dancing on the ropes, and several other the best shows

Event Comment: Evelyn, Diary: Saw a fine Mask at court perform'd by 6 Gent: & 6 Ladys surprizing his Majestie, it being Candlemas day. Pepys, Diary, 3 Feb.: Then Mrs Pickering...did, at my Lady's command, tell me the manner of a masquerade before the King and Court the other day. Where six women (my Lady Castlemayne and Duchesse of Monmouth being two of them) and six men (the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Arran and Monsieur Blanfort, being three of them) in vizards, but most rich and antique dresses, did dance admirably and most gloriously. God give us cause to continue the mirthe!

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: [Mrs Knipp] tells me how Smith, of the Duke's house, hath killed a man upon a quarrel in play; which makes every body sorry, he being a good actor, and, they say, a good man, however this happens. The ladies of the Court do much bemoan him, she says

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. This performance is listed in the L. C. records, 5@139, p. 125. See also Nicoll, Restoration Drama, p. 346. See Pepys, Diary, for Mrs Pepys attendance at an unnamed play in the afternoon

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary, 23 Jan.: Knipp made us stay in a box and see the dancing preparatory to to-morrow for The Goblins, a play of Suckling's, not acted these twenty-five years; which was pretty. Pepys, Diary, 24 Jan.: And, anon, at about seven or eight o'clock, comes Mr Harris, of the Duke's playhouse, and brings Mrs Pierce with him, and also one dressed like a country-mayde with a straw hat on; which, at first, I could not tell who it was, though I expected Knipp: but it was she coming off the stage just as she acted this day in "The Goblins"; a merry jade

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: [Mrs Knepp] tells me Harris is well again, having been very ill

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: And had she [Mrs Pepys] not been ill...and that it were not Friday (on which in Lent there are no plays) I had carried her to a play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. L. C. 5@139, p. 125, lists it for 3 March, but as this date falls on Sunday, it is probably an error in dating. The play was licensed on 22 May 1667. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke's playhouse...and I in and find my wife and Mrs Hewer, and sat by them and saw The English Princesse, or Richard the Third; a most sad, melancholy play, and pretty good; but nothing eminent in it, as some tragedys are; only little Mis. Davis did dance a jig after the end of the play, and there telling the next day's play; so that it come in by force only to please the company to see her dance in boy's clothes; and, the truth is, there is no comparison between Nell's dancing the other day at the King's house in boy's clothes and this, this being infinitely beyond the other. Downes (p. 27): Wrote by Mr Carrol, was Excellently well Acted in every Part;...Gain'd them an Additional Estimation, and the Applause from the Town, as well as profit to the whole Company

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: We three [Mrs Pepys, Mercer, and Pepys] to the King's house, and saw the latter end of the Surprisall, wherein was no great matter,I thought, by what I saw there

Event Comment: For performances in Sept. 1667 preceding this date, see the season of Pepys, Diary: I fell in talk with Tom Killigrew about musick, and he tells me that he will bring me to the best musick in England (of which, indeed, he is master), and that is two Italians and Mrs Yates, who, he says, is come to sing the Italian manner as well as ever as he heard any: says that Knepp won't take pains enough, but that she understands her part so well upon the stage, that no man or woman in the House do the like!

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: Mrs Pierce tells me the two Marshalls at the King's house are Stephen Marshall's, the great Presbyterian's daughters [an erroneous rumor]; and that Nelly Gwin? and Beck Marshall, falling out the other day, the latter called the other my Lord Buckhurst's whore, Nell answered them, "I was but one man's whore, though I was brought up in a bawdy-house to fill strong waters to the guests; and you are a whore to three or four, though a Presbyter's praying daughter!" which was very pretty

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Mrs Pepys] and I alone to the King's playhouse, and there saw a silly play and an old one, The Taming of a Shrew

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: Away to my wife at the Duke of York's house, in the pit, and so left her; and to Mrs Pierce, and took her and her cozen Corbet, Knepp and little James, and brought them to the Duke's house; and, the house being full, was forced to carry them to a box, which did cost me 20s., besides oranges, which troubled me, though their company did please me. Thence, after the play, stayed till Harris was undressed, there being acted The Tempest, and so he withall, all by coach, home

