but are we really better? Was Whitehall in the reign of Charles II. worse than St. James's Palace in the reign of George II., or Carlton House in the regency of George IV.? Were Mrs. Robinson, Mary Anne Clarke, or Dora Jordan, better women than Eleanor Gwyn or Mary Davis? Will future historians prefer the old Duke of Queensbury and the late Marquis of Hertford to the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Rochester?
A new play of this period, in which Nelly performed the heroine, is the "Black Prince," written by the Earl of Orrery, and acted for the first time at the King's House, on the 19th October, 1667. Nelly's part was Alizia or Alice Piers, the mistress of Edward III.; and the following lines must have often in after life occurred to recollection, not from their poetry, which is little enough, but from their particular applicability to her own story.
You know, dear friend, when to this court I came,
My eyes did all our bravest youths inflame;
And in that happy state I lived awhile,
When Fortune did betray me with a smile;
Or rather Love against my peace did fight;
And to revenge his power which I did slight,
Made Edward our victorious monarch be
One of those many who did sigh for me.
All other flame but his I did deride;
They rather made my trouble than my pride:
But this, when told me, made me quickly know,
Love is a god to which all hearts must bow.
