parts for him. She comes to speak to him in the pit of the theatre.
after her song in the clouds.[1]
He goes with her by coach to Kensington, to the Grotto. She sings:
and fine ladies listening to us; with infinite pleasure, I enjoyed myself; so to the Tavern there … mighty merry, and sang all the way to town, a most pleasant evening, moonshine, and set them at her house in Covent Garden, and I home, and to bed.[1]
Ah, the pleasant evenings which Pepys enjoyed in the company of these charming musicians: his wife, his wife's friends, her servants, and the pretty actresses! Sometimes Knipp makes one of them in her stage costume,
as a countrywoman with a straw hat.
Now my house is full, and four fiddlers that play well. … So away with all my company down to the office, and there fell to dancing … and then sang and then danced, and then sang many things of three voices. … Harris sung his Irish song—the strangest in itself, and the prettiest sung by him, that ever I heard. … Our Mercer unexpectedly did sing an Italian song I know not … that did almost ravish me, and made me in love with her more than ever with her singing. …[2]
Here the best company for musique I ever was in, in my life, and wish I could live and die in it, both for musique and the face of Mrs. Pierce, and my wife and Knipp.[3] …
Pepys relishes his happiness; at night, on his pillow, he recounts to himself the details of these delightful evenings:
thinking it to be one of the merriest enjoyments I must look for in the world.[2] …
