NELL GWYNN.

11 How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame
Which, like the canker in a fragrant rose,
Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name!
Oh, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose,
That tongue that tells the story of thy days,
Making licentious comments on thy sport,
Cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise:
Naming thy name, blesses an ill report.
Oh, what a mansion have those vices got
Which for their habitation chose out thee !
Where Beauty’s veil doth cover every blot,
And all things turn to fair that eyes can see !”
Shakspeabe. Sonnet 95.

Nell Gwynn,—pretty, witty, merry, open-hearted Nelly,—has
much more than her own frailties to answer for ; and they (alas,
that we must needs say it!) are enough, in all conscience. Her
very virtues have proved mischievous, inasmuch as they have
given occasion to certain scoffers to blaspheme cc the sun-clad
power of chastity.” Wicked arguers against that law of society
which comprises all female virtues in one, have set up the name
of Nell Gwynn as a rallying point; and under that name, with
all its gay associations of wreathed smiles, arch sayings, sweet
looks, kind feelings, and benevolent deeds, they fight their battles,
without considering that she, and one or two others, are but