Page:The Story of Nell Gwyn.djvu/30

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
14
THE STORY OF NELL GWYN.

Dallison's regiment of horse,—the same in which Hart had been a lieutenant and Burt a cornet. Kynaston acquired especial favour in female parts, for which, indeed, he continued celebrated long after the introduction of women on the stage. Such were the actors at the King's House when Nell Gwyn joined the company.

Mrs. Corey (the name Miss had then an improper meaning, and the women though single were called Mistresses)[1] played Abigail, in the Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher; Sempronia, in Jonson's Catiline; and was the original Widow Blackacre in Wycherley's Plain Dealer;—Pepys calls her Doll Common. The two Marshalls, Ann and Rebecca (to whom I have already had occasion to refer), were the younger daughters of the well-known Stephen Marshall, the Presbyterian divine, who preached the sermon at the funeral of John Pym. Mrs. Uphill was first the mistress and then the wife of Sir Robert Howard, the poet. Mrs. Knep was the wife of a Smithfield horsedealer, and the mistress of Pepys. Mrs. Hughes, better known as Peg, was the mistress of Prince Rupert, by whom she had a daughter; and Mrs. Boutell was famous for playing Statira to

  1. The first unmamed actress who had Miss before her name on a playbill was Miss Cross, the original Miss Hoyden in Vanbrugh's Relapse.