Of the play and its
performers Pepys records exactly what he thinks or feels. He usually
takes a more lively interest in the acting and in the scenic and
musical accessories than in the drama's literary quality. Subtlety is
at any rate absent from his criticism. He is either bored or amused.
The piece is either the best or the worst that he ever witnessed. His
epithets are of the bluntest and are without modulation. Wiser than
more professional dramatic critics, he avoids labouring at reasons for
his emphatic judgments.
Always true to his role of the average man, Pepys suffers his mind to
be swayed by barely relevant accidents. His thought is rarely free
from official or domestic business, and the heaviness or lightness of
his personal cares commonly colours his playhouse impressions. His
praises and his censures of a piece often reflect, too, the physical
comforts or discomforts which attach to his seat in the theatre. He is
peculiarly sensitive to petty annoyances--to the agony of sitting in a
draught, or to the irritation caused by frivolous talk in his near
neighbourhood while a serious play is in progress. On one occasion,
when he sought to practise a praiseworthy economy by taking a back
seat in the shilling gallery, his evening's enjoyment was well-nigh
spoiled by finding the gaze of four clerks in his office steadily
directed upon him from more expensive seats down below.
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