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: And wife and Deb. to the King's house, there to see The Wild-goose Chase, which I never saw, but have long longed to see it, being a famous play, but as it was yesterday I do find that where I expect most I find least satisfaction, for in this play I met with nothing extraordinary at all, but very dull inventions and designs. Knepp come and sat by us, and her talk pleased me a little, she telling me how Mis Davis is for certain going away from the Duke's house, the King being in love with her; and a house is taken for her, and furnishing; and she hath a ring given her already worth #600: that the King did send several times for Nelly, and she was with him, but what he did she knows not; this was a good while ago, and she says that the King first spoiled Mrs Weaver, which is very mean, methinks, in a prince, and I am sorry for it, and can hope for no good to the State from having a Prince so devoted to his pleasure. She told me also of a play shortly coming upon the stage, of Sir Charles Sidly's, which, she thinks, will be called The Wandering Ladys, a comedy that, she thinks, will be more pleasant; and also another play, called The Duke of Lerma; besides Catelin, which she thinks, for want of the clothes which the King promised them, will not be acted for a good while

Event Comment: The Journal of Sir Richard Bulstrode (p. 19): This evening is repeated in the great Hall by foure persons of quality the Indian Emper, but the Company is made very private, soe as few attempt to gett in. Jean Chappuzeau, Le Theatre Francois (Paris, 1675), p. 55, states that in 1668 he saw a revival of The Indian Emperor in London. Pepys, Diary: 14 Jan.: They fell to discourse of last night's work at court, where the ladies and Duke of Monmouth and others acted The IndianEmperour; wherein they told me these things most remarkable: that not any woman but the Duchesse of Monmouth and Mrs Cornwallis did any thing but like fools and stocks, but that these two did do most extraordinary well: that not any man did any thing well but Captain O'Bryan, who spoke and did well, but, above all things, did dance most incomparably. That she did sit near the players of the Duke's house; among the rest, Mis Davis, who is the most impertinent slut, she says, in the world; and the more, now the King do show her countenance; and is reckoned his mistress, even to the scorne of the whole world; the King gazing on her, and my Lady Castlemayne being melancholy and out of humour, all the play, not smiling once. The King, it seems, hath given her a ring of #700, which she shews to every body, and owns that the King did give it her; and he hath furnished a house for her in Suffolke Street most richly, which is a most infinite shame. It seems she is bastard of Colonell Howard, my Lord Berkshire, and that he do pimp to her for the King, and hath got her for him; but Pierce says that she is a most homely jade as ever she saw, though she dances beyond any thing in the world

Event Comment: Pepys, Diary: I took them [Mrs Pepys and Deb.] to the Nursery, where none of us ever were before; where the house is better and the musique better than we looked for, and the acting not much worse, because I expected as bad as could be: and I was not much mistaken, for it was so. However, I was pleased well to see it once, it being worth a man's seeing to discover the different ability and understanding of people, and the different growth of people's abilities by practise. Their play was a bad one, called Jeronimo is Mad Again, a tragedy. Here was some good company by us, who did make mighty sport at the folly of their acting, which I could not neither refrain from sometimes, though I was sorry for it.... I was pretthly served this day at the playhouse-door, where, giving six shillings into the fellow's hand for us three, the fellow by legerdemain did convey one away, and with so much grace faced me down that I did give him but five, that, though I knew the contrary, yet I was overpowered by his so grave and serious demanding the other shilling, that I could not deny him, but was forced by myself to give it him

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Downes (p. 30): This Comedy in general was very well Perform'd. Pepys, Diary: I alone to the Duke of York's house, to see the new play, called The Man is the Master, where the house was, it being not above one o'clock, very full. But my wife and Deb. being there before, with Mrs Pierce and Corbet and Betty Turner, whom my Wife carried with her, they made me room; and there I sat, it costing me 8s. upon them in oranges, at 6d. apiece. By and by the King come; and we sat just under him, so that I durst not turn my back all the play. The play is a translation out of French, and the plot Spanish, but not anything extraordinary at all in it, though translated by Sir W. Davenant, and so I found the King and his company did think meanly of it, though there was here and there something Pretty: but the most of the mirth was sorry, poor stuffe, of eating of sack posset and slabbering themselves, and mirth fit for clownes; the prologue but poor, and the epilogue little in it but the extraordinariness of it, it being sung by Harris and another in the form of a ballet

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Took Mrs Turner out and carried her to the King's house, and saw The Indian Emperour