Saturday 17 August 1667
Up, and all the morning at the office, where we sat, and my head was full of the business of Carcasse, who hath a hearing this morning before the Council and hath summonsed at least thirty persons, and which is wondrous, a great many of them, I hear, do declare more against him than for him, and yet he summonses people without distinction. Sure he is distracted. At noon home to dinner, and presently my wife and I and Sir W. Pen to the King’s playhouse, where the house extraordinary full; and there was the King and Duke of York to see the new play, “Queen Elizabeth’s Troubles and the History of Eighty Eight.” I confess I have sucked in so much of the sad story of Queen Elizabeth, from my cradle, that I was ready to weep for her sometimes; but the play is the most ridiculous that sure ever come upon the stage; and, indeed, is merely a shew, only shews the true garbe of the Queen in those days, just as we see Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth painted; but the play is merely a puppet play, acted by living puppets. Neither the design nor language better; and one stands by and tells us the meaning of things: only I was pleased to see Knipp dance among the milkmaids, and to hear her sing a song to Queen Elizabeth; and to see her come out in her night-gowne with no lockes on, but her bare face and hair only tied up in a knot behind; which is the comeliest dress that ever I saw her in to her advantage. Thence home and went as far as Mile End with Sir W. Pen, whose coach took him up there for his country-house; and after having drunk there, at the Rose and Crowne, a good house for Alderman Bides ale, we parted, and we home, and there I finished my letters, and then home to supper and to bed.
11 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
John Evelyn's Diary
17th August,1667. To the funerall of Mr. Farringdon, a relation of my wife's.
There was now a very gallant horse to be baited to death with doggs ; but he fought them all, so as the fiercest of them could not fasten on him, till they run him through with their swords. This wicked and barbarous sport deserVd to have ben punish'd in the cruel contrivers to get mony, under pretence that the horse had kill'd a man, which was false. I would not be persuaded to be a spectator.
http://bit.ly/9x1fLY
***
Horse-baiting -- one of the traditional English blood-sports
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File…
Bradford • Link
Pepys gains in discrimination as a drama critic. And plainly the more au naturel Knipp, the better he likes it.
ticea • Link
Horse-baiting - I presume this is a horse that has been rendered (forgive the pun) unfit for any other use? However I applaud Eveyln's perspective.
nix • Link
"hath summonsed at least thirty persons, and which is wondrous, a great many of them, I hear, do declare more against him than for him, and yet he summonses people without distinction" --
This is still a standard litigation tactic, especially on the part of big law firms looking to make the process too expensive for the opposing party.
Robert Gertz • Link
"I confess I have sucked in so much of the sad story of Queen Elizabeth, from my cradle, that I was ready to weep for her sometimes..."
Interesting...Nowadays we so often see it quite differently, though considering the beheaded mother, the tormented/tormenting half-sister, the unspeakable father, the puritanical Spanish brother-in-law turned would-be suitor, turned outright enemy...And all the rest up to pathetic Essex...
Heaven...
"What? I meant she never did find a guy." Sam notes to Bess. "What's wrong with these people?"
"Who knows. But Dudley seemed very nice..." Bess notes. "But I suppose, since they couldn't marry even with the wife dead..."
"Imagine the tragedy of your life if you couldn't have married...Me..."
Robert Gertz • Link
"...after having drunk there, at the Rose and Crowne, a good house for Alderman Bides ale..."
That's Alderman Bides ale, the choice of the world's most famous diarist.
Heaven...
"A list...?"
"Of every product mentioned throughout the Diary. Now all we have to do is find out whic are still in business or those still using the original name and present them with a bill for three centuries of advertising."
"Bess...I love you."
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Sure he [Carkesse] is distracted."
From the harem-scarem way he conducted his case, Pepys infers he's not all there. L&M note Carkesse later went mad in earnest, and in 1679 published from the madhouse Lucida intervalla, containing divers miscellaneous poems, written at Finsbury and Bethlem by the Doctors patient extraordinary.
Carkesse, James, fl. 1679. London: [s.n.], 1679. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/…
which includes an incoherent attack on Pepys.
Terry Foreman • Link
"the play...shews the true garbe of the Queen in those days, just as we see Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth painted"
L&M note historically accurate costuming was very rare on the Restoration stage; though Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth evidently wore Elizabethan costumes, the remainder of the cast probably wore contemporary dress.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I was pleased to see Knipp dance among the milkmaids, and to hear her sing a song to Queen Elizabeth"
There are neither milkmaids nor a song to Elizabeth in the original; the episode evidently formed part of an addition to it in this performance. (L&M note)
Pepys loved these additions to pre-Interregnum plays.
Terry Foreman • Link
"went as far as Mile End with Sir W. Pen, whose coach took him up there for his country-house"
At Walthamstow, Essex.
Terry Foreman • Link
"having drunk there, at the Rose and Crowne, a good house for Alderman Bides ale"
L&M: Ald. John Bide (d. 1665) was a Shoreditch brewer.