, and Charles I. John Evelyn's well-known remark in
his _Diary_ (November 26, 1661): "I saw _Hamlet, Prince of Denmark_,
played; but now the old plays begin to disgust this refined age,"
requires much qualification before it can be made to apply to Pepys's
records of playgoing. It was in "the old plays" that he and all
average playgoers mainly delighted.
Not that the new demand failed quickly to create a supply of
new plays for the stage. Dryden and D'Avenant, the chief dramatists
of Pepys's day, were rapid writers. To a large extent they carried
on, with exaggeration of its defects and diminution of its merits,
the old Elizabethan tradition of heroic romance, tragedy, and
farce. The more matter-of-fact and lower-principled comedy of
manners, which is commonly reckoned the chief characteristic
of the new era in theatrical history, was only just beginning
when Pepys was reaching the end of his diary. The virtual leaders
of the new movement--Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, and Congreve--were
not at work till long after Pepys ceased to write. He records only the
first runnings of that sparkling stream. He witnessed some impudent
comedies of Dryden, Etherege, and Sedley.
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