The story of Nell Gwyn (13 page)

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Nelly that she hopes to see her once more upon a dunghill, or in her old calling of selling oranges and lemons.

But a still livelier description has been left us by one of the most charming of lady letter-writers : "Mademoiselle amasses treasure,'' says Madame S^vigne, " and makes herself feared and respected by as many as she can ; but she did not foresee that she should find a young actress in her way, whom the King dotes on, and she has it not in her power to withdraw him from her. He divides his care, his time, and his wealth between these two. The actress is as haughty as Mademoiselle ; she insults her, she makes grimaces at her, she attacks her, she frequently steals the King from her, and boasts whenever he gives her the preference. She is young, indiscreet, confident, wild, and of an agreeable humour. She sings, she dances, acts her part with a good grace; has a son by the King, and hopes to have him acknowledged. As to Mademoiselle, she reasons thus: 'This lady,'says she, ' pretends to be a person of quality ; she says she is related to the best families in France : whenever any person of distinction dies she puts herself into mourning. If she be a lady of such quality, why does she demean herself to be a courtesan ? She ought to die with shame. As for me, it is my profession. I do not pretend to be anything better. He has a son by me ; I contend that he ought to acknowledge him, and I am assured he will; for he loves me as well as Mademoiselle.'"

The good sense of this is obvious enough ; but

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the satire which it contains will be found to merit illustration.

There is a very rare print of the Duchess oi Portsmouth reclining on a mossy bank, with very little covering over her other than a laced chemise. There is also an equally rare print of Nelly in nearly the same posture, and equally unclad. The story runs that Nell had contrived to filch the chemise from the Duchess, and by wearing it herself at a time when the Duchess should have worn it, to have attracted the King, and tricked her rival.'

There is yet another story illustrative of Madame S^vigne's letter. The news of the Cham of Tartary's death reached England at the same time with the news of the death of a prince of the blood in France. The Duchess appeared at Court in mourning—so did Nelly. The latter was asked in the hearing of the Duchess, for whom she appeared in mourning. " Oh ! " said Nell, " have you not heard of my loss in the death of the Cham of Tartary ?" " And what relation," replied her friend, " was the Cham of Tartary to you?" " Oh," answered Nelly, " exactly

the same relation that the Prince of was to

Mile. Querouaille." This was a saying after the King's own heart.

Another of her retorts on the Duchess has been preserved in a small chap-book called " Jokes upon Jokes," printed in London about the year 1721. Its doggerel hobbles thus :—

* Moi-se's Catalogue of Prints, made by Doiid, the auc-tionrer, by whom they were sold in 1816.

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The Duchess of Portsmouth one time supped with the

King's Majesty ; Two chickens were at table, when the Duchess would make

'em three. Nell Gwyn, being by, denied the same; the Duchess

speedily Reply'd here's one, another two, and two and one makes

three.

Tis well said, lady, answered Nell: O King, here's one

for thee. Another for myself, sweet Charles, 'cause you and I agree ; The third she may take to herself, because she found the

same: The King himself laughed heartily, while Portsmouth

blush'd for shame.

It was on a somewhat similar occasion that Nell called Charles the Second her Charles the third — meaning that her first lover was Charles Hart, her second Charles Sackville, and her third Charles Stewart. The King may have enjoyed the joke, for he loved a laugh, as I have before observed, even at his own expense.

What the Duchess thought of such jokes was no secret to De Foe. "I remember," he says, "that the late Duchess of Portsmouth in the time of Charles II. gave a severe retort to one who was praising Nell Gwyn, whom she hated. They were talking of her wit and beauty, and how she always diverted the King with her extraordinary repartees, how she had a fine mien, and appeared as much the lady of quality as anybody. ' Yes, madam,' said the Duchess, ' but anybody may know she has been an orange-wench by her swearing.'" ^

I De Foe's Review, viii. 247-8, as quoted in Wilson's Z,z/^

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Of her manner in diverting the King, Cibber has preserved a story from the relation of Bowman, the actor, who lived to a green old age, and from whom Oldys picked up some characteristic anecdotes. Bowman, then a youth, and famed for his voice, was appointed to take part in a concert at the private lodgings of Mrs. Gwyn ; at which were present the King, the Duke of York, and one or two more usually admitted to those detached parties of pleasure. When the music was over, the King gave it extraordinary commendations. "Then, sir," said the lady, " to show that you do not speak like a courtier, I hope you will make the performers a handsome present." The King said he had no money about him, and asked the Duke if he had any. " I believe, sir " (answered the Duke), " not above a guinea or two." Merry Mrs. Nell, turning to the people about her, and making bold with the King's common expression, cried, " Odds fish ! what company am I got into ?'' ^

What the songs at Nell's concert were like we may gather from Tom D'Urfey, a favourite author for finding words to popular pieces of music. His " Joy to great Ctesar " was much in vogue :—

Nell cursed, for having so few people in the pit, was pretty." In Madam Nellys Complaint, a Satyr, Etherege writes:

" Before great Charles let Quacks and Sea-men lye. He ne're heard Swearers, till Moll Knight and L"]

I Gibber's Apology, ed. 1740, p. 448. Bowman died March 23. 1739. aged 88.

