would be no place of content, nor safety, nor honour for my Lord, the
State being so indigent as it is, and the [King] so irregular, and those
about him, that my Lord must be forced to part with anything to answer his
warrants; and that, therefore, I do believe the King had rather have a man
that may be one of his vicious caball, than a sober man that will mind the
publick, that so they may sit at cards and dispose of the revenue of the
kingdom. This my Lord was moved at, and said he did not indeed know how
to answer it, and bid me think of it; and so said he himself would also
do. He do mightily cry out of the bad management of our monies, the King
having had so much given him; and yet, when the Parliament do find that
the King should have L900,000 in his purse by the best account of issues
they have yet seen, yet we should report in the Navy a debt due from the
King of L900,000; which, I did confess, I doubted was true in the first,
and knew to be true in the last, and did believe that there was some great
miscarriages in it: which he owned to believe also, saying, that at this
rate it is not in the power of the kingdom to make a war, nor answer the
King's wants. Thence away to the King's playhouse, by agreement met Sir
W. Pen, and saw "Love in a Maze" but a sorry play: only Lacy's clowne's
part, which he did most admirably indeed; and I am glad to find the rogue
at liberty again. Here was but little, and that ordinary, company. We
sat at the upper bench next the boxes; and I find it do pretty well, and
have the advantage of seeing and hearing the great people, which may be
pleasant when there is good store. Now was only Prince Rupert and my Lord
Lauderdale, and my Lord, the naming of whom puts me in mind of my seeing,
at Sir Robert Viner's, two or three great silver flagons, made with
inscriptions as gifts of the King to such and such persons of quality as
did stay in town the late great plague, for the keeping things in order in
the town, which is a handsome thing. But here was neither Hart, Nell, nor
Knipp; therefore, the play was not likely to please me. Thence Sir W. Pen
and I in his coach, Tiburne way, into the Park, where a horrid dust, and