The story of Nell Gwyn

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PREFATORY NOTE

Peter Cunningham's Story of Nell Gwyn first appeared as a serial in the Gejitleman's Magazine for 1851 and was reissued in volume form in the following year. A new edition, with the author's last corrections and some additional notes, was published in 1892. Mr. H. B. Wheatley was the editor, and to his admirable introduction and annotations we are indebted. Our best thanks are also due to Mr. H. Lavers-Smith for having communicated to us several valuable notes and suggestions. In the present edition some obvious misprints have been corrected in the text, while new matter has been added to the author's footnotes between brackets. Other notes and illustrations will be found at the end of the book. Two appendices which concern Hamilton's Memoirs of Cotmt Graininont only have been omitted.

It has been confidently asserted that Cunningham did not adhere to the strict text of the more inaccessible documents cited by jiim; at present we can only say that his volume of Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court, in the publications of the old Shakespeare Society, has to be used with extreme caution.

Nell Gwyn on a bed of roses : Charles II. in the distance.

From an engraving by Masson, after Gascar

Frontispiece Reputed birthplace of Nell Gwyn at Hereford. From a

photograph taken in 1858 . . To face page 4

Another view of the Hereford house. From apho'ograph

taken in 1858 ..... To face page 6

The Cock and Magpie, Nell Gwyn's lodgings in Drury

I^ane. From a water-colour drazving made in 1850

by y. Find lay .... To face page 32

Nell Gwyn with a lamb. From Vaick's engraving after

Lely ...... To face page 40

Nell Gwyn. From an engraving by Peter Van Bleeck

after Lely To face page 48

Nell Gwyn (?).'■ From a miniature at Montagu House

[by pertnissiott of the Duke of Buccleuch, K.G., K. T.)

To face page 64 St. James's Park: Charles II. and Court going towards

the Decoy. From a print by S. Masell

To face page 80 Nell Gwyn. From the portrait by Lely in the National

Portrait Gallery .... To face page 38

Louise de Qu^rouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. After

Pierre iMignard .... To fact page 100

The Duchess of Cleveland. From an engraving by R.

Williams after Wissing . . To face page 106

Nell Gwyn with her two sons. From the ingraving by

Tompson after Lely . . . To face page 128

James, Lord Beauclerk, second son of Nell Gwyn. After

Gascar To face page 134

Nell Gwyn as Cupid. From the engraving by Richard

Tompson (see pp. 156, 221) . . To face page 160

1 Compare with this the portrait by Lely of Maiy Davis (in the National Portrait Gallery), reproduced in Memoirs of Count Grammont (BuUen, 1903), II. 152. The miniature and the N.P.G. picture are portraits of the same lady.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER III.

PAGE

Epsom in the reign of Charles II. —England in 1667 —Nelly resumes her engagement at the King's Theatre—Inferior in Tragedy to Comedy—Plays Mirida in All Mistaken —Miss Davis of the Duke's Theatre—Her song, '' My lodging it is on the Cold Ground," parodied by Nell—Influence of the Duke of Buckingham in controlling the predilections of the King—Charles II. at the Duke's Theatre—Nelly has leading parts in three of Dryden's new Plays—Buck-hurst is made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, promised a peerage, and sent on a sleeveless errand into France—Nell becomes the Mistress of the King— Piays Almahide in The Conqicest of Granada — The King more than ever enamoured—Parallel case of Perdita Robinson and George IV. ... 40

CHAPTER IV. Personal Character of King Chsirles II. . , . 62

CHAPTER V. The Sayings of King Charles II 82

CHAPTER VI.

Birth of the Duke of St. Albans—Arrival of Mademoiselle de Qu^rouaille—Death of the Duchess of Orleans—Nelly's house in Pall Mall—Countess of

CONTENTS

PAGB

Castlemaine created Duchess of Cleveland—Sir John Birkenhead, Sir John Coventry, and the Actresses at the two Houses—Insolence of Dramatists and Actors —Evelyn overhears a conversation between Nelly and the King—The Protestant and Popish Mistresses—Story of the Service of Plate—Printed Dialogues illustrative of the rivalry of Nelly and the Duchess of Portsmouth—Madame de Sdvign^'s account of it—Story of the Smock—Nelly in mourning for the Cham of Tartary—Story of the two Fowls— Portsmouth's opinion of Nelly—Concert at Nell's house—^The Queen and La Belle Stewart at a Fair disguised as Country Girls—Births, Marriages, and Creations—Nelly's disappointment—Her witty remark to the King—Her son created Earl of Burford, and betrothed to the daughter and heiress of Vere, Earl of Oxford 99

CHAPTER Vn.

