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: With my wife and Deb., to the King's house, and there saw the Indian Emperour, a very good play indeed

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: All alone to the King's house, and there sat in an upper box, to hide myself, and saw The Black Prince, a very good play; but only the fancy, most of it, the same as in the rest of my Lord Orrery's plays; but the dance very stately; but it was pretty to see how coming after dinner and with no company with me to talk to, and at a play that I had seen, and went to now not for curiosity but only idleness, I did fall asleep the former part of the play, but afterward did mind it and like it very well

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, into a corner of the 18d. box, and there saw The Maid's Tragedy, a good play. Coach 1s.: play and oranges, 2s

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: With Brouncker, to the King's house, and saw The Surprizall, where base singing, only Knepp, who come, after her song in the clouds, to me in the pit, and there, oranges, 2s

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, 1s., and to the play of the Duke of Lerma, 2s. 6d., and oranges, 1s

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

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's play-house, and there saw a piece of Beggar's Bush, which I have not seen some years

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw most of The Cardinall, a good play

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's house, and there did see Love in a Maze, wherein very good mirth of Lacy, the clown, and Wintersell, the country-knight, his master

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw The Surprizall: and a disorder in the pit by its raining in, from the cupola at top, it being a very foul day, and cold

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Although Downes refers to the play's being acted "12 Days together" [see below], these were not consecutive, as Pepys saw another play at lif on 7 May. Pepys, Diary: To the Duke of York's playhouse, at a little past twelve, to get a good place in the pit, against the new play, and there setting a poor man to keep my Place, I out...and so back again, where I find the house quite full. But I had my place, and by and by the King comes and the Duke of York; and then the play begins, called The Sullen Lovers; or, The Impertinents, having many good humours in it, but the play tedious, and no design at all in it. But a little boy, for a farce, do dance Polichinelli, the best that ever anything was done in the world, by all men's report: most pleased with that, beyond anything in the world, and much beyond all the play. Thence to the King's house to see Knepp, but the play done. Downes (p. 29): This Comedy being Admirably Acted:...This Play had wonderful Success, being Acted 12 Days together

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: I back to the King's playhouse, and there saw The Virgin Martyr, and heard the musick that I like so well

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Sir W. Pen] and I into the King's house, and there The Mayd's Tragedy, a good play, but Knepp not there

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: I carried [Mercer and Mrs Gayet] to the King's house...and there saw The Country Captain, a very dull play, that did give us no content, and besides, little company there, which made it very unpleasing

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: I to the King's house, and there saw the last act of The Committee, thinking to have seen Knepp there, but she did not act

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw the best part of The Sea Voyage, where Knepp I see do her part of sorrow very well

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play may also have been given on Tuesday 19 May. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and saw The Mulberry-Garden again, and cannot be reconciled to it, but only to find here and there an independent sentence of wit, and that is all

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's playhouse, and there saw Philaster; where it is pretty to see how I could remember almost all along, ever since I was a boy, Arethusa, the part which I was to have acted at Sir Robert Cooke's; and it was very pleasant to me, but more to think what a ridiculous thing it would have been for me to have acted a beautiful woman

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the King's house, and there saw good part of The Scornful Lady, and that done, would have taken out Knepp, but she was engaged

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: By and by comes my wife and Deb. home, have been at the King's playhouse to-day, thinking to spy me there; and saw the new play, Evening Love, of Dryden's, which, though the world commends, she likes not. Evelyn, Diary: To a new play, with severeall of my Relations, the Evening Lover, a foolish plot, & very Prophane, so as it afflicted me to see how the stage was. degenerated & poluted by the licentious times

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: And so she [Mrs Pepys] and I alone to the King's house, and there I saw this new play my wife saw yesterday, and do not like it, it being very smutty, and nothing so good as The Maiden Queen, or The Indian Emperour, of his making, that I was troubled at it; and my wife tells me wholly (which he confesses a little in the epilogue) taken out of the Illustre Bassa

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Creed] and I to the King's playhouse, and saw an act or two of the new play again, but like it not. Calling this day at Herringman's, he tells me Dryden do himself call it but a fifth-rate play

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife, and Deb., and I to the King's playhouse, and saw The Indian Queene, but do not doat upon Nan Marshall's acting therein, as the world talks of her excellence therein

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: With my wife to the King's playhouse--The Mulberry Garden, which she had not seen