Nell Gwynne: Annotated Bibliography

Bax, Clifford. Pretty, Witty Nell: An Account of Nell Gwyn and Her Environment. 1932. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969.

Though Bax offers up his book only six years after Arthur Dasent's Nell Gwynnne 1650-1687 (see annotation), his recounting of Nell's short and eventful life is more modern in its approach and language. As opposed to Dasent's organization of the details of Nell's life around the places she lived or worked, Bax offers a linear approach, from birth to death. Especially helpful are the chapter titles with pertinent years in parentheses after them. This allows for quick fact checking.

Bax's storytelling is lively and readable. He offers a great deal of insight into the characters that peopled Nell's world, as well, particularly her opponents in the game of love with Charles II.

The appendices to Pretty, Witty Nell follow through details about the people who figured prominently in her life, including her son, The Duke of St. Albans, her rivals, Louise de Querouaille and Hortense Mancini, and Catherine of Braganza, Charles' queen. Nell's last will and the Drury Lane patent are also provided.

Bell, Walter George. The Great Fire of London in 1666. 1920. Westport, CT:     Greenwood P, 1971.

Bell contends that the Great Fire of London in 1666 forever changed the city, erasing the last vestiges of past eras when it was predominantly an ecclesiastical and monastic city. The Great Fire forced London to evolve into the commercial city that we now know.

The fire began on Sunday, September 2, 1666, before dawn, and by Thursday, it had dissipated to smoldering embers. Bell provides lengthy topographical accounts of the spread of the fire, accounts that will prove invaluable as Nell recounts her situation during the time of the Great Fire, when she was only a young girl of 16, but already making her way into the history books.

Bell's book contains many photographs, illustrations, plans and drawings, along with several useful appendices such as letters from residents of London and other contemporary accounts describing the fire, and assorted lists of city churches and businesses destroyed by the fire. Bell's notes, appended at the end of the volume, make for interesting reading in and of themselves, with references to popular culture of the day, early fire-fighting appliances, and King Charles II's courage during the fire, courage that was lauded by poets of the day, including Dryden. Bell's bibliography of contemporary printed books, tracts, broadsides and manuscripts is impressive and illustrates the kinds of contemporary writings about the fire that Nell Gwynne would have encountered herself.

---. The Great Plague in London in 1665. 1924. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1979.

Bell attempts to go beyond the novelized history of DeFoe's Journal of the Plague Year and provide a record of fact about the calamity that he calls "a tragedy of errors." He differentiates his work from DeFoe's by pointing out that he has not made any statement about the Plague without establishing its authenticity, unlike DeFoe who, as a fiction writer, could justify his broadly drawn account.

Bell's account will provide fact, but DeFoe's provides drama! But Bell does provide a solid depiction of the way that the city of London slowly ground to a halt as the death tolls rose. And as with his book about the Great Fire, the appendices are excellent, including a post-mortem exam of a plague victim. His "authorities" are those contemporary printed and manuscript sources of the times. The medical literature of the Great Plague is scant, but Bell fills in the gaps.

Bryant, Sir Arthur, ed. The Letters, Speeches and Declarations of King Charles II. 1935. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968.

Bruce, Donald. Topics of Restoration Comedy. London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1974.

Butler, Martin. Theatre and Crisis: 1632-1642. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.

Coote, Stephen. Royal Survivor: The Life of Charles II. New York: St. Martin's P, 2000.

---. Samuel Pepys: A Life. New York: St. Martin's P, 2001.

Dasent, Arthur Irwin. Nell Gwynne 1650-1687: Her Life's Story from St. Giles's to St. James's, with Some Account of Whitehall and Windsor in the Reign of Charles the Second. 1924. New York: Benjamin Blom, Inc., 1969.

Dasent is old-fashioned in attitude and language, but provides a detailed account of the stage career of Nell Gwynne, and of the culture and lifestyles of Drury Lane, Whitehall, Pall Mall and Windsor.

