DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0178
152
NELL GWYNN.
“ As for my epitaph, when I am gone,
I’ll trust no poet, but will write my own :
‘ Here Nelly lies, who, though she lived a slattern,
Yet died a princess, acting in St. Catherine !’ ”
The same year that Nell Gwynn first appeared on the stage, she
attracted the notice of the witty Lord Buckhurst, (afterwards the
Earl of Dorset,) who took her from the theatre, and allowed her
£100. a-year.*
The absence, however, was not lonw : she returned to the stao-e
in 1668, and appeared in her great character of Almahide, in
Dryden’s Conquest of Granada. In spite of what Pepys says of
her acting serious parts vilely, (which was true, in general,) she
produced a great effect in this character, as is evident from the
extraordinary success of the play, and the allusion to her, long'
afterwards, by Lord Lansdown, in his Progress of Beauty:—•
“ And Almahide, once more by kings adored.”
The prologue to this tragedy was written for her by Dryden.f
* Pepys, vol. ii. p. 92, 4to. edit.—“ Mr. Pierce tells us, what troubles me, that
my Lord Buckhurst has got Nell away from the King’s house, and gives her
£100. a-year, so as she hath sent her parts to the house, and will act no more.”
And the following entry a few days after. “ To Epsum, and hear that my Lord
Buckhurst and Nelly are lodged at the next house, and Sir Charles Sedley with
them; and keep a merry house. Poor girl! I pity her ; but more the loss of her
at the King’s house.”
“ To the ICing’s playhouse, and there saw The Indian Emperour : where I find
Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her
being put to act the Emperour’s daughter, which is a great and serious part,
which she does most basely.”—Vol. ii. p. 112.
“ Nelly and Beck Marshall falling out the other day, the latter called the other
my Lord Buckhurst’s mistress. Nell answered her, ‘ I am but one man’s mis-
tress, though I was brought up in a tavern to fill strong waters to gentlemen;
and you are mistress to three or four, though a Presbyter’s praying daughter!’ ”
—Vol. ii. p. 149.
t See his works for this Prologue, “ To be spoken by Mistress Ellen Crwyim,
in a broad-brimmed hat and waist belt.”—Scott's Edition of Dryden, vol. iii.
NELL GWYNN.
“ As for my epitaph, when I am gone,
I’ll trust no poet, but will write my own :
‘ Here Nelly lies, who, though she lived a slattern,
Yet died a princess, acting in St. Catherine !’ ”
The same year that Nell Gwynn first appeared on the stage, she
attracted the notice of the witty Lord Buckhurst, (afterwards the
Earl of Dorset,) who took her from the theatre, and allowed her
£100. a-year.*
The absence, however, was not lonw : she returned to the stao-e
in 1668, and appeared in her great character of Almahide, in
Dryden’s Conquest of Granada. In spite of what Pepys says of
her acting serious parts vilely, (which was true, in general,) she
produced a great effect in this character, as is evident from the
extraordinary success of the play, and the allusion to her, long'
afterwards, by Lord Lansdown, in his Progress of Beauty:—•
“ And Almahide, once more by kings adored.”
The prologue to this tragedy was written for her by Dryden.f
* Pepys, vol. ii. p. 92, 4to. edit.—“ Mr. Pierce tells us, what troubles me, that
my Lord Buckhurst has got Nell away from the King’s house, and gives her
£100. a-year, so as she hath sent her parts to the house, and will act no more.”
And the following entry a few days after. “ To Epsum, and hear that my Lord
Buckhurst and Nelly are lodged at the next house, and Sir Charles Sedley with
them; and keep a merry house. Poor girl! I pity her ; but more the loss of her
at the King’s house.”
“ To the ICing’s playhouse, and there saw The Indian Emperour : where I find
Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her
being put to act the Emperour’s daughter, which is a great and serious part,
which she does most basely.”—Vol. ii. p. 112.
“ Nelly and Beck Marshall falling out the other day, the latter called the other
my Lord Buckhurst’s mistress. Nell answered her, ‘ I am but one man’s mis-
tress, though I was brought up in a tavern to fill strong waters to gentlemen;
and you are mistress to three or four, though a Presbyter’s praying daughter!’ ”
—Vol. ii. p. 149.
t See his works for this Prologue, “ To be spoken by Mistress Ellen Crwyim,
in a broad-brimmed hat and waist belt.”—Scott's Edition of Dryden, vol. iii.