Monarchs, Mistresses, and Theatre: Now and Then

May 8

Reporters attending Charles III Coronation (May 6th) talked about the elation of the crowd, but for those of us who are theatregoers, the elation of this year (2023) could not have compared with the way the crowd felt when Charles II was crowned also in May (29th) but in 1660, coincidentally Charles’s 30th birthday. The era that followed the crowning of Charles II is known as the “Restoration” because the monarchy which had lost the English Civil Wars was restored. As I described it in World Theatre After 1700, “The word restoration seems too mild to describe the elation. That new age wasn’t really a “restoration,” it was more like an unleashing.” England without her King was run by the Puritans who constantly railed against the flesh. But after Charles II was crowned, there was flesh everywhere. Did society really change overnight the moment when Charles’s boat docked at a London pier? Doubtful. Fashion changed, to be certain, but the system of primogeniture, the way of passing on wealth and estates, and the stratification of the English class structure endured, which was something that we were constantly reminded of this May 6th when what seemed like a legion of royals dressed in eighteenth century garb swarmed onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace. Charles II rocked-on until his death in 1685. Only fifteen years, but will this Charles, not exactly a rocker, even last that long?

*Charles II in Coronation Robe, Creative Commons License*

*Photo of King Charles III procession to Lying In State of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, 2023, Creative Commons License*

Royal Heirs

During those tumultuous fifteen years, there was always a question about succession. Who would come to the throne when Charles II died? Not that Charles was unmindful of his royal duties to sire an heir to take the throne. It has been said of Charles that he never met a woman he didn’t love. He “sired” at least a dozen illegitimate heirs, unfortunately, but none by his Queen, Catherine of Braganza, a rich Portuguese Princess. In fact, his keeping of mistresses became the standard for what was fashionable in aristocratic society and on stage. Charles was married but appeared to be more devoted to his mistresses. Conduct he appears to share with the King who married his mistress Camilla Bowles after years of being unfaithful to Princess Diana.

Portrait of Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland — *Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, Creative Commons License*

Photograph of Camilla Parker-Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall, 2018 — *Camilla Parker Bowles, Duchess of Cornwall, 2018, Creative Commons License*

(Perhaps, he was a bit more sensitive about his dalliance than Charles II was who failed to listen to Catherine when she objected to making Barbara Villiers, the Countess of Castlemaine then Charles’s mistress, the Queen’s Lady in Waiting. Barbara Villiers, later the Duchess of Cleveland bore the king five children. (Charles II was under Barbara’s thrall for years.)

The King’s Playhouse.

But as theatre folk, we are beholden to Charles II, for it was his personal preference to have women on stage. Soon after Charles’s return in 1660, he persuaded Margaret Hughes (1630-1719) to take the role of Desdemona in Shakespeare’ Othello and to become the first woman to appear on the English stage. Arguably, everything that was done in the theatre was to please him, curry his favor, complement his prowess, and flatter his wit. Charles not only took a personal interest in what was written for the stage and what was mounted on the stage, but he also saw to it that members of the audience who disobeyed his instructions lost royal favor. For instance, although it had become a custom for privileged members of the audience to sit on the stage alongside the actors (who stood most of the time to declaim their parts), Charles issued a proclamation forbidding the practice. Seeing theatre patrons on the stage displeased him.

*Portrait of Nell Gwyn by Peter Lely, Creative Commons License*

Nell Gwyn, Best-Known Theatrical Personality of the Era.

Although Elizabeth Hughes was the first actress on the English stage, she was not the best-known actress of the period; that distinction belongs to a sassy, red-headed comedienne named Nell Gwyn (1650-1687).

She was endeared to theatregoers as “pretty witty” Nell. Not well-known or respected for her work in serious plays, although she did perform in a few, Nell relied primarily on her natural beauty, wit, and charm to engage audiences. She excelled at singing and dancing. But Nell reserved a bit of her special charm for speaking set speeches at the beginning (prologues) and ending (epilogues) of plays. These set speeches were spoken directly to the audience. Frequently, she was cast in roles in which she appeared in men’s clothing, known as “britches (or breeches) roles,” roles in which women played women disguised as men. In many of Shakespeare’s comedies, such as As You Like It or Twelfth Night, the device worked to make it easier on the audience to accept a male actor playing a woman. But in the Restoration, it was used differently. Women were playing men who in turn were playing women. One surmises that seeing real women clad in men’s clothing was sexy. The change is sex may have made a mess of the existing plot. But it was sex itself that was being celebrated. It was like a carnival in which all kinds of disorder including seeing Nell in pants that was part of that carnival spirit. Even the King came to the theatre to admire Nell’s legs. Rowdy audiences were appreciative when Nell stepped out on stage to address them. In fact, her epilogues were often the high point of the play. Audiences cheered her and she in turn “improved” through improvisation on the written script, which members of the audience felt made the occasion special.

