Bill

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Second Reading

About Tuesday 8 October 1661

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"in a frolique"

A FROLICK, a merry Prank, a Whim.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Duke's House ("The Opera", Lincoln's Inn Fields)

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Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre stood in Portugal Row, or the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, at the back of what is now the Royal College of Surgeons. There have been three distinct theatres called "Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre;" all three erected on the same site, and all of interest in the history of our stage. The first was originally "Lisle's Tennis Court,"* converted into a theatre (The Duke's Theatre) by Sir William Davenant, and opened in 1660, "having new scenes and decorations, being the first that e're were introduc'd in England." Pepys went to "the new play-house," November 20, 1660, and saw Beaumont and Fletcher's Beggars Bush, and Mohun (or, as he writes it, Moone) play for the first time: "it is the finest playhouse, I believe, that ever was in England." Pepys's references to the Lincoln's Inn Theatre are very numerous: indeed he went there so often that it made Mrs. Pepys "as mad as the devil" Davenant died in April 1668, and Pepys went on the 9th to "the Duke of York's Play-house, there to see Sir W. Davenant's corpse carried out towards Westminster, there to be buried." The company continued at the Duke's till November 9, 1671, when they removed to Dorset Gardens, and their old house in Lincoln's Inn Fields remained shut till February 26, 1671-1672, when the King's company under Killigrew, burnt out at Drury Lane, made use of it till March 26, 1673-1674, when they returned to their old locality in Drury Lane, and Davenant's deserted theatre became "a tennis court again."

* Indenture signed by Sir W. Davenant, dated March 7, 1660-1661 (in possession of author); Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 308; Pepys says, "which was formerly Gibbons tennis-court."

---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

On 20 November 1660 Pepys writes "I to the new Play-house near Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields (which was formerly Gibbon’s tennis-court)." but this diary's link on that date is to "King's House (Theatre Royal, Vere St)." SP seems to have gotten the name of the converted tennis court wrong. (Both theatres seem to have been built on tennis courts!)

Brian's map link above would seem to be the "Duke's House."

King's House (Theatre Royal, Vere St): http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

About Sir Henry Vane (younger)

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VAHE, SIR HENRY, the younger (1613-1662), statesman; eldest son of Sir Henry Vane the elder; educated at Westminster School, at Oxford, 1629, and abroad; adopted decided puritan views, 1628; attached to the embassy at Vienna, 1631; returned to England, 1632; resolved to go to New England for freedom of conscience; resided in Boston, 1635-7 ; governor of Massachusetts, 1635-7; entangled in the doctrinal controversies of the colonists; returned to England, 1637; treasurer of the navy, 1639-41 ; M.P., Hull, in the Short parliament, April 1640; knighted, 1640; married, and received Raby Castle from his father, July 1640; showed Руm his father's memorandum of Strafford's advice (5 May 1640) to Charles I, September 1640; M.P., Hull, in the Long parliament, November 1640; Strafford's fate sealed by his copy of the memorandum, April 1641; advocated abolition of episcopacy, May 1641; dismissed by Charles I from his treasurership of the navy, December 1641; a leader of the war party in parliament; parliamentary treasurer of the navy, 1642-50; conducted negotiations with Scots at Edinburgh, 1643; virtual leader of the House of Commons, 1643-6; rejected Charles I's overtures to dissociate him from the parliament, 1644; a commissioner at the treaty of Uxbridge, 1645; urged the reorganisation of the army; offended the presbyterians by insisting on toleration; rejected fresh overtures by Charles I, 1646; a commissioner to treat with the army leaders at Wycombe, 1647; distrusted both by the presbyterians and the levellers; a commissioner to treat with Charles I at Newport, 1648; took no part iu Charles I's trial; member of the parliamentary council of state, 1649; a leading man in all affairs of the Commonwealth, home, colonial, military, and naval, 1649-53; a close friend of Cromwell, 1650-3; sent to Scotland to settle Scottish affairs, 1651; came into collision with Cromwell, from wishing to perpetuate the Long parliament, 1653; retired to Belleau, 1653; imprisoned for a pamphlet against Cromwell's arbitrary government, 1656; M.P., Whitchurch, in Richard Cromwell's parliament, February 1659; effected the abolition of the protectorate; in the restored Long parliament was commissioner of the navy and virtual foreign minister, May 1659; laboured to reconcile the army and the parliament; became distrusted by all parties; expelled from the Long parliament, January 1660; put in custody, February; partially excluded from indemnity by the 'Convention' parliament, June 1660; prisoner in the Tower of London, and in the Scilly islands; his death demanded by the Cavalier parliament, July 1661; condemned and executed on Tower Hill; a religious enthusiast; published several treatises of mystical divinity; published also speeches.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Henry Mordaunt (2nd Earl of Peterborough)