Houses in which Nelly is said to have lived—Burford House, Windsor, one of the few genuine—Her losses at basset—Court paid to Nelly by the Duke of Monmouth, Lord Cavendish, etc.—Death of her mother —Printed elegy on her death—Nelly's household expenses—Bills for her chair and bed—Death of Mrs. Roberts—Foundation of Chelsea Hospital— Nelly connected with its origin—Books dedicated to Nelly—Death of her second son—The Earl of Burford created Duke of St. Albans—Nelly's only letter —Ken and Nelly at Winchester—Nelly at Avington

CONTENTS

PAGE

—Death of the King—Was the King poisoned ?— Nelly to have been created Countess of Greenwich if the King had lived 121

CHAPTER VIII,

Nelly in real mourning, and outlawed for debt—Death of Otway, tutor to her son—James II. pays her debts—The King's kindness occasions a groundless rumour that she has gone to mass—Her intimacy with Dr. Tenison, tlien Vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and Dr. Lower, the celebrated physician— She sends for Tenison in her last illness—Her death and contrite end—Her will and last request to her son—Her funeral—Tenison preaches her funeral sermon—False account of the sermon cried by hawkers in the streets—The sermon used as an argument against Tenison's promotion to the See of Lincoln—Queen Mary's defence of him and of Nelly —Her son tlie Duke of St. Albans—Eleanor Gwyn and Harriet Mellon—Various portraits of Nelly— Further Anecdotes—Conclusion .... 143

Notes 165

Index 223

xu

THE

STORY OF NELL GWYN

CHAPTER I.

Introduction— ISiith and Birthplace—Horoscope of her nativity—Condition in life of her fatlier—Her account of her early days—Becomes an orange-girl at the theatre—Effects of the Restoration—Revival of the stage—Two theatres allowed—Scenery and dresses-Principal actors and actresses—Duties and importance of the orange-girls.

Dr. Thomas Tenison, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, preached the funeral sermon of Nell Gwyn. What so good a man did not think an unfit subject for a sermon, will not be thought, I trust, an unfit subject for a book ; for the life that was spent remissly may yet convey a moral, like that of Jane Shore, which the wise and virtuous Sir Thomas More has told so touchingly in his History of King Richard III.

The English people have always entertained a peculiar liking for Nell Gwyn. There is a sort of indulgence towards her not generally conceded to any other woman of her class. Thousands are attracted by her name, they know not why, and do not stay to inquire. It is the popular impression that, with all her failings, she had a generous as

B

THE STORY OF NELL GWYN

well as a tender heart; that when raised from poverty, she reserved her wealth for others rather than herself; and that the influence she possessed was often exercised for good objects, and never abused. Contrasted with others in a far superior rank in life, and tried by fewer temptations, there is much that marks and removes her from the common herd. The many have no sympathy, nor should they have any, for Barbara Palmer, Louise de Querouaille, or Erengard de Schulenberg; but for Nell Gwyn, " pretty witty Nell," there is a tolerant and kindly regard, which the following pages are designed to illustrate rather than extend.

The Coal Yard in Drury Lane, a low alley, the last on the east or City side of the lane, and still known by that name, was, it is said, the place of Nell Gwyn's birth. They show, however, in Pipe Lane, in the parish of St. John, in the city of Hereford, a small house of brick and timber, now little better than an hovel, in which, according to local tradition, she was born. That the Coal Yard was the place of her birth was stated in print as early as 1721 ; and this was copied by Oldys, a curious inquirer into literary and dramatic matters, in the account of her life which he wrote for Curll.i The Hereford story, too, is of some standing; but there is little else, I am afraid, to support it. The capital of the cider country, however, does not want even Nell Gwyn to add to its theatrical reputation ; in the same cathedral city which claims to be the birthplace of the best-known English actress, was

1 Curll's History of the English Stage, 8vo, 1741, p. in.

THK STORY OF NELL GWYN

!*V ^.

