Event Comment: The King's Company.
Pepys, Diary: Being full of my desire of seeing my
Lord Orrery's
new play this afternoon at
the King's house,
The Black Prince,
the first time it is acted; where though we come by two o'clock, yet
there was no room in
the pit, but we were forced to go into one of
the upper boxes, at 4s. a piece, which is
the first time I ever sat in a box in my life. And in
the same box come, by and by, behind me, my
Lord Barkeley and his lady; but I did not turn my face to
them to be known, so that I was excused from giving
them my seat; and this pleasure I had, that from this place
the scenes do appear very fine indeed, and much better than in
the pit.
The house infinite full, and
the King and
Duke of York was
there. By and by
the play begun, and in it nothing Particular but a very fine dance for variety of figures, but a little too long. But, as to
the contrivance, and all that was witty (which, indeed, was much, and very witty), was almost
the same that had been in his two former plays of
Henry the 5th and
Mustapha, and
the same points and turns of wit in both, and in this very same play often repeated, but in excellent language, and were so excellent that
the whole house was mightily pleased with it all along till towards
the end he comes to discover
the chief of
the plot of
the play by
the reading of a long letter, which was so long and some things (
the people being set already to think too long) so unnecessary that
they frequently begun to laugh, and to hiss twenty times, that, had it not been for
the King's being
there,
they had certainly hissed it off
the stage. But I must confess that, as my Lord Barkeley says behind me,
the having of that long letter was a thing so absurd, that he could not imagine how a man of his parts could possibly fall into it; or, if he did, if he had but let any friend read it,
the friend would have told him of it; and, I must confess, it is one of
the most remarkable instances that ever I did or expect to meet with in my life of a wise man's not being wise at all times, and in all things, for nothing could be more ridiculous than this, though
the letter of itself at ano
ther time would be thought an excellent letter, and indeed an excellent Romance, but at
the end of
the play, when every body was weary of sitting, and were already possessed with
the effect of
the whole letter, to trouble
them with a letter a quarter of an hour long was a most absurd thing. After
the play done, and nothing pleasing
them from
the time of
the letter to
the end of
the play, people being put into a bad humour of disliking (which is ano
ther thing worth
the noting), I home by coach, and could not forbear laughing almost all
the way home, and all
the evening to my going to bed, at
the ridiculousness of
the letter, and
the more because my wife was angry with me, and
the world, for laughing, because
the King was
there, though she cannot defend
the length of
the letter