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MORDAUNT, HENRY, second Earl of Peterborough (1624?-1697), cavalier; educated at Eton; served in the parliamentary army; deserted to Charles I, 1643; raised the royal standard at Dorking, 1647, but was defeated and wounded; escaped to Antwerp, 1647; governor of Tangier, 1661; resigned, 1662: escorted Mary of Modena to England, 1673; privy councillor, 1674; suspected of complicity in the Popish plot; K.G., 1685; became a Roman catholic, 1687; impeached, 1689, but released on bail, 1690; published a book on the genealogies of his family under the pseudonym 'Robert Halstead,' 1685.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Henry Mordaunt (2nd Earl of Peterborough)

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Henry Mordaunt, second Earl of Peterborough, born November 16th, 1621; Captain-General of the Forces in Tangier, Fez, and Morocco, and Chief Governor of Tangier from September 6th, 1661, to June, 1663; Privy Councillor, 1674-79, 1683; and in 1685 made Groom of the Stole to James II. He was created K.G. 1685, and died June 19th, 1697.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Tuesday 22 October 1661

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"this new disease, an ague and fever"

This complaint is referred to in Ben Jonson's "Every Man in His Humour," and in 1659 H. Whitmore published a little book entitled "Febris Anomala, or the New Disease that now rageth throughout England." It appears to have been somewhat similar to subsequent epidemics of influenza.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Love and Honour (Sir William Davenant)

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A tragi-comedy by Sir William Davenant. It was originally acted at the Blackfriars, and printed in 1649. "This play was richly cloath'd; the King gave Mr. Betterton his Coronation suit, in which he acted the part of Prince Alvaro; the Duke of York giving Mr. Harris his, who did Prince Prospero; and my Lord of Oxford gave Mr. Joseph Price his, who did Lionel, the Duke of Parma's son. The Duke was acted by Mr. Lilliston; Evandra by Mrs. Davenport, and all the other parts being very well done. The play having a great run produc'd the Company great gain and estimation from the Town." — Downes, Koscius Anglicanus, 1708, pp. 21, 22.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Saturday 19 October 1661

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"I not being neat in clothes"

NEAT, clean, trim, cleanly and tightly dressed, clever.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Saturday 19 October 1661

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"to hire a dock for the herring busses"

BUSS, a small Sea Vessel, used by the Hollanders, and now by the English, for the Herring Fishery, etc.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Saturday 19 October 1661

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"to hire a dock for the herring busses"

A peculiar boat of ten or fifteen tons, for the herring fishery. — Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Limehouse

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A part of the main river-side road was long known as Limekiln Hill, after this lime-house.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Alfonso VI of Portugal

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The King of Portugal was Alfonso VI., who ascended the throne in 1656, and was deposed in 1667.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About George Cocke ("Captain")

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Captain George Cock, a merchant possessed of large tanning works in Limerick. On July 31st, 1660, he was rewarded for his services during the Civil War with the office of searcher of the port of Newcastle, his native place; commissioner for inspecting the chest; and in November, 1664, steward for sick and wounded seamen. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 1666, and died 1679.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Bethnal Green

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Sir William Rider's house was at Bethnal Green, and was popularly associated with the ballad of the "Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green." It was long known as the "Blind Beggar's House."
---Wheatley, 1899.

It's of a blind beggar who had lost his sight,
And he had a daughter most beautiful bright,
Let me seek my fortune, dear father, said she
And the favour was granted to charming Betsy.
etc.

See the diary entry for 26 June 1663: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Sir William Rider: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

About Sir William Rider

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Sir William Rider's house was at Bethnal Green, and was popularly associated with the ballad of the "Beggar's Daughter of Bethnal Green." It was long known as the "Blind Beggar's House."
---Wheatley, 1899.

It's of a blind beggar who had lost his sight,
And he had a daughter most beautiful bright,
Let me seek my fortune, dear father, said she
And the favour was granted to charming Betsy.
etc.

See the diary entry for 26 June 1663: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Bethnal Green: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…