Women—Wily, Wilful and Wonderful

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18340, 17 December 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

Women—Wily, Wilful and Wonderful

By

CHARLES CONWAY

THE British nation lias always treated the memory of Nell GWynne with an indulgence such as it never displayed towards any other woman of her class, and there arc many excellent reasons which justify this very unusual leniency. She is the only one of the numerous female favourites of King Charles 11.. about whom it is possible to say anything good. She was tender-hearted and generous, and when raised suddenly from poverty to affluence she used her wealth for the benefit of others rather than for herself, while her powerful in- i fluence over the sovereign was never i abused, and was frequently used for ; laudable objects. Her- frank recklessness, her invariably < good temper and her ready wit appealed strongly to a generation which wcl- l i corned her as the living antithesis of Puritanism, and she was idolized by the people of her day. She prompted the careless and easygoing Merry Mon- i arch to perform numerous acts of char- < ity arid kindness, she never forgot or slighted her old friends, she remained 1 faithful to her royal lover from the .beginning of their intimacy until his death fourteen years later, and after his death she was loyal to his memory. She wa shorn on February 2. 1640. 1 and her father was a broken-down soldier of Welsh origin, but very little is known of her mother beyond the facts that she lived long enough to be comfortably provided for by her daughter, and that she was drowned in a , pend while under the influence of drink. . Although an old house which still < stands in the town of Hereford is claim- , ed locally to have been the birthplace of Nell Gwynne, there is but little j doubt that she was born in London, most probably in the disreputable alley i known as the Coal Yard. off Drury i Lane, which was the home of her child- * hood days. Nell was thirteen years of age whem

NELL GWYNNE

the first of the four famous and historic Drury Lane Theatres opened its doors in 1653, and she was one of the merriest and most popular of the young girls who were engaged to sell oranges to its patrons between the acts of the play, but in a short time her pretty face and vivacity gained for her a place among the regular actresses of the company on the stage. She speedily became one of the most popular players of the day. and scored her greatest successes in comedy parts, many of which were specially written for her by the great poet and playwriter John Dryden. She was only on the stage for about six years, for she left the boards soon after she had established herself in the affections of the king, and it was as his mistress that she enjoyed her greatest popularity with the public, for she was English and a Protestant, and her advancement in royal favour did much to undermine the influence hitherto possessed by the hated and unscrupulous Duchess of Portsmouth, who was a French woman and a Roman Catholic. Furthermore, Nell was the only one of the king's many women favourites who refrained from interfering in politics, or whose head was not turned by good fortune. She never pretended to be anything better or different from what she really was. and until the end of her life she remained the unspoiled and well-beloved child of the people. Th king's dying injunction: “Let not poor Nelly starve.” was faithfully observed by his brother James, who succeeded him on the throne, and the genuinely sorrowful woman was handsomely provided for. She only survived her royal lover for two years, and when she died in, November. 1657, from an attack of apoplexy, she was laid to rest in the Church of St Martin's-in-the-Field’s. where her funeral sermon was preached by Dr Thomas Tenison, afterwards. Archbishop of Canterbury, who testified to her many good lqualities.