Thursday 3 January 1660/61

Annotations

• N Paul Miller on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 12:34am

  “to the Theatre, where was acted

• N Pauline on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 12:41am

  The Beggars Bush (?1622); John Fletcher, Beaumont (?), Philip Massinger

• N Emilio on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 01:03am

  “here the first time that ever I saw women come upon the stage”

  We hit a major turning point in Sam’s theatre-going career. L&M have a lengthy footnote on the introduction of women to the English stage, which I’ve posted here:

  http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/289.php

  Today isn’t the first appearance of a woman on the English stage, but it certainly hasn’t happened many times before now.
  

• N vincent on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 03:21am

  Nix did annot :Tuesday 20 November 1660: our Man did see it then :
  “…where the play of

• N Mary on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 08:40am

  Bird the carrier.

  According to L&M Companion, Bird/Beard arrived at his London terminus, an inn in Cripplegate, every Wednesday and returned to Huntingdon the following morning. During the period of the diary there were between 200 and 300 carrier services operating to and from London. Mostly they carried goods and letters, but also took passengers when need arose. Probably not a very comfortable journey for Mrs. Pepys Senior.

• N Lawrence on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 12:56pm

  Where I found my mother gone by bird, the carrier, to Brampton, “I suppose she made these arrangements at the last minute?” so would that mean she was lucky to make the journey with Bird?, I mean it is towards a university town, so presumably others would be to-ing and fro-ing there all the time, and you could rely on him not to get you lost.

• N Mary on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 03:41pm

  Last minute arrangements.

  Bird would probably have made room for Mrs. Pepys Sr. even if hers was a last-minute request. He gets quite a lot of business from both Pepys and Sandwich, carrying goods and mail between London and Huntingdon on their behalf, and would certainly have tried to oblige Sam’s mother if at all possible.

• N Gar Foyer on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 06:44pm

  It’s amusing to see contemporary annotators think of this partcular theatre-going milestone moment of Pepys’s as a sign of the slowness of progress…when his diary commences Sam is dizzy with the heady perfume of newfound cultural freedom whereas months before plays had been still officially banned although the ban had not been generally enforced since the apogee of Puritan rule.

  Mere months from now the debauchery of the Stuart court will help populate English theatres with actresses whose very attraction is their reputation for lasciviousness and bawdy behaviour:

  
  Think of a a name still synonmous with the actress-mistress duality—Nell Gwyn…“‘pretty, witty Nell’, as Pepys called her, charmed not only the King but his subjects - who cordially disliked most of his other mistresses, in particular the Catholic Frenchwoman Louise de Keroualle. When crowds booed Nell’s carriage, thinking she was Louise, she leaned out of the window and called ‘I am the Protestant whore!’ “
  

• N Lawrence on Sun 4 Jan 2004, 09:26pm

  Thanks Mary, I see nothing changes with time, Most small business’ would certainly accommodate Mrs Pepys snr, with that amount of business in mind.

• N vincent on Wed 14 Jan 2004, 05:20am

  The waggon left wednesday [and this being a thurs day? ] and saturday for Huntington, from Co. Red Lion, Aldersgatestreet, w. s. Wag. ditto, m.
  http://www.londonancestor.com/stow/stow-coaches.htm
  

• N Mary on Wed 14 Jan 2004, 01:19pm

  Coaching timetable

  Nice site, Vincent; though it does show the arrangements for 1722, rather than 1660, so perhaps not an exact guide to what Pepys could count on.