The story of Nell Gwyn (22 page)

Lady Harvey, the daughter of Edward, second Lord Montagu of Boughton, was celebrated as a wit and waf famous for the bold gay character of her mind. Mrs. Corey was known as Doll Common from acting that part in Ben Jonson's The Alchymist (see Pepys's Diary, Jan. 15, 1668-9),

p. 105. A familiar discourse between the King and Mrs. Nelly.

Another anecdote of Nell's easy manner with the Head of the State, at which a personage perhaps less known to fame than John Evelyn, Mr. Alderman Wright of Oxford, was greatly shocked, is thus narrated in a letter from Humphrey Prideaux to John Ellis, dated 29 Sept. 1681 : "Whenever he [Alderman Wright] comes, he speakes scurrulously of the King. It seems, when ye alderman was at Newmarket with his petition [concerning the election of the town clerk at Oxford], the King walkeing in ye feilds met Nel Gwyn, and Nel cald to him, ' Charles, I^ hope I shall have your company at night, shall I not?' With this story the Alderman makes a great deal of worke wherever he comes. He says he had often heard bad things of the King, but now his own eys have seen it" {^Letters, Camd. Soc, p. loi).

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p. 105. The garden was attached to her house in Pall Mall.

The garden in which Charles stood must have been that attached to St. James's Palace, as the gardens of the Pall Mall houses did not extend to the Park. The King was in his own garden, and not, as is usually supposed, in the mall of the public park,

p. 105. Berkshire House,

Berkshire House (built about 1630) stood on the west side of the roadway leading from St. James's Palace to Piccadilly, and was bought by Charles II. in 1668 for Lady Castlemaine. Upon her becoming Duchess of Cleveland, in 1670, she disposed of the mansion, and sold the large garden for building plots, reserving only the south-west corner of the estate, on which, near the present Bridgewater House, was erected Cleveland House. Owing to her reckless extravagance she soon found herself unable to keep up Cleveland House. The connection of the duchess with St. James's survives in Cleveland Court, Cleveland Square, and Cleveland Row (Diet. Nat. Biog., s. V. Villiers, Barbara). Her eldest son Charles, first Duke of Cleveland, settled in 1722 at Cleveland House at the south-east corner of King Street and St. James's Square. It was demolished in 1894 (Dasent's Hist, of St. James's Square, pp. 3, 97, lOi sq.).

p. 106. Moll Davis had fallen out of favour.

In a scandalous work called Lives of the Most Celebrated Beauties (1715), it is stated that "Nell Gwyn, hearing she was to visit the King, asked her to supper and mixed jalap with her sweetmeats, and that the King in consequence dismissed her with a pension of ;^iooo a year."

p. 106. Mrs. Carwell.

Charles II. in his " Mock Speech," written by Marvell,

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calls her " Caiwell," by which name she popularly went {see Roger Coke's A Detection of Court and State, vol. ii. p. 171)-

p. 106. There is no reason to suspect that Louise was ever unfaithftil to the light-hearted King.

A statement difficult of belief. During the administration of Lord Danby the Duchess was especially anxious to keep on good terms with him (Reresby's Memoirs, ed. Cartwriglit, p. 165), and she is believed at one time to have granted him a share of her favours. The King's jealousy of her intrigue with the handsome Philip de Vendome was apparently not without cause. Charles proved unable to drive him out of the country, till Louis XIV., anxious for the maintenance of the Duchess's ascendancy, had brought about his return to France.

p. 107. Her brothej--in-law, the Earl of Pembroke.

This was Philip (Herbert), son of the fifth earl. He was baptized Jan. 5, 1652-3, made K.B. April 19, 1661, and succeeded to the peerage as seventh Earl of Pembroke, July 8, 1674. He married, May 20, 1675, Hen-riette Mauricette de Keroualle, younger sister of the Duchess of Portsmouth. He died, Aug. 29, 1683, aged thirty. He is called " Beauish Pembroke" in Lord Rochester's Coxcombs in Place. The earl "espoused not learning," but "was addicted to field sports and hospitality," says Aul rey ; he is, however, chiefly known for " deeds of di-unkenness and manslaughter," He was tried March i, 1678, by his peers for the murder of Nathanael Cony in a drunken brawl in a Haymarket tavern ; but in the result was able to claim the benefit of the statute and was discharged (see State Trials, 8vo edit., vi. 1309). On Aug. 18, 1680, he killed an officer of the watch while returning from a drinking bout at Turnham Green. On June 21, 1681, he came into Court, pleaded the King's pardon, and was discharged.