About respectability, Nell didn’t have any. Her mother was a madam who kept a brothel in Covent Garden. By the age of twelve, her mother had found a lover for Nell. This gentleman pimped her out so that she earned at least part of her keep. Her “profession” was selling oranges at the newly completed King’s Theatre in Drury Lane. “Orange girls” sold fruit to patrons, but they were also “available” to deliver messages backstage from patrons to actors and/or actresses. An ambitious girl, such as Nell, would have also been making herself available as well. Clearly, her ambition was rewarded by Charles Hart, the leading man at the Drury Lane, and she not only became his mistress but also his on-stage co-star in a popular couple’s act.

King Charles took an interest in Nell after seeing her in a play by John Dryden called The Maiden Queene. Nell played a mad girl called Florimell and according Samuel Pepys, it was a “great performance.” King Charles was so taken with the play that he requested a command performance. Two months after that performance on her 18th birthday, Nell became one of the King’s mistresses.

She had several rivals. Her least favorite was a French noblewoman Louise de Kérouaille, who Nell called the “Weeping Willow,” due to Louise’s penchant for crying to get her way. Louise was Catholic and in time cried her way up to becoming the Duchess of Portsmouth. The common people hated her Versailles airs. During the time of the plague when the King was staying in Oxford, Nell was on her way to the royal residence in a carriage when a mob mistook her for the Duchess. They began shouting insults at the carriage, such as “Catholic whore.” Nell stopped and poked her smiling face out of the window saying,

“Pray good people, be civil; I am the Protestant whore!”

Nell could be quite outspoken with the King, and legend has it, then when her son Charles (after the King) was six years old, she said in the King’s presence, “Come here, you little bastard, and say hello to your father.” The King didn’t like that, but Nell protested, “What am I to call him? He doesn’t have a name,” and with that she grabbed her son by his heels and hung the boy out of the window until King responded, “God save the Earl of Burford!” Today, England still has an Earl Burford named Charles after his royal ancestor. Nell secured titles for her children, amassed property and goods while remaining one of the King’s favorites. Charles the Second died rather suddenly (6 February 1685). He made a last-minute conversion to Catholicism at the behest of his younger brother James, the Duke of York. But his dying wish to his brother, whom Nell called “Dismal Jimmy,” was, “Let not poor Nelly starve.” James was faithful to Charles’s wish and paid off all of Nell’s creditors and gave her a pension of 1500 pounds a year. One son was created, the Duke of St. Alban’s, and that title still exists today. Upon her death, three years later, Nell’s estate, which included rents from Ireland, was valued at 100,000 pounds. Recently, a rather extravagant shopping list surfaced, and it was put up for auction at Sotheby’s for 60,000 pounds.

I am not certain what will happen when Charles III’s wife becomes Queen, but I have feeling that her impact on the theatre will be not as great as Nell’s was! I don’t think she has any interest in the theatre. Do you?

*Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, the Duchess and Duke of Sussex, visit the District Six Museum in Capetown, South Africa, 2019*

Last night, I thought about the 1957 Warner Brothers’ film The Prince and the Showgirl, which starred Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe and also in supporting role Sybil Thorndike as the evil dowager Queen. The film was adapted from Terence Rattigan The Sleeping Prince. Set in 1911, the film isn’t really about the English monarchy, but I thought about the current Prince Harry, who was only marginally attending Charles III’s coronation. Since Some Like It Hot, another Monroe film, is now a big musical hit on Broadway, might there be an interest in adapting and spiking up The Prince and the Showgirl with Harry and Meghan? The film wasn’t a big hit in the 1950s, but it did make money! And isn’t that what it is all about these days? I think it might be a bit more topical with Meghan Markle.

Let me know what you think - send your messages to hello@andrewbharrisphd.com!

Best,

Andrew B Harris PhD