Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
At the office all the morning. After office done, went and eat some Colchester oysters with Sir W. Batten at his house, and there, with some company; dined and staid there talking all the afternoon; and late after dinner took Mrs. Martha out by coach, and carried her to the Theatre in a frolique, to my great expense, and there shewed her part of the “Beggar’s Bush,” without much pleasure, but only for a frolique, and so home again.
Wednesday 9 October 1661Monday 7 October 1661
11°C / 52°F
(monthly average for October 1661) About
There are no journals available for this date.
“… and carried her to the Theatre in a frolique, to my great expense,..”
Sam despite all his vows, goes to the theatre and spends a lot of money (coach, theatre tickets?) and as Britney would say, “Oops, did it again” - it looks like a classic case of addiction!
“Beggar’s Bush,” by Beaumont & Fletcher, Inc., summarized in annotations here:
“carried her to the Theatre in a frolique”
At first glance, “frolique” looks like the name of a conveyance, but there’s no such definition in the OED (s.v. “frolic”) — I guess this means “A scene or occasion of gaiety or mirth; a merry-making; a party.” Sounds odd, though.
Castleing today: I might be a DOM Miguel but frolique to me[n] means what it always meant, gabolling in the coach [ a great place to test reactions of a lonely gal] and the stalls, He knows where all the funny pieces be and he plays along.
Lines from prev viewing: “…where was acted
We had a very explicit “frolique” at the Coronation last april:
“In which, at the further end, there was three great bonefyres and a great many great gallants, men and women; and the lay hold of us and would have us drink the King’s health upon our knee, kneeling upon a fagott; which we all did, they drinking to us one after another - which we thought a strange Frolique. But these gallants continued thus a great while, and I wondered to see how the ladies did tiple.”
“in a frolique”
could be glossed “on a whim” [OED sense 1c], possibly partly introducing the idea of ‘on a spree’. Swift (1711) is quoted, “If the frolic should take you of going to Bath …..”
Ah, ‘on a whim’ makes sense. Thanks.
“in a frolique”
Glossed as “on a whim.” Cf. the legal phrase, “a frolic of one’s own” which describes “the activities of an employee that, though resulting in job-related injuries, do not entitle the employee to compensation.” (From a discussion of a novel by William Gaddis entitled “A Frolic of His Own,” at
http://www.williamgaddis.org/critinterpessays/porsdamlegalspeak.shtml