my Lord's, and myself, hearing that there was a
play at the Cockpit (and my Lord Sandwich, who came to town
last night, at it), I do go thither, and by very great
fortune did follow four or five gentlemen who were carried
to a little private door in a wall, and so crept through a
narrow place and come into one of the boxes next the King's,
but so as I could not see the King or Queen, but many of the
fine ladies, who yet are really not so handsome generally
as I used to take them to be, but that they are finely
dressed. Here we saw _The Cardinal_,[680] a tragedy I had
never seen before, nor is there any great matter in it. The
company that came in with me into the box were all Frenchmen
that could speak no English, but Lord! what sport they made
to ask a pretty lady that they got among them that
understood both French and English to make her tell them
what the actors said.

[Footnote 679: He first "got in" on April 20, 1661, "by the favour of
one Mr. Bowman." John Evelyn also visited the Cockpit; see his
_Diary_, January 16 and February 11, 1662.]

[Footnote 680: By James Shirley, licensed 1641.]

The next time he went to the Cockpit, on November 17, 1662, he did not
have to creep in by stealth. He writes:

At Whitehall by appointment, Mr. Crew carried my wife and I
to the Cockpit, and we had excellent places, and saw the
King, Queen, Duke of Monmouth, his son, and my Lady
Castlemaine, and all the fine ladies; and _The Scornful
Lady_, well performed. They had done by eleven o'clock.

The fine ladies, as usual, made a deep impression on him, as did the
"greatness and gallantry" of the audience. On December 1, 1662, he
writes:

This done we broke up, and I to the Cockpit, with much
crowding and waiting, where I saw _The Valiant Cid_[681]
acted, a play I have read with great delight, but is a most
dull thing acted, which I never understood before, there
being no pleasure in it, though done by Betterton and by
Ianthe,[682] and another fine wench that is come in the room
of Roxalana; nor did the King or Queen once smile all the
whole play, nor any of the company seem to take any pleasure
but what was in the greatness and gallantry of the company.
Thence ... home, and got thither by 12 o'clock, knocked up
my boy, and put myself to bed.

[Footnote 681: By Corneill