Dasent starts his biography with a pithy explanation of the banning of theatrical performances by the legislature during the "sour and sullen rule of the Puritans" (1), and how this resulted in a generation of English folks for whom the diversions of the theatre were unknown. An excellent account of the establishment of the two main rivaling theatres of the early years of the Restoration—those of Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant—is provided.

The details of the early years of Nell's life are sketchy at best, but Dasent does his best to determine where she was born and in what circumstances she lived as a child. He gives what details he can about her parentage, and her older sister, Rose, who spent time in Newgate prison and was married to John Cassells, a known highwayman. Whether her father lived with the family in London is unknown, but her mother was an alcoholic and "had lax ideas as to morality" (33).

According to Dasent, Nell began in the pits as an "orange girl" and made her debut on the stage in March of 1665 in Dryden's tragedy The Indian Emperor.

Dasent uses the various places that Nell resided, worked or visited to organize his story of her life. From the theatre in Drury Lane, to Whitehall in the west end of town, where she lived with her royal lover; from St. Giles's to St. James's; to her later years in Pall Mall and in Windsor, Dasent offers an in-depth look at the events that shaped Nell's life and contributed to her success and popularity.

Dasent also offers a chronological list of the plays acted at Drury Lane in which Nell Gwynne appeared, and the accounts of her executors after her death.

DeFoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year. New York: Dutton, 1963.

Originally published in March of 1722, Daniel DeFoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is a realistic and sober account of the events of 1665, during which the catastrophic plague swept through London. Unfortunately, the book is one long narrative, without chapter breaks, making it difficult to keep track of pivotal details without constant notetaking. But for details about life in London right before, during and immediately following the plague, DeFoe delivers.

Harris, Tim. London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and Politics from the Restoration until the Exclusion Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987.

Though a dissertation on crowd unrest and the study of the crowd, Harris does provide a helpful chapter on the mixed feelings of the people of London about the restoration of the monarchy. Using records of crowd agitation to show how it played a part in the politics of the time, Harris puts forth that our full understanding of politics during Charles II's reign has been limited by concentrating on the elite to the exclusion of the lower orders, something which a study of crowd politics in London could help rectify. Of particular interest to Harris is his examination of the proposition that the London crowd was in favor of restoring the monarchy in 1659-1660, but by 1680, had become alienated from the Stuarts.

Harris's chapter entitled "The People and the Restoration" is an excellent account of the political strife that preceded Charles's return to London and provides plenty of detail about his actual physical re-entry into the city.

---, ed. Popular Culture in England, c.1500-1850. New York: St. Martin's P, 1995.

Essays by nine historians, including Roy Porter and Susan Dwyer Amussen, evaluate the concept of popular culture during the early modern period, which includes the Restoration. In addition to a focus on the interaction between people of different societal levels, the book provides insight on the precise cultural space occupied by women. With an emphasis on "popular" culture, as opposed to a study of history from the standpoint of the learned and educated few, the book is an excellent guide to aspects of the culture of the lower orders in the early modern period in England.

Two of the chapters focus on women. "The Gendering of Popular Culture in Early Modern England," by Susan Dwyer Amussen, examines how popular culture "played a critical role in sustaining and shaping gender relations in early modern society, just as it was in turn shaped by gender" (49). Amussen asserts that the core values of the popular culture of that time were profoundly misogynistic. Women were subordinate to men and disabled socially--especially legally, and while women were supposed to be chaste until marriage, they were sexually voracious once initiated into sex by their husbands. Subordination was constantly reiterated, but an examination of that subordinatin reveals many paradoxes. While crucial, it was limited. Though subordinate, women were believed to be as capable as their husbands. But while they were capable, they enjoyed few of the same rights and privileges.

Hill, Christopher. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas during the English Revolution. New York: Viking P, 1972.

Hill provides a study of the crucial religious and social trends prevalent before and during the English Civil War. It's easy to understand why a man like Pepys might consider himself a Roundhead, only to welcome Charles II back to the throne with enthusiasm and no little embarrassment.

Howe, Elizabeth. The First English Actresses: Women and Drama, 1660-1700. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.

