WILFUL, WONDERFUL WOMEN

Hokitika Guardian, 21 April 1928, Page 4

WILFUL, WONDERFUL WOMEN

• NELL GWYNNE. The British nation has always treated the memory of Nell Gwynne with an indulgence such as it lias 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 1, about whom it is possible to say anything good. She was tenderhearted 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 influence over tile sovereign was never 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 wclcomod her as the living antithesis of Puritanism, and she was idolised hv the people of her day. She prompted the careless and easy-going Merry •Monarch lo perform numerous acts of charity and kindness, she never forgot or siiglrted her old friends, she remained 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 was horn on February 2, 1(150, 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 lie comfortably provided for bv her daughter and that she was drowned in fi pond while under the influence of drink. Although an old house which still standin the town of Hereford is chinned locally to have been the birthplace of Nell Gwynne, there is Imt little, doubt that she was horn in London, most prolmbly in. the disreputable alley [known as the Coal Yard off Drury Lane, which was the home of her childhood da vs.

Neil was thirteen years of age when the first of the lour famous and historic Drurv Lane Theatres opened its doors in 1853, and she was one of tile merriest and most popular of the young girls who were engaged to sell organes between the acts of the play, but in a short time her pretty face and vivacity guinea for her a place among the regular actresses of the company oil 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 tor her by the great poet and play writer, John Drvden.

She was only on the stage for about six years, lor she left the boards soon alter 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 evil influence hitherto possesed by the hated and unscrupulous Duchess of Portsmouth, who was a Frenchwoman 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 b.v good fortune. She never pretended to he anything better or different to what she really was, and until the end of her life

she remained the unspoiled and well beloved child of the people.

The King’s <lving injunction, “ Let mil poor Nelly starve.” was faithfully ■observed hy his brother, Janies, win succeeded him on the throne, and tin genuinely sorrowful woman was handsomely provided for. She only survived her Royal level’ for two years, and when she died in November, 138", from an attack of apoplexy she was laid to rest in the Church of St. Uartiii’s-iii-l heFields, where her funeral sermon was preached hv Dr. Thomas Tenison, niterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, who testified to her many good qualities.