Puppets

Pepys’ Diary

Source: Diary of Samuel Pepys, 4 September 1668

Production: Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, Bartholomew Fair, London, 4 September 1668

Text: Up, and met at the Office all the morning; and at noon my wife, and Deb., and Mercer, and W. Hewer and I to the Fair, and there, at the old house, did eat a pig, and was pretty merry, but saw no sights, my wife having a mind to see the play “Bartholomew-Fayre,” with puppets. Which we did, and it is an excellent play; the more I see it, the more I love the wit of it; only the business of abusing the Puritans begins to grow stale, and of no use, they being the people that, at last, will be found the wisest.

Comments: Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was a British naval administrator and diarist. At this period, the Bartholomew Fair (one of London’s summer Charter Fairs) began on 24 August and lasted for two weeks. Pepys’ diary records seeing Ben Jonson‘s 1614 eponymous play seven times between 1661 and 1669.

Links: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1668/09/04/