Wednesday 27 November 1661
This morning our maid Dorothy and my wife parted, which though she be a wench for her tongue not to be borne with, yet I was loth to part with her, but I took my leave kindly of her and went out to Savill’s, the painter, and there sat the first time for my face with him; thence to dinner with my Lady; and so after an hour or two’s talk in divinity with my Lady, Captain Ferrers and Mr. Moore and I to the Theatre, and there saw “Hamlett” very well done, and so I home, and found that my wife had been with my aunt Wight and Ferrers to wait on my Lady to-day this afternoon, and there danced and were very merry, and my Lady very fond as she is always of my wife. So to bed.
17 Annotations
First Reading
Bradford • Link
Wonderment! A play by Mr. Shakespeare that Sam likes! Wonder just what version of "Hamlet" he saw; as with "King Lear," &c., at certain periods it was furnished with a happy ending. Work that out.
Pauline • Link
Bradford, you can work it out here:
http://prodigi.bl.uk/treasures/sh…
dirk • Link
Hamlet
Strangely enough, on the 26th (yesterday) John Evelyn wrote this in his diary:
"26: I saw Hamlet Pr: of Denmark played: but now the old playe began to disgust this refined age; since his Majestie being so long abroad:"
vicente • Link
"MaDame, I be upstairs, not be in the basement?' [just a thought?] "...which though she be a wench for her tongue not to be borne with, yet I was loth to part with her..." [Oh! such pretty ankles, she be a having too.?}[FROM THE MALE OF THE SPECIES]
Joe • Link
is this the pretty maid they just hires?
Mary • Link
The pretty maid is Sarah.
See yesterday's annotations.
allan russell • Link
More interesting than Sam on maids is the fact that he has a sitting for a portrait today, does that still exist
Pauline • Link
"a sitting for a portrait today, does that still exist"
Allan, I haven't found any reference to the Savill portrait still being around. This from Project Gutenburg:
"Pepys was partial to having his portrait taken, and he sat to Savill,
Hales, Lely, and Kneller. Hales's portrait, painted in 1666, is now in
the National Portrait Gallery, and an etching from the original forms the
frontispiece to this volume. The portrait by Lely is in the Pepysian
Library. Of the three portraits by Kneller, one is in the hall of
Magdalene College, another at the Royal Society, and the third was lent
to the First Special Exhibition of National Portraits, 1866, by the late
Mr. Andrew Pepys Cockerell. Several of the portraits have been engraved,
but the most interesting of these are those used by Pepys himself as
book-plates. These were both engraved by Robert White, and taken from
paintings by Kneller."
RexLeo • Link
"...Captain Ferrers and Mr. Moore and I to the Theatre,... and so I home, and found that my wife had been with my aunt Wight and Ferrers to wait on my Lady to-day this afternoon"
Where was Ferrers? with Sam at the Theatre or with Liz waiting on my Lady?
Josh • Link
Pursuant to Pauline's page above, which links to the 1st Quarto (1603) of "Hamlet," here is a page from the same site specifically about the Restoration:
http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakes…
which reminds us that in 1660 "Sir William Davenant [was] granted a warrant to act several of Shakespeare's plays”; but even the excellent L&M Companion article on “Theatre” sheds no light on the adaptations of the times.
Robert Gertz • Link
Wonder how Beth reacted to find Sam had gone off to see "Hamlet" without her, though perhaps he'd had the care not to tell my Lady where he was off to.
Perhaps Sam meant Mrs. Ferrers had gone with Aunt Wight and Beth? Though he usually is careful to give women their titles.
Glyn • Link
You're right, RG - didn't Pepys recently promise Elizabeth that he wouldn't go to the theatre unless with her?
Ferrers is definitely a bachelor (he had a date with Madame Le Blanc a few days ago). As he is part of the Montagu's household, he is as likely to wait on Lady Montagu as often as Pepys himself does.
The fact that we don't know the whereabouts of the paintings of Elizabeth and Samuel Pepys doesn't mean that they still don't exist, of course.
Paul Chapin • Link
"The fact that we don't know the whereabouts of the paintings of Elizabeth and Samuel Pepys doesn't mean that they still don't exist”
Weren’t we told just the other day, as an established historical fact, that the painting of Elizabeth was destroyed by a 19th century maid who was outraged at the immodesty of her dress?
Australian Susan • Link
The portrait destroyed by the maid was not one of the ones being referred to in the diary at the moment - it was speculated that these, (by Savill) were destroyed in the Navy Office Fire in the '70s. But they may not have been.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The known portraits of Pepys at Project Gutenberg as listed above by Pauline:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/75…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Captain Ferrers and Mr. Moore and I to the Theatre, and there saw “Hamlett”
L&M: By "Theatre" Pepys usually means the Theatre Royal in Vere St managed by Thomas Killigrew. Here, however, it probably refers to the Lincoln's Inn Fields playhouse managed by Davenant, because on 12 December 1660 Davenant had been given the exclusive right to stage Hamlet. See Allardyce Nicoll, A History of Restoration Drama 1660-1700, 1923. pp. 152-3; also https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Dorothy and Elizabeth must have had a bad falling out -- employment generally went from Quarter Day to Quarter Day.