Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-09-27
NELL GWYNN'S LIFE.
Is to Be Dramatized For London
Stage.

Little Miss Nell Gwynn, the servant
and orange woman and actress and
the favorite of Charles II, will be i'm
personated this fall on the London
stage, where she once tTipped herself.
Miss Marie Tempest and Miss Julia
Nelson are to appear at different
London theaters in the character Of
the determined beautiful, witty little
woman who was so powerful at the
court Of Charles.
The story of her short life, as play
ed by Miss Tempest and Miss Nelson,
will be the true story of how she re-
solved to be neither in service nor yet
live in the country, and how she saved
herself from either. She was the
daughter Of a small tradesman in Dru-
Ty Lane and she was a scrap Of a girl
when they set her earning her living.
This she did as a servant. She was
very beautiful, and one day caller
upon her mistress, who had been
watching her for weeks, made love to
her, and got snubbed for his prefer
ence. His outraged vanity sent him
to her mistress with such a
tale as the Drury Lane trades
man had never heard before among
his honest stupid folk. And he Of
Drury Lane did the only thing he
could think of, and told her to get
ready to pack off to Yorkshire to her
aunt. Little Miss Gwynn thought, and
Wept, and thought again, and told her
father fatty that he could abandon
her if he pleased, but she should not
abandon town.
All of which will make a pretty first
act, rightly handled, and either wom-
an can doubtless do it we'll After
wards it will be hard, indeed, to do
Nell Gwynn.
She wanted to go on the stage, and
so she took her small hoard of savings
and presents, and rented little lodg-
ing, and spent the rest Of her money
for some books Of plays, and for tick
cts at the theater. And presently
when she had mastered stage-craft to
her own satisfaction, and learned vast
numbers Of the pages Of the plays, she
TRANQUILITY invited Betterton, then the
top and sides Of the English stage, to
call upon her. He was not a great New
York manager nor yet an American
star, and SO he did the simplest thing
in the world: He called She stood
up and recited for him and asked for
All engagement, and he told her she
had promise, but that she was not fit
for the stage and he babe her marry
some good fellow, and then he went
home, did Betterton.
Her money being all spent, so that
she COULD not buy any more theater
tickets, she did buy basket and some
oranges, and set to haunting the lob
bies Of the Drury Lane theaters to
offer her wares to audience and actors,
too. And one and all, they stared at
her and asked the same thing:
who is the handsome orange
Wench?
And SO by and by, she made her
first appearance on the stage in Dry
denis Indian Emperor, and was prais-
ed by Pepys in her little part. And
the next year she played in Secret
Love by Dryden. But it was after
that, in Dryden's Tragic Love, that
she first attracted the attention of the
king.
In the days of her greatest triumphs
she did the most good. One day her
coach was stopped by a soldier who
asked for aims, and it occurred to Miss
Gwynn that something should be done
for such people. So she went to the
king with a request that something
should be done. and that was the be-
ginning of Chelsea hospital. She died
when she was SO, and Archbishop Ten
ison preached her funeral sermon,
and extolled her charities. She lived
IN the house which is now 70 Pail
Mall, and she lies buried in ST. Mar
tins-in-the-Fields.