Wherein a great hubbub in the house …
1660 … A new king, a new era.
Charles the Second, looking smug and smarmy via the interweb. Wouldst thou purchase an used carriage from this man?
Adopt circus barker or town crier voice for the following paragraph … Roll up! Roll up! Welcome to the Restoration! Theatres thrown open, women allowed on stage (WOMEN!), Sam Pepys, creepy sexual predator, breaks the neck of his theorbo, has his cellar filled with shit, moans about his stones and buries cheese in his garden during the Great Fire of London; plague sweeps the nation (again), Popish Plotts abound, Judge Jeffreys hangs all and sundry, John Evelyn and Narcissus Luttrell hang around the king's court collecting gossip, Pepys hangs a naked portrait of Nell Gwyn over his desk at the Admiralty, the king hangs a naked portrait of Nell Gwyn hidden behind a landscape in his chambers … oh, and the king visits Norwich (though without the dire doggerel of Queen Bess's visit).
Sam Pepys … A very naughty boy. Lely, via the interweb.
Some snippets to get a flavour …
Blomefield relates that the Norwich authorities complained to the new king about "the frequency of puppet-plays and other shews, resorting thither to the decay of trade, the meaner sort being diverted from their labours …"
Theatre-loving Charles the Second could give not a single hoot and told them to sort it out themselves.
Narcissus Luttrell writing in his diary relates some court tittle-tattle …
"1679: July: About this time Mrs. Gwyn, mother to madam Ellen Gwyn, being in drink, was drowned in a ditch near Westminster." (she was an alcoholic bawdy-house madam so no great surprise there).
"There has been for some time a flying rumour spread abroad of a black box found, wherein was contained a writing importing a marriage or contract of marriage between his majestie and the duke of Monmouths mother; which his majestie hath been pleased to take notice off, and sent for sir Gilbert Gerard to the councill, who was examined about the same (being the person who was reported to have the same,) but he denied on oath his haveing any such thing, or haveing ever seen it; and there is strict enquiry made to find out who was the first broacher of this scandalous lye; 'tis thought to be a popish story raised to scandalize his majestie and the duke."
John Evelyn, diarist, via the interweb.
"About the same time Mr. John Dryden was sett on in Covent Garden in the evening by three fellowes, who beat him very severely, and on peoples comeing in they run away: 'tis thought to be done by order of the dutchesse of Portsmouth, she being abused in a late libell called an Essay upon satyr, of which Mr. Dryden is suspected to be the author."
"1680: February: The 26th, Mrs. Ellen Gwyn being at the dukes playhouse, was affronted by a person who came into the pitt and called her whore; whom Mr. Herbert, the earl of Pembrokes brother vindicating, there were many swords drawn, and a great hubbub in the house."
I can find no portrait of court gossip diarist Narcissus Luttrell, but a US University has his original and I have been (slowly) transcribing it for my own pleasure.
Looks like the reaction to Puritan rule was decidedly an overreaction … Restoration Comedies slandered and scandalised the toffs of London while Cromwell's legislation to help the poor against the depredations of the rich was torn up and the courts returned to corruption with a vengeance.
Meanwhile, back in Norwich we fretted about the lower orders spending their time at puppet plays when they should have been toiling for the profit of their "betters" while we continued - in ever greater numbers - to empty our prisons (including regular batches of the worst dregs of Norwich Castle) and ship our criminals, vagrants and unwanted children across the Pond to become the future GOP.
Sorry about that …
Sources:
Acts and Monuments: Foxe: Old Dive's 1621 edition.
The History of the Reformation of the Church of England: Gilbert Burnett: Old Dive's 1730 edition.
Clark's Lives - The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History: Samuel Clark: Old Dive's 1675 edition.
A Discourse - Wherein is Examined What is Particularly Lawfull During the Confusions and Revolutions of Government: Anthony Ashcam: 1648 (Old Dive's copy which discusses what the hell to do if you're about to execute the king) in three parts (which influenced the policies of the Protectorate)
Francis
Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of
Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich:
published 1753 to 1775
Norfolk Museums Service and the Norfolk Archæological Society
East Anglian Archæology Vol. 132: Norwich Castle: Excavations and Historical Survey: 1978-1988: Part II: c.1345 to Modern: Elizabeth Shepherd-Popescu: 2009
Cromwell, Our Chief of Men: Antonia Fraser: 1973
Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn with Life: H. B. Wheatley: 1906: 4 Vols
Samuel Pepys' Diaries: H. B. Wheatley: 1911: 8 Vols (expurgated) bound in a rather lovely cornflower blue
The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Latham and Matthews: Folio Soc. Limited Edition: 11 Vols (unexpurgted)
Narcissus Luttrell's Diaries (ongoing transcription project by Old Dive)
The Interregnum, 1648 - 1660, Studies of the Commonwealth, Legislative, Social and Legal: F. A. Inderwick; 1891 (an exceedingly good read, despite the dull title; I lucked onto an inscribed and signed first edition for next to nothing … yay!)
Notable Historical Trials: Vol 2 of 4: Chapter III: The Trial of Charles I: Justin Lovell (ed) 1999
The History of England Vol 3: Civil War: Peter Ackroyd: 2014
The Printed Plans of Norwich 1558-1840, A Carto-Bibliography: Raymond Frostick: 2002
Norwich Cathedral - Church, City and Diocese: 1096 - 1996: Various Eds. 1996
Norwich Cathedral Close: Roberta Gilchrist: 2005
Norwich Since 1550: ed: Carole Rawcliffe & Richard Wilson: 2004
Norwich - The Growth of a City: Barbara Green & Rachel M R Young: Norfolk Museums Service: 1981
Norwich Houses Before 1700: Vernacular Architecture, Vol 14: 1983
2 comments:
Laughed out loud at your closing line.
They were busy in London in those days. I haven't studied Pepys and I hadn't realized he was a sexaholic. Went off to the rabbit hole and read an article about his sex life. I think I would not have liked him much.
Sam Pepys was definitely a sex pest, but you really should read the entries about the poo in his cellar. Too funny and gross.
Happy International Women's Day!
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