His widow took for her second husband (contract,

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May II, 1685) Thimokoa Gouffier, Marquis de Thois, governor of Blois, and died in Paris, Nov. 1-12, 1728, aged about seventy-nine.

p. 108. A most expensive service of plate.

The fondness of Nell Gwyn for silver plate is well known. The following notice appeared in the Londoti Gazette, Jan. 3, 1677-8 :—

"All goldsmiths and others to whom our silver plate maybe sold, marked with the cipher E. G., flourished, weighing about 18 ounces, are desired to apprehend the bearer thereof, till they give notice to Mr. Robert Johnson in Heathcock Alley, Strand, over against Durham Yard, or to Mrs. Gwin's porter in the Pell Mell, by whom they shall be rewarded" (Notes and Quei-ies, 8th ser., xi. 65).

p. 108. She and the Duchess.

In a letter to her brother, Lord Roos, at Belvoir Castle, dated Dec. 11, 1677, Grace, Lady Chaworth says :—

" The younger Killeegree [Henry Killigrew] is banished the Court againe for goeing att 4 of the clocke the other morning to Nell Gwin and knocking her up, being drunke, and saying he came from the King to acquaint her with the good nievvse of the D[iichess] of Portsmouth's recovery, and after that raileed her with his abusive tonge extreamly ; and the D[uchess] is perfectly well again, and they say will lead a new lyfe, att least has promised it to her ghostly father" (Duke of Rutland's MSS., ii. 43).

p. 109. The Duchess was on her way to France.

Louise was advised to try the waters of Bourbon for her health, which had suffered through the miscellaneous nature of the King's amours. There is a coarse allusion to this effect in some lines on " England's Court Strumpets " among the Poems on State Affairs. With her

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sister, Lady Pembroke, she spent part of May and June 1682 at Bourbon. She again crossed to France in August 1685 ; but soon returned to England, and remained at Whitehall till the end of July 1688, when she made a final departure to France. In the broadside mentioned in the text Nell Gwyn is made to taunt the duchess with her partiality for the Grand Prior of Vendome.

In Roxburs^he Ballads (pt. x. p. 286) the editor, the Rev. J. W. Ebsworth, quotes the following lines from a MS. copy of The Duchess of Portsmouth's Garland in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh :—

* When Portsmouth did from England fly to follow her

Vandome, Thus all along the gallery, the Monarch made his moan : ' O Chantillion, for charity, send me my Cleaveland

home ! Go nymph, so foolish and unkind, your wandering knight

pursue, And leave a love-sick King behind, so faithful and so

true; You gods, when you made Love so blind, you shou'd

have lam'd him too.' "

The rivalry between the two mistresses is further recorded in " A Pleasant Dialogue between Two Wanton Ladies of Pleasure, or the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Woful Farewell to her Former Felicity," and "Portsmouth's Lamentation, or a Dialogue between Two Amorous Ladies, E. G. and D. P.," in the Bagford Collection of Ballads.

Another ballad, in the Luttrell Collection, is called "The Duchess of Portsmouth's Farewell," and here

" The Duchess holds a Dialogue, And talks with Madame Gwin, Yea, doth relate the wretched state That now she liveth in."

In answer to her complaints Nelly is made to say:

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"But, madam, from hence you sent treasure away,

With a fa la, etc. And I suppose for a while you must stay;

With a fa la, etc. But what I myself have got by my game, I freely in England expended the same. But you have transported yours to your shame,

With a fa la, fa la la."

There may have been some truth in this, as Mr. Lavers-Smith points out, for Narcissus Luttrell notices a report, current at the time of her intended flight from England on the death of Charles II., that she was detained on suspicion of crown jewels being in her possession.

Writing on Feb. 9, 1684-5, Luttrell says: "The dutchesse of Portsmouth, since his late majesties death, hath sent her goods and is retired to the French ambassadors ; but 'tis said a stop is putt to her goeing beyond sea by his majestie till she hath paid her debts, which are very great: 'tis said she hath also many of the crown Jewells, which some are apt to think she must refund before she goe beyond sea." {Brief Historical Relation, vol. i. p. 328.)

p. 110. A still livelier description.

