dressing room

That on Sunday the 10th. of June laſt paſt, about 9 of the Clock, as he came out of the Chappel at Whitehall, after the firſt Sermon, hearing that the Queen was in Labour, he, the Deponent, made Haſte to St. James’s, becauſe in waiting, as an Officer of the green Cloth, to warn the ſeveral Servants below Stairs to be in their Offices, that upon that Occaſion there might not happen to be any Thing wanting of Houſehold Proviſions and Neceſſaries under his, this Deponent's Command; but firſt going up by the Back-Stairs into her Majeſty’s Dreſſing-Room; and being there with many others, he heard her Majeſty cry out very loudly; […] and as this Deponent was returning back to the Queen’s ſaid Dreſſing-Room, he was told a Prince was born: […]

Nothing has more excited the curioſity of mankind at all times, than that deſire which prevails of prying into the ſecret actions of great and illustrious characters; ariſing in ſome, from a too general ſpirit of envy, which hopes to find ſomething in their private conduct that may ſully the luſtre of their publick fame, and ſo bring them down more to a level with themſelves: and in others, of a more candid diſposition, that they might form right judgements of their real characters; as too many, like actors in a theatre, only aſſume one when they appear on the ſtage of the world, which they put off, together with their robes and plumes, when retired to the dreſſing room.

Going into a dressing-room full of established players was not easy. It was like Lancashire all over again only more so.