the worst play that I saw or believe shall see." But the
pleasure which Mistress Knipp's share in the performance gave him
suggests, in the absence of any explicit disclaimer, that the
improprieties of both plot and characters escaped his notice, or, at
any rate, excited in him no disgust. Massinger's _Bondman_, Pepys's
ideal of merit in drama, has little of the excessive grossness of the
_Custom of the Country_. But to some extent it is tarred with the same
brush.

Pepys's easy principles never lend themselves to very strict
definition. Yet he may be credited with a certain measure of
discernment in pardoning the indelicacy of Fletcher and Massinger,
while he condemns that of Dryden, Etherege, or Sedley. Indelicacy in
the older dramatists does not ignore worthier interests. Other topics
attracted the earlier writers besides conjugal infidelity and the
frailty of virgins, which were the sole themes of Restoration comedy.
Massinger's heroes are not always gay seducers. His husbands are not
always fools. Pepys might quite consistently scorn the ribaldry of
Etherege and condone the obscenity of Fletcher. It was a question of
degree. Pepys was clear in his own mind that a line must be drawn
somewhere, though it would probably have taxed his logical power to
make the delimitation precise.

IV

There is, apparently, a crowning difficulty of far greater moment when
finally estimating Pepys's taste in dramatic literature. Despite his
admiration for the ancient drama, he acknowledged a very tempered
regard for the greatest of all the old dramatists--Shakespeare. He
lived and died in complacent unconsciousness of Shakespeare's supreme
excellence. Such innocence is attested by his conduct outside, as well
as inside, the theatre. He prided himself on his taste as a reader and
a book collector, and bought for his library many plays in quarto
which he diligently perused. Numerous separately issued pieces by
Shakespeare lay at his disposal in the bookshops. But he only records
the purchase of one--the first part of _Henry IV._, though he mentions
that he read in addition _Othello_ and _Hamlet_. When his bookseller
first offered him the great First Folio edition of Shakespeare's
works, he rejected it for Fuller's _Worthies_ and the newly-published
Butler's _Hudibras_, in which, by the way, he failed to discover the
wit. Ultimately he bought the newly-issued second impression of the
Third Folio Shakespeare, along with copies of Sp