Madame de Sevigne's letter is dated Sept. 11, 1675. A much better version than that in the text is given in the English translation of Forneron's Louise de Kiroualle (p. 115), and is here appended :—

"Keroualle saw well her way, and has made everything she wished for come to pass. She wanted to be the mistress of the King of England; and behold, he now shares her couch before the eyes of the whole Court. She wanted to be rich ; and she is heaping up treasures, and making herself feared and courted. But she did not foresee that a low actress was to cross her path, and to bewitch the King. She is powerless to detach him from this comedian. He divides his money, his time, and his health between the pair. The low actress is as proud as the Duchess of Portsmouth, whom she jeers at,

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mimics, and makes game of. She braves her to her face, and often takes the King away from her, and boasts that she is the best loved of the two. She is young, of madcap gaiety, bold, brazen, debauched, and ready witted. She sings, dances, and frankly makes love her business. Since Keroualle has become a favourite, Gwynn insists upon the King owning her son as his. This is how she argues: ' That hoity-toity French duchess sets up to be of grand quality. Every one of rank in France is her cousin. The moment some grand lord or lady over there dies, she orders a suit of deep mourning. Well, if she's of such high station, why is she such a jade ? She ought to be ashamed of herself! If I were reared to be a lady, I am sure I should blush for myself. But it's my trade to be a doxy, and I was never anything else. The King keeps me ; ever since he has done so, I have been true to him. He has had a son by me, and I'm going to make him own the brat, for he is as fond of me as of his French miss.' This creature holds her own in an extraordinary manner, and embarrasses and disconcerts the new-fledged duchess." In one of his letters to Louis XIV.'s minister, Pom-ponne, dated in 1676, the French ambassador Courtin relates a diverting scene at which he was present, in the rooms of the Duchess Mazarin. Who should enter but Louise de Keroualle, to pay a visit of ceremony; and, almost at the same moment. Lady Harvey, who hated her worse than any other woman in England. Her ladyship had with her a certain " Miss Nelly," an actress. The comedian had come with Lady Harvey to thank the Duchess Mazarin for the compliments she sent her on the occasion of her son being recognised by King Charles, and given the title of Earl of Brentford [Burford]. All the thanks and little return speeches passed with gay animation and the utmost civility and good taste ; and not a word was dropped to betray the low origin of the actress. But when the Duchess of Portsmouth left, Lady Harvey's fair friend, who was of the bold, laughing sort, turned round to De Courtin and asked why it was that the King of France did not send presents to her, instead of to the

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weeping willow who had just gone out? She vowed that he would have more profit in doing so, because the King of England was her constant nocturnal companion, and liked her far the best. The other ladies had heard of the luxurious fineness of Miss Nelly's under-clothing, and asked if they could judge of it for themselves. Without more ado she let them raise each petticoat, one by one, and before all in the room examine them on her. " I never in my life," said Courtin, "saw such thorough cleanliness, neatness, and sumptuosity. I should speak of other things that we all were shown if M. de Lionne were still Foreign Secretary. But with you I must be grave and proper; and so. Monsieur, I end my letter." {Lotiise de Kiroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth, by H. Fomeron, English translation, 1887, p. 177.)

p. III. The Prince of .

From a letter of Andrew Marvell's (cited in Hist. MSS. Comm., 6th Report, pt. i. p. 473 b) we learn that the personage thus honoured was Prince de Rohan. Writing to Sir Henry Thompson of Escrick, Yorkshire, from "Westminster, Dec. 1674," Marvell says: "The Duchess of Portsmouth is in deep mourning for the Chevalier de Rohan, as being, forsooth, of kin to that family."

On another occasion, when, in Jan. 1676, the still beautiful Duchess Mazarin entered the English Court "as Armida entered the camp of Godfrey," Nell Gwyn celebrated the triumph of the duchess by going into the deepest mourning—for, she said, the eclipsed Duchess of Portsmouth and her dead hopes (Jusserand's A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles the Second).

p. 113. Of her jnanner in diverting the King.

Etherege in his The Lady of Pleasure, a Satyr, says of Nell Gwyn :—

"When he was dumpish, she would still be jocund, And chuck the royal chin of Charles the Second." 195

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Nelly could doubtless be very funny, but some of the witticisms ascribed to her are not very sparkling. One of them is as follows. At some time in 1675 Charles was complaining to her of want of money, when Nelly suggested a way by which she believed he could not fail of securing the desired supplies. " She told him his parliament being to sit he should treat them with a French ragoe [the Duchess of Portsmouth], Scots collops [Lord Lauderdale], and a calfs head [Lord Sunderland], at which his Majesty laughed and was well pleased " (Hist. MSS. Coinvi., app. to 2nd Report, p. 22 l>). Charles must have been as easily amused as Mr. Peter Magnus's friends.