Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In

by Henry B. Wheatley

One of the institutions of the theatre was Orange Moll, who is frequently mentioned in the “Diary.” The orange girls stood with their backs to the stage, and the beaux in the pit broke jests with them. One of these women tried to impose upon Pepys by affirming that she had delivered a dozen oranges to some ladies in a box in accordance to his order, “which was wholly untrue, but yet she swore it to be true.” He denied the charge, and would not pay, but for quiet bought four shillings’ worth of oranges at 6d. apiece.[388] This was the usual price, as we learn from the prologue to Mrs. Behn’s “Young King,” 1698:—

“Half crown my play, sixpence my orange cost.”

The mistress or superior of these women was named, for distinction, Orange Moll.

Pepys makes a passing allusion to the old practice of placing the notices of performances on posts, but the editors have left the passage without explanation. He writes: “I went to see if any play was acted, and I found none upon the post, it being Passion week.”[389] This is well illustrated by an anecdote:—“Master Field, the player, riding up Fleet Street a great pace, a gentleman called him, and asked what play was played that day? He (being angry to be stayed upon so frivolous a demand) answered that he might see what play was to be played upon every post. I cry you mercy (said the gentleman) I took you for a post you rode so fast.”

The other amusements mentioned by Pepys sink into insignificance by the side of the theatre, but a short enumeration of some of them may be given here. The cock-pit, in Shoe Lane, was a well-known place of resort for sporting men, and Pepys went to see some cock-fighting there, but he soon had enough of it, although he was glad to have seen “the strange variety of people.”[390] He went on one occasion to the Bear Garden, on the Bankside, “and saw some good sport of the bull’s tossing of the dogs: one into the very boxes,” but he did not much like the company, and on the whole he thought it “a very rude and nasty pleasure.”[391] At another time he went to the same place to see a prize fight, but being ashamed to be seen, he went in a back way (getting among the bulls, and fearing to be too near the bears) and sat with his cloak before his face.[392]

Pepys did not practise athletic sports himself, but he liked to see them practised by others. He was a spectator at a very serious fencing-match where the combatants cut each other rather severely both in the head and legs.[393] The King was a good player at tennis, but Pepys thought it “a loathsome sight” to see his play “extolled without any cause at all.”[394] Charles was in the habit of weighing himself before and after a game, and on a certain occasion he lost four and a-half pounds. The best players in England were said to be Prince Rupert, Bab May, Captain Cooke, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Chicheley.[395] Pepys liked a game of bowls, because he could play it with the ladies;[396] and he sometimes condescended to have a game at ninepins.[397] Gaming ran high at Court, and we are told that Lady Castlemaine played £1,000 and £1,500 at a cast, winning £15,000 one night, and losing £25,000 on another night.[398] No wonder Bishop Morley denounced this excess in play, and specially commented on the groom-porter’s conduct in one of his sermons before the Court.[399]

There are several references in the “Diary” to games of cards, but in most instances the particular game played is not mentioned. Cribbage, handycap (a game like loo), and gleek (played by three persons with forty-four cards), are, however, all specially alluded to.[400]

Pepys played at shuttlecock on January 11th, 1659–60; at shuffle (or shovel) board on July 30th, 1662, and on April 1st, 1665, and at tables or backgammon on September 11th and 16th, 1665. Among the minor amusements must be mentioned the crying of forfeits,[401] blindman’s buff,[402] and crambo or tagging of rhymes.[403]

Dancing was in high repute, and Pepys describes the various balls pretty fully. On the 31st of December, 1662, there is some lively dancing at Whitehall. The King (a good dancer) opens the ball with the Duchess of York, and the dancing commences with the Bransle or “brawl,” of Shakespeare and Gray. Then follows the swift coranto, and the country dances. When the King stood up, all the ladies, even the Queen herself, rose. A few years later a gallant company again meet at the palace, and the same order of proceeding is followed. First comes the brawl, then the coranto, and last of all a dance from France, which the King calls the “new dance.”[404]