Tuesday 28 July 1668
All the morning at the office, and after dinner with my wife and Deb. to the Duke of York’s playhouse, and there saw “The Slighted Maid,” but a mean play; and thence home, there being little pleasure now in a play, the company being but little. Here we saw Gosnell, who is become very homely, and sings meanly, I think, to what I thought she did.
12 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Here we saw Gosnell, who is become very homely"
L&M cp. a line in Sir Carr Scroope's "In Defense of Satire" (1677)(l. 100 in this ed.)
Grandio* thinks himself a beau garçon,
Goggles his eyes, writes letters up and down,.
And with his saucy love plagues all the town,
Whilst pleas'd to have his vanity thus fed,
He's caught with Gosnell, that old hag, abed.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John…
http://goo.gl/tVkAl
Chris Squire • Link
‘homely, adj.
1. Of or belonging to the home or household; domestic, ‘family’. Obs.
2. a. Become as one of the household; familiar, intimate; at home with. Now rare or arch.
b. Familiar, that one is ‘at home’ with. rare.
3. Characteristic of home as the place where one receives kind treatment; kind, kindly. Now rare or Obs.
4. Such as belongs to home or is produced or practised at home (esp. a humble home); unsophisticated, simple; plain, unadorned, not fine; everyday, commonplace; unpolished, rough, rude. (Sometimes approbative, as connoting the absence of artificial embellishment; but often apologetic, depreciative, or even as a euphemism for ‘wanting refinement, polish, or grace’.)
5. Of persons, etc.: Of commonplace appearance or features; not beautiful, ‘plain’, uncomely.
a1616 Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) ii. i. 88 Hath homelie age th'alluring beauty tooke From my poore cheeke?
. . 1706 Phillips's New World of Words (ed. 6) , Homely, ugly, disagreeable, course, mean . . ‘ [OED]
Robert Gertz • Link
Poor Gosnell...Truly life upon the wicked stage ain't no place for a girl.
Terry Foreman • Link
"there being little pleasure now in a play, the company being but little."
Even a middling comedy can work with a full house (and lacking the royals).
Mary • Link
"the company being but little"
But which company is it? I took this to mean that the company of actors was reduced (in number and/or artistry). The remark about Gosnell indicates a distinct falling-off, at least in Sam's eyes.
Jenny • Link
I took it as meaning there were very few people in the audience.
DJC • Link
“the company being but little”
The audience or the players ("Duke of York's Company"). In the context of his disappointment with the play and players perhaps he means the players. But this is, I think, a case where there is a benefit in the ambiguity of language: it is now high summer; the better part of town has escaped to the country and the the players reduced to the second division in consequence. So a poor performance to a poor audience.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
“the company being but little”
L&M note (FWIW): I.e.the audience.
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Charles II: July 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 469-516. https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
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July 28. 1668
The Monmouth, Portsmouth Harbour.
Sir Thos. AIlin to the Navy Commissioners.
No flags of 18 breadths have yet come down,
and there are none but what are fit for fifth-rate frigates.
Desires that 4 flags, ensigns, and jacks may be sent.
His men, with the rest of the ship’s company in harbour, are getting the Sovereign out to Spithead;
intends to follow her tomorrow.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 159.]
Encloses,
[Sir. Thos. Allin] to the Surveyor of the Navy.
Desires an order for making 4 dozen of morecoes (sic), promised him when he was at the Board.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 159i.]
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July 28. 1668
John Moorhouse, purveyor, to [the Navy Commissioners].
Desires a warrant for the land carriage of 1,000 loads of plank and timber in Whittlewood and Aliceholt forests.
I can fell 1,000 loads in Aliceholt.
Compas timber is wanted for the rebuilding of the Lowndune, in Deptford dockyard, which will come to nothing but firewood if it remains unfelled.
Endorsed with the names of 3 justices of cos. Northampton, Bucks, and Oxon.
[1-½ pages. S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 160.]
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Alice Holt Forest is a royal forest in Hampshire, situated 4 miles south of Farnham, Surrey. Once predominantly an ancient oak forest, it was particularly noted in the 18th and 19th centuries for the timber it supplied for the building of ships for the Royal Navy. It is now planted mainly with conifers. It looks lovely https://www.forestryengland.uk/ab…
Compass timbers are wood pieces cut for ship construction to use their natural curves to fit parts of the hull that require that same curved shape. Shipbuilders can steam planks to make them bend somewhat, but the natural curve of the wood grain makes an even stronger piece.
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July 28. 1668
Portsmouth.
Capt. Anth. Deane to Williamson.
The Royal Sovereign is going to Chatham,
and the Princess to Spithead, to receive the Ambassador;
Sir Thos. AIlin with the Monmouth and 2 others will join the rest of the fleet there bound for the Straits.
Five ships have been paid off, and the money is ready for 3 others.
The seamen’s tickets are now paying.
The keel of the ship building as an experiment will be laid on Thursday.
[1-¼ pages. S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 166.]
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July 28. 1668
Plymouth.
John Clarke to Williamson.
Several ships from the Straits and other places have come in;
also a Spanish man-of-war laden with soldiers, bound for Ostend.
A Holland vessel from Surinam brought over 10 English passengers, who report that the place is given up to the Dutch, and that the Dutch and English agree very well.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 167.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
July 28. 1668
John Cooke to Williamson.
Sec. Morice has imposed a work upon me which, if Lord Arlington were present, would have fallen to your lot,
so I ask precedents and directions for drawing a commission for Capt. Rouse, to treat and conclude Articles of Peace with the Governor and City of Sallee,
as also a letter to the Governor.
Commissions of this nature have passed from you to Sir Jo. Lawson, Sir Thos. Allin and Mr. Warren.
Remember that my master [Sec. Morice] desires despatch in whatever he commands.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 171.]
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July 28. 1668
Salisbury.
John Courtney to Randall Taylor, bookseller, Little Britain.
Pray get this advertisement put in the Gazette, with despatch,
“It is a friend of mine that suffers in the escape.”
Let me know what it costs.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 243, No. 172.]
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The “Personals” were always a good place to put secret messages. But that they did it in 1668 never occurred to me before.
LKvM • Link
"The company being but little" -- the king, the DoY, Lady Castelmaine and her ilk were not there.
Sam goes to the theater not to be seen, but to see.
San Diego Sarah • Link
A couple of months ago Elizabeth was having temper tantrums about his going to the theater while she was stuck in the country. So he's taking her now; all's peaceful. I suspect it doesn't strain his eyes, and it keeps his mind off work and gives them something to talk about which is unvexing.