From the diary of Samuel Pepys (1663-1703)
The whole story of this Lady [the Duchesse of Newcastle] is a romance, and all she doth is romantic. Her footmen in velvet coats, and herself in an antique dress, as they say; and was the other day at her own play, /The Humourous Lovers/; the most ridiculous thing that ever was wrote, but yet she and her Lord mightily pleased with it, and she at the end made her respect to the players from her box and did give them thanks. -- Pepys' Diary, 11 Apr. 1667