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Joy to great C;3esar, Long life, love, and jilcasure; 'Tis a health that divine is, Fill the bowl high as mine is ;

Let none fear a fever, But take it off thus, boys ;

Let the King live for ever, 'Tis no matter for us, boys.^

No less was the chorus of a song in his " Virtuous Wife " :—

Let Cfesar live long, let C^sar live long,

For ever be happy, and ever be young ;

And he that dares hope to change a King for a Pope,

Let him die, let him die, while Cxsax lives long.

If these were sung, as I suspect they were, at Nelly's house, it was somewhat hard that the King had nothing to give, by way of reward, beyond empty praise for so much loyalty in what was at least meant for song.

There were occurring in England at this time certain events of moment to find places either in the page of history or biography ; but in many of which " the chargeable ladies about the Court," as Shaftesbury designated the King's mistresses, would probably take very little interest. The deaths of Fairfax or St. John, of Clarendon or Milton, of the mother of Oliver Cromwell, or of the loyal Marquess of Winchester (all of which happened during the time referred to in the present chapter), would hardly create a moment's concern at Whitehall. The news of a second Dutch war might excite more, as it involved an expense likely to

1 D'Urfey's Piih, ii. 155. 114

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divert the King's money from his mistresses. Greater interest, we may be sure, was felt in the death of the Duchess of York and the speculations on the subject of her successor, in Blood's stealing the crown, in the opening of a new theatre in Dorset Gardens, in the representation of The Rehearsal, in the destruction by fire of the first Drury Lane, and in the marriage of the King's eldest child by the Duchess of Cleveland to Thomas, Lord Dacre, afterwards Earl of Sussex.

While The Rehearsal was drawing crowded houses—indeed, in the same month in which it first appeared—Nell Gwyn was delivered (Dec. 25, 1671) of a second child by the King, called James, in compliment to the Duke of York. The boy thrived, and as he grew in strength became, as his brother still continued, a favourite with his father. The Queen, long used to the profligate courses of her husband, had abandoned all hope of his reformation, so that a fresh addition to the list of his natural children caused no particular emotion. Her Majesty, moreover, enjoyed herself after an innocent fashion of her own, and at times in a way to occasion some merriment in the Court. One of her adventures in the company of La Belle Stewart and the Duchess of Buckingham (the daughter of Sir Thomas Fairfax) deserves to be related. The Court was at Audley End in the autumn of 1670, and the temptation of a fair in the neighbourhood induced the Queen and several of her attendants to visit it in disguise. They therefore dressed themselves like country girls, in

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red petticoats and waistcoats. Sir Bernard Gas-coigne rode on a cart-jade before the Queen, another gentleman in like fashion before the Duchess of Richmond, and a Mr. Roper before the Duchess of Buckingham. Their dresses, however, were, it is said, so much overdone, that they looked more like mountebanks than country clowns, and they were consequently followed as soon as they arrived at the fair by a crowd of curious people. The Queen stepping into a booth to buy a pair of yellow stockings for her sweetheart, and Sir Bernard asking for a pair of gloves, striped with blue, for his sweetheart, they were at once detected by their false dialect and gibberish. A girl in the crowd remembered to have seen the Queen at dinner, and at once made known her discovery. The whole concourse of people were soon collected in one spot to see the Queen. It was high time, therefore, to get their horses and return to Audley End. They were soon remounted and out of the fair, but not out of their trouble, for as many country-people as had horses followed with their wives, children? sweethearts, or neighbours behind them, and attended the Queen to the court gate. "And thus," says the writer to whom we are indebted for the relation of the adventure, " was a merry frolic turned into a penance." ^ The readers of Pepys and De Grammont will remember that La Belle Jennings had a somewhat similar mishap when, dressed as an orange-girl, and accompanied by

1 Mr. Henshaw to Sir Robert Paston, October 13, 1670. Ives's Select Papers, 4to, 1773, p. 39.

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Miss Price, La Belle sought to visit the German fortune-teller.