HOROSCOPE OF NELL GWYN.

From Asliiuolcaii MS.

THE STORY OF NELL GWYN

born, seventy years later, David Garrick, the greatest and best-known actor we have yet had. *

The horoscope of the nativity of Eleanor Gwyn, the work perhaps of Lilly, is still to be seen amongst Ashmole's papers in the museum at Oxford. She was born, it states, on the 2nd of February 1650. The horoscope, of which I have had a facsimile made, shows what stars were supposed to be in the ascendant at the time ; and such of my readers as do not disdain a study which engaged the attention and ruled not unfretjuently the actions of vigorous-minded men like Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury and the poet Dryden, may find more meaning in the state of the heavenly bodies at her birth than I have as yet succeeded in detecting.

Of the early history of Nell, and of the rank in life of her parents, very little is known with certainty. Her father, it is said, was Captain Thomas Gwyn, of an ancient family in Wales.- The name certainly is of Welsh extraction, and the descent may be admitted without adopting the captaincy ; for by other hitherto received accounts her father

^ "When I went first to Oxford, Dr. John Ireland, an antiquary, assured me that Nelly was born in Oxford. He named the parish, but I have forgot it. It is certain that two of her son's titles—Headington and Barford—were taken from Oxfordshire localities."—MS. note by the late Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, tlie antiquary and genealogist. Oddly enough, one of Nelly's grandsons died Bishop of Hereford, fjames Beauclerk, bishop from 1746 to 1787.]

2 MS. note by Van Bossen, made in 1688, and quoted at length in a subsequent page (chapter vii.). [Nelly had her coat of arms, and very imposing it is. (See Addit. MS., 26,683, f- SQ*^' in British Museum.)]

Reputed birthplace of Nell Gwyn at Hereford. From a photograph

taken in 1858.

THE STORY OF NELL GWYN

was a fruiterer in Covent Garden. She speaks in her will of her " kinsman Cholmley," and the satires of the time have pilloried a cousin, raised by her influence to an ensigncy from the menial office of one of the black guard employed in carrying coals at Court. Her mother, who lived to see her daughter a favourite of the King, and the mother by him of at least two children, was accidentally drowned in a pond near the Neat Houses at Chelsea. Her Christian name was Eleanor, but her maiden name is unknown.

Whatever the station in life to which her pedigree might have entitled her, her bringing up, by her own account, was humble enough. " Mrs. Pierce tells me," said Pepys, " that the two Marshalls at the King's House are Stephen Marshall's, the great Presbyterian's daughters; and that Nelly and Beck Marshall falling out the other day, the latter called the other my Lord Buckhurst's mistress. Nell answered her, ' I was but one man's mistress, though I was brought up in a brothel to fill strong water ^ to the gentlemen ; and you are a mistress to three or four, though a Presbyter's praying daughter.'" This, for a girl of any virtue or beauty, was indeed a bad bringing-up.

The Coal Yard, infamous in later years as one of the residences of Jonathan Wild, was the next turning in the same street to the still more notorious and fashionably inhabited Lewknor Lane, where young creatures were inveigled to

1 Among Mr. Akerman's Tradesmen's Tokens current in London, 164S to 1672, is that of " a strong wafer man."

THE STORY OF NELL GWYN

infamy, and sent dressed as orange-girls to sell fruit and attract attention in the adjoining theatres.

That this was Nelly's next calling we have the testimony of the Duchess of Portsmouth and the authority of a poem of the time, attributed to Lord Rochester :

But first the basket her fair arm did suit,

Laden with pippins and Hesperian fruit;

This first step raised, to the wondering pit she sold

The lovely fruit smiling with strealts of gold.

Nell was now an orange-girl, holding her basket of fruit covered with vine-leaves in the pit of the King's Theatre, and taking her stand with her fellow fruit-women in the front row of the pit, with her back to the stage.^ The cry of the fruit-women, which Shadwell has preserved, " Oranges ! will you have any oranges ?" ^ must have come clear and invitingly from the lips of Nell Gwyn.