Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Sir W. Pen, my wife and I to the Theatre, and there saw The Country Captain, the first time it hath been acted this twenty-five years, a play of my Lord Newcastle's, but so silly a play as in all my life I never saw, and the first that ever I was weary of in my life. Herbert (Dramatic Records, p. 118) lists Love's Mistress for this date for Vere St., but the item is out of the normal order of the entries. To move it to 26 Oct. 1662 would place it on a Sunday. The play had been given previously (2 March 1661, 11 March 1661, 25 March 1661) by both the Duke's Company and King's Company. Possibly Herbert entered it on the wrong day. On Herbert's list, following Love's Mistress, are two plays, The Contented Collinell [Brenoralt] and Love at First Sight, each listed without a date. The former, under the title Brenoralt, had been acted at Vere St. on 23 July 1661; the second was soon to be acted there on 29 Nov. 1661

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary To the Theatre, and there saw Argalus and Parthenia, where a woman acted Parthenia, and came afterwards on the stage in men's clothes, and had the best legs that ever I saw, and I was very well pleased with it

Event Comment: Edition of 1661: By the Worshipful Company of Grocers. Evelyn, Diary: I saw the Lord Major passe in his Water Triumph to Westminster being the first solemnity of this nature after 20 years. Pepys, Diary: I was (after office was done) ready to go to my Lord Mayor's feast, as we are all invited; but the Sir Williams were both loth to go, because of the crowd, and so none of us went....This Lord Mayor, it seems, brings up again the custom of Lord Mayors going the day of their instalment to Paul's, and walking round about the Cross, and offering something at the altar

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To The Joviall Crew

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I...called my wife at my brother's where I left her, and to the Opera, where we saw The Bondman, which of old we both did so doat on, and do still; though to both our thinking not so well acted here (having too great expectations), as formerly at Salisbury-court. But for Betterton he is called by us both the best actor in the world

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I to Bartholomew Fayre, with puppets which I had seen once before, and the play without puppets often, but though I love the play as much as ever I did, yet I do not like the puppets at all, but think it to be a lessening to it

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Theatre, and there saw Father's own son again

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Opera, where I met my wife and Captain Ferrers and Madamoiselle LeBlanc, and there did see the second part of The Siege of Rhodes very well done

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: To the Theatre to see Philaster, which I never saw before, but I found it far short of my expectations. [An undated edition, the Sixth Impression, was published, probably, in this year, with no cast, no prologue, no epilogue.

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Sir W. Pen and I to the Theatre, and there saw The Country Captain, a dull play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: [The Country Captain] being done I...went to the Opera, and saw the last act of The Bondman

Event Comment: It is uncertain at which theatre this play was performed, but it has been assigned to the King's Company because Pepys saw that company act it on the following day, 27 Nov. Evelyn, Diary: 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

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Captain Ferrers and Mr Moore and I to the Theatre, and there saw Hamlett very well done

Event Comment: The King's Company. This play appears on Herbert's List, following the entry for 26 Oct. 1661. (See William VanLennep, "Thomas Killigrew prepares his Plays for Production," J. Q. Adams Memorial Studies (Washington, D. C., 1948, p. 803.) Pepys, Diary: W. Pen and I to the Theatre, but it was so full that we could hardly get any room, so he went up to one of the boxes, and I into the 18d. places, and there saw Love at first sight, a play of Mr Killigrew's and the first time that it hath been acted since before the troubles, and great expectation there was, but I found the play to be a poor thing, and so I perceive every body else do. BM Add. Mss. 34217, fol. 31b, in Hotson Commonwealth and Restoration Stage, p. 246: @First then to speake of his Majestys Theatre@Where one would imagine Playes should be better@Love att the first sight did lead the dance@But att second sight it had the mischance@To be so dash'd out of Countenance as@It never after durst shew itts face@All though its bashfullnesse as tis thought@Be far from being the Authors ffault.

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: By and by called on by Mr Sanchy and his mistress, and with them by coach to the Opera, to see The Mad Lover, but not much pleased with the play

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: My wife and I to the Opera, and saw Hamlett well performed

Event Comment: The King's Company. See Herbert, Dramatic Records, p. 118. Pepys, Diary: And so home to Sir W. Pen, who with his children and my wife has been at a play to-day and saw D'Ambois, which I never saw

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Seeing that the Spanish Curate was acted to-day, I...home again and sent to young Mr Pen and his sister to go anon with my wife and I to the Theatre...we went by coach to the play, and there saw it well acted, and a good play it is, only Diego the Sexton did overdo his part too much. [Sir Edward Browne seems to connect this play with the Duke's Company. See Introdutcion to 1661-1662.

Event Comment: [The edition of 1662 suggests that this was a ballet, the text offering description or synopses of the entries. Edition of 1662: Being part of that Magnificent Entertainment by the Noble Prince, DelaGrange, Lord Lieutenant of Lincolns Inn. Presented to the High and Mighty Charles II, Monarch of Great Britain, France and Ireland. On Friday 3 of January 1662. Evelyn, Diary: After Prayers I went to Lond: invited to the solemn foolerie of the Prince de la Grange at Lincolne Inn: where came also the King, Duke, &c.: beginning with a grand Masquev and a formal Pleading before the mock-princes (Grandes), Nobles & Knights of the Sunn: He had his L. Chancelor, Chamberlaine, Treasurer, & other royal officers gloriously clad & attended, which ended in a magnificent Banquet: one Mr John? Lort, being the young spark, who maintained the Pageantrie. Pepys, Diary: While I was there, comes by the King's life-guard, he being gone to Lincoln's Inn this afternoon to see the Revells there; there being, according to an old custom, a prince and all his nobles and other matters of sport and charge. John Ward (notebooks, 6 Jan.): I saw a Leopard and the same day as strange a sight which was the mock prince of Lincolnes' Inne his Nobels his Knights of the Garter and his other officers (Shakespeare Quarterly, XI [1960], 494)

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary [Sir W. Pen] and I and my wife to the Theatre...and there saw Rule a Wife and have a Wife very well done

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: I went [to the Opera] and there saw The Law Against Lovers, a good play and well performed especially the little girl's [Viola?-Moll Davis] (whom I never saw act before) dancing and singing; and were it not for her, the loss of $Roxalana [Hester Davenport] would spoil the house

Event Comment: The Duke's Company. Pepys, Diary: [Mr Herbert] and I and the two young ladies and my wife to the playhouse, the Opera, and saw The Mayde in the Mill, a pretty good play

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: At the Theatre, where I saw the last act of the Knight of the Burning Pestle, which pleased me not at all

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: Sir W. Pen and his daughter, and I and my wife by coach to the Theatre, and there in a box saw The Little Thief well done

Event Comment: The King's Company. Pepys, Diary: We by coach to the Theatre and saw Love in a Maze. The play hath little in it but Lacy's part of a country fellow, which he did to admiration