CHARACTERS. 



297 



jiature originally gave him, he must 

 be considered as a very extraordir 

 nar)' genius. 



Jiccount of NJl Givynn, from the 

 7iotes to the new translation of 

 Grammoni's memoirs. 



OF the early part of Nell's life 

 little is known but what may 

 be collected from the lampoons of 

 the times ; in which it is said, that 

 she was born in a night-cellar, sold 

 fish about the streets, rambled fro na 

 tavern to tavern, entertaining tlie 

 company after dinner and supper 

 with songs (her voice being very 

 agresable) ; was i^ext taken into 

 the house of rrjadam Ross, a r.ot?d 

 courtezan, and was afterwards ad- 

 mitted into the theatre, where she 

 became the mistress of both Hait 

 ar.d Lacey, the celebrated actors. 

 Other accounts say she was born in 

 a cellar in the coal-yard in Drury- 

 Lane, and that she was first taken 

 notice of when sellinrr orano-es in 

 the plavrhouse. She belonged to 

 the king's company at Druryrlane ; 

 and, according to Downes, was re- 

 ceived as an actress a few years af- 

 ter that house was opened, in l6S3. 

 The first notice I find of her is in 

 I'le year IGG-S, when she performed 

 in Dryden's plav of Secret Love ; 

 after which, she may be traced every 

 year until 1G7S, when I conjecture 

 she quitted the stage. Her forte 

 appears to have been comedy. In an 

 epilogue to Tyram.ic Love, spoken 

 by her, she says, 



1 walk, because I die ' 



Out of my calling in a tragedy. 



And from the same authority it may 

 be collected that her person was 

 small, and she was negligent in her 



dress. Her son, the duke of St, 

 Alban's, was bom before she left 

 thestage, viz. May S, 16T0. Bishop 

 Burnet speaks of her in these terms : 

 " Gwynn, the indiscreetest and w-ild-? 

 est creature that ever was in a court, 

 continued to the end of the king's 

 life in great favour, and was main- 

 tained at a vast expence. The duke 

 of Buckingham told me, that when 

 she was first brought to the king, she 

 asked only .'OO jiounds a year, and 

 the king refused it. But when he 

 told me this, about four years after, 

 he said she had got of the king above 

 sixty thousand pounds. She acted 

 all persons in so lively a manner, and 

 was such a constant diversion to the 

 king, that even a new mistress could 

 not drive her away ; but after all, he 

 never treated her with the decen- 

 cies of a mistress." History of his 

 Own Times, vol. i. p 359. The 

 same author notices the king's at- 

 tention to her on his death-bed. 

 Gibber, who was dissatisfied with 

 the bishop's account of Ni^U, says, 

 " If we consider her in all the dis- 

 advantages of her rank and educa- 

 tion, she does not appear to have 

 had an^' crim.inal errors more re- 

 markable than her sex's frailty, to 

 answer for ; and if the same author, 

 in his latter ewd of that prince's life, 

 seems to reproach hism^jmory with 

 too kind a concern for her support, 

 we may allow, it becomes a bisiiop 

 to have had no eyes or taste for tlie 

 frivolous charms or playful badinage 

 of a king's miatress ; yet if tlie com- 

 mon fame of her may be believed, 

 which in my memory wasnot doubt- , 

 ed, she had less to be laid to her 

 charge, than any other of those la- 

 dies who were in the same state of 

 prcf.^rment : she never meddled in 

 matters of serious momenf . or was 

 the tool of working politicians ; 



never 



