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.
THE COCKPIT-IN-COURT
From an engraving by Mazell in Pennant's London. Mr. W.L. Spiers, who reproduces this engraving in the London Topographical Record (1903), says that it is "undated, but probably copied from a contemporary drawing of the seventeenth century."
Two entries, from an entirely different source, must suffice for this history of the Cockpit. In the Paper-Office Chalmers discovered a record of the following payments, made in 1667:
To the Keeper of the theatre at Whitehall, £30. To the same for Keeping clean that place, p. ann. £6.[683]
And in the Lord Chamberlain's Accounts is preserved the following warrant:
1674, March 27. Warrant to deliver to Monsieur Grabu, or to such as he shall appoint, such of the scenes remaining in the theatre at Whitehall as shall be useful for the French Opera at the theatre in Bridges Street, and the said Monsieur to return them again safely after 14 days' time to the theatre at Whitehall.[684]
What became of the theatre at Whitehall I have not been able to ascertain.[685] Presumably, after the fire of January, 1698, which destroyed the greater part of the palace and drove the royal family to seek quarters elsewhere, the building along with the rest of the Cockpit section was made over into the Privy Council offices.