While the Court was alternately annoyed and amused with diversions of this description, and the death of the Earl of Sandwich and the war with the Dutch were still subjects of conversation, the Duchess of Cleveland, on the i6th of July, 1672, was delivered of a daughter, and on the 29th of the same month and year the fair Querouaille produced a son. The King disowned the girl but acknowledged the boy, and many idle conjectures were afloat both in Court and city on the subject. The father of the Cleveland child was, it is said. Colonel Churchill, afterwards the great Duke of Marlborough, then a young and handsome adventurer about Whitehall. The girl was called Barbara, after her mother, and became a nun.

These events were varied in the following month by the marriage of the Duke of Grafton, the King's son by the Duchess of Cleveland, to the only child of the Earl and Countess of Arlington ; by the birth of a first child to the Duke and Duchess of Monmouth ; and by the widowhood in December of La Belle Stewart, the beautiful Duchess of Richmond. In the following year other occurrences took place in which Nelly was interested. On the 19th August 1673 Mademoiselle de Querouaille was created Duchess of Portsmouth, and in October following, Moll Davis, her former rival in the royal affections, was delivered of a daughter, called Mary Tudor, and acknowledged by the King. Following close on th^se was the marriage of the Duke of York to

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his future queen ; the introduction of the opera into England ; the opening of the new theatre in Drury Lane ; the marriage of the future Earl of Lichfield to Charlotta, another natural daughter of the King by the Duchess of Cleveland; the creation of Charles Fitzroy to be Duke of Southampton ; the marriage of the Duchess of Portsmouth's sister to the Earl of Pembroke ; Lord Buckhurst's elevation to the earldom of Middlesex ; that of the King's son by Katharine Pegg to be Earl of Plymouth ; and that of the Duchess of Portsmouth's son to be Duke of Richmond.

Some of these creations, both natal and heraldic, were little to the liking of Nelly, who took her own way of showing her dissatisfaction. " Come hither, you little bastard," she cried to her son Charles, in the hearing of his father.^ The King remonstrated, and Nelly, with a snappish and yet good-natured laugh, replied—" I have no better name to call him by." Never was a peerage sought in so witty and abrupt a manner, and never was a plea for one so immediately admitted, the King creating his eldest son by Nell Gwyn, on the 27th of December 1676, Baron of Headington and Earl of Burford. Nelly had now another name to give to her child. But this was not all that was done, and, as I see reason to believe, at this time. The heiress of the Veres,

1 Granger, ed. 1779, iii. 211. [In anotlier version of the story the scene is laid at Lauderdale House, Highgate (now included in Waterlow Paric). Nell Gwyn, as she stood at the window, threatened to tlirow the boy out unless her wish was granted, whereupon the King, who was coming up the garden patli, exclaimed, " God save the Earl of Burford ! "j

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the daughter of the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford of that illustrious family, was betrothed by the King to the young Earl of Burford ; and, though the lively orange-girl was not spared to witness the marriage, yet she lived to see the future wife of her son in the infancy of those charms which made her one of the most conspicuous of the Kneller Beauties, still so attractive in the collection at Hampton Court.i

1 When Dugdale was busy with his Baronage, he laid the following statement of difficulties before the King :—

'' Whereas the second volume of an Historicall Worke, intituled the Baroyiagt of England (being extracted from publiq lecords, and other authorities) is now in the presse ; and extending from the end of K. Henry the Third's reigne containeth what is most memorable of the English Nobility throughout all times since ; in w'^'' the preambles of most Creation Patents have been useful). Descending down to the reign of this king, the Author humbly conceiveth, that there is some deficiency in that of the Duke of Monmouth's Creation ; no mention at all being made that he is his Maties naturall son, though in some patents, and other instruments since, he hath been owned so to be. In that also of the Countesse of Castlemaine, whereby she hath the title of Coun-tesse of Southampton and Dutchesse of Cleveland, conferred on her ; her eldest son (on whom those honours are entailed) is denominated Charles Palmer, and George (her third son), to whom, in case Charles die w'^out issue male, the remaynder is limitted, issayd to be her second son, and likewise surnamed Palmer; but afterwards, upon his being created Earle of Northumberland, called Fitz-roy, and sayd to be her third son. Also in the Creation-Patent of the same Charles, to be Duke of Southampton, the name of Fitz-roy is attributed to him. These things considered, the Author most humbly craveth direction what to do herein ; whether to decline the mention of all his Ma'iiis creations, rather than from the authoritie of these Patents to divulge such contradictions; though thereby he shall hazard the displeasure of some, whom his Ma''-^ hath deservedly raysed to such degrees of honour, since his happy restoration.