From the period of her release from the Tower, we hear little of the beautiful courtesan. Evelyn, who saw her afterwards in Paris, informs us that she was still lovely, and adds that she was earning a wretched subsistence by her charms. We learn from the same authority, that she died "miserably, and without anything to bury her." In the Parish Registers for Hammersmith occurs the following entry, which has been supposed to record the burial of this unhappy woman:—

"1683, June 5, Lucy Walters bur."

The history of this unfortunate woman, as far as her intercourse with Charles is concerned, was pretended to be told in a scandalous work, entitled "The Perplexed Prince." The book, which has little merit, was read with avidity by our ancestors, but is now deservedly forgotten.

VOL. III.

BB

Low Origin of this celebrated Woman-She wanders from Tavern to Tavern singing Ballads-Her early Frailty-Poetical Life of her by Sir George Etherege- Her Intercourse with Lacy and Hart, the Actors-Falls into the hands of Lord Buckhurst-Becomes the Mistress of Charles II.-Her Merits as an Actress-Freedom with the King-Anecdotes-Nell Gwynn's Residence in Pall Mall-Her House at Windsor and in the King's Road-Her Habit of Swearing -Her Rivalship with the Duchess of Portsmouth-AnecdoteLooked upon as the Champion of Protestantism at Court-Her Benevolent Charities-Regarded with Affection by the Public— Her pious End-Description of her Person.

THE Society of this sprightly and warm-hearted creature must have exactly suited the tastes of a sauntering voluptuary, such as Charles had become in the latter period of his career. Always in good humour, ever prepared with her wild wit and merry laugh, she was completely at her ease in his presence, and neither soured him with jealousies like the Duchess of Cleveland, nor wearied him with politics like the Duchess of Portsmouth.

Nell, or rather Eleanor Gwynn, was born about the year 1650. She is said to have been of Welsh extraction, and Hereford, Oxford, and the Coal Yard, Drury Lane, have severally been named as her birth-place. We are unable to throw any dignity over her origin. It is only certain, that the ragged and light-hearted girl, who afterwards became the mother of a Duke and the grandmother of a Bishop, was nurtured in the foulest regions of filth and the lowest haunts of iniquity. It would even appear that she was born in a night-cellar, and commenced

earning her livelihood as an itinerant vender of fish. Rochester says—

"Her first employment was, with open throat,

To cry fresh herrings, even ten a groat."

In this capacity, she is said to have wandered from tavern to tavern, charming the company, after dinner or supper, with her merry songs and exquisite voice. She seems at one period to have been actually domesticated at a tavern. Pepys tells us," 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 mistress, 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.'" The poor girl appears to have sinned in her first womanhood, falling into the hands of a Madam Ross, a celebrated courtesan of the period. It was probably this unfortunate connection which led to her becoming an orange-girl at the theatre, and subsequently to her appearance on the stage.

There is a poetical life of Nell Gwynn, by Sir George Etherege, of which the following is the doggrel argument:

"The life of Nelly trully shown,

From coal-yard and cellar to the throne,
Till into the grave she tumbled down."

per

The poem would seem to have had its origin in sonal pique. As it is difficult to believe that any man would abuse a beautiful and kind-hearted woman, unless she had piqued his vanity or interfered with his pleasures, it is not improbable that Sir George may have made overtures to Nelly which were not very favourably

received. Etherege says of her in the commencement of

her career,

"He that has seen her muddling in the street,
Her face all pot-lid black, unshod her feet;
And in a cloud of dust her cinders shaking,

Could he have thought her fit for monarch's taking?
Even then she had her charms of brisk and witty,
Which first enslaved a cully of the city."

After the "cully of the city," Etherege mentions her having conferred her favours on more than one lover, before she became the mistress of Lord Buckhurst. Among these, it is well known, were Lacy, and afterwards Hart, the actors. She is said also to have been the mistress of Lord Rochester, but the fact is extremely questionable.

Nell Gwynn first appeared on the stage in the early part of 1667, when we find her acting in Killegrew's company at the New Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. About this period she fell into the hands of Lord Buckhurst, who was then as notorious for his profligacy, as afterwards, when Earl of Dorset, he became celebrated for his high breeding and his wit. The tale of their brief intimacy is casually recorded by Pepys in his Diary.

July, 1667.—Mr. Pierce tells me what troubles me, that my Lord Buckhurst hath got Nell away from the King's House, and gives her 1007. a year, so as she hath sent her parts to the house, and will act no more.

"14th July, 1667.-To Epsom, by eight o'clock, to the well, where much company. And to the town to the King's Head; 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.

“26th August, 1667.-Sir W. Penn and I had a great deal of discourse with Mall, who tells us that Nell is already left by my Lord Buckhurst, and that he makes sport of her, and that she is very poor, and hath lost my Lady Castlemaine, who was her great friend : she is come to the play-house, but is neglected by them all."

According to more than one authority, it was the splendid promises of Charles, and the temptation of becoming the royal mistress, which induced her to quit the protection of Lord Buckhurst. One writer, indeed, observes, that, in order to get him out of the way, his lordship was sent on a sleeveless errand into France;" while, according to Lord Rochester, his consent to part with his mistress was purchased with an earldom.

These suppositions, however, are not only disproved by the minute particulars of Pepys, but it is certain that the King paid her no particular attention till nearly a year after her estrangement from Lord Buckhurst.

On the merits of Nell Gwynn as an actress, it is scarcely necessary to dwell. In droll characters, in light and showy parts, especially where the song or the dance were introduced, her performances were the delight of her contemporaries. Her Florimel in "The Maiden Queen," and her Jacinta in "The Mock Astrologer," are especially recorded. In tragedy she was less successful; nor is it easy to imagine her as performing the part of Queen Elizabeth in "The Earl of Essex," nor of Cidaria in "The Indian Emperor." The latter, according to Pepys, she played "most basely." Nevertheless, as Valeria in "Tyrannic Love," and as Almahide, in "The Conquest of Granada," her performance is spoken of as meritorious. Lord Lansdown, in his "Progress of Beauty"—regretting "with Charles the Cupids and the Graces gone"-thus,