SOURCE: Pepys, Samuel. Diary entry dated February 6, 1668. In The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription, Vol. 9, edited by Robert Latham and William Matthews, pp. 53-4. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1976.

In the journal entry below, Pepys recounts viewing She Would If She Could, noting that Etherege himself attended the production and afterwards was unhappy with how the actors portrayed the characters.

[6 February 1668:] … [My] wife being gone before, I to the Duke of York's playhouse, where a new play of Etheriges called She would if she could. And though I was there by 2 a-clock, there was 1000 people put back that could not have room in the pit; and I at last, because my wife was there, made shift to get into the 18d box—and there saw; but Lord, how full was the house and how silly the play, there being nothing in the world good...