After a broad account of the workings of Restoration theatre, Howe discusses the arrival of women on the stage, and how the actresses were treated by their theatre companies, audiences and society in general. Especially pertinent to my study is her exploration of how the actress were perceived predominantly as sex objects, the way their sexuality was various exploited, and how that exploitation affected drama in important and long-lasting ways.

Major figures are examined, including Anne Bracegirdle and Elizabeth Barry, both contemporaries of Nell Gwynne. In some instances, plays were written specifically for actresses, based on their skill and public image, and this kind of writing to the actress affected the playhouse and the audiences.

Howe asserts that the early pioneering actresses on the English stage--of whom Nell Gwynne remains the most beloved and well known--represent the advent of new female voices in society.

Hutton, Ronald. The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658-1667. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1985.

Fraser, Antonia. Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.

While references to Nell Gwynne are limited in nature, Fraser's book provides an excellent account of the life and times of Charles II. Fraser tells Charles' compelling story from his birth until his death, including the downfall of the monarchy and the execution of his father; his own restoration as King in 1660 after years as an exile; his many affairs; and his legacy of an intact and secure monarchy, "unthreatened in its traditional powers" (465).

Fraser aptly depicts the way in which Charles II's nickname, The Merry Monarch, more accurately betrayed the merry public aspects of his life, but contrasts this with the man who was so melancholy at heart. While he himself did not rest easily, he gave "back peace to a torn nation" (469).

Kirby, Ethyn Williams. William Prynne: A Study in Puritanism. 1931. New York: Russell & Russell, 1972.

Latham, Robert, and William Matthews, eds. The Diary of Samuel Pepys. 11 vols. Berkeley: U of California P, 1983.

Latham and Matthews have returned to the original manuscripts of Pepys' diaries to decipher each line without omissions. The diary is reproduced with consistent and thorough commentary, providing valuable explanations for social and historical details that might otherwise by obscure for the reader.

McAfee, Helen. Pepys on the Restoration Stage. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1964.

McAfee offers a separate and detailed analysis of the passages in The Diary of Samuel Pepys dealing directly with the Restoration stage and drama. She discusses the value of Pepys as a dramatic historian. The decade covered by Pepys' Diary is considered one of the most important in the development of the English theatre. In the first few years after the Restoration, there were developments and improvements that took the stage from its essentially Elizabethan aspect to the theatre that is generally known today. These developments included: the regular employment of actresses for the women's parts, the general use of movable scenery, the elaboration of costumes and mechanical devices, the illumination of the stage by chandeliers of candles, and the cutting off of the front of the stage at the proscenium by flats or curtains. The Restoration theatre more closely resembles our modern theatre that that of Shakespeare's day. And on nearly every one of these essential improvements, Pepys touches on at some point in his Diary. In addition, Pepys adds to our knowledge of the Royal private theatre in Whitehall Palace.

After a lengthy and informative introduction, McAfee's book is broken down into three parts: References in Pepys' Diary to the Restoration Stage, The Actors, and The Theatres. Each of these parts is broken down further into chapters. Quite a bit of space is allotted to Nell Gwynne.

Pepys, Samuel. The Illustrated Pepys: Extracts from the Diary. Ed. Robert Latham. Berkeley: U of California P, 1978.

Latham provides an excellent distillation of Pepys' diary, along with reproductions of paintings and drawings from the times of Pepys' life. The result is a satisfying glimpse into the life of Samuel Pepys. Pepys' total recall of detail delivers an accurate historical record of one of the most important times in the history of England: the restoration of the monarchy after tumultuous years under the Cromwellians.

Because his diary was secret and not intended for publication, Pepys' displays an endearing frankness about himself and his contemporaries, including the actress and mistress of Charles II, Nell Gwynne.

Picard, Liza. Restoration London: Engaging Anecdotes and Tantalizing Trivia from the Most Magnificent and Renowned City of Europe. New York: Avon, 2000.

---. Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women's Rights. New York: St. Martin's P, 1998.

Porter, Roy. Bodies Politic: Disease, Death, and Doctors in Britain, 1650-1900. Picturing History Series. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2001.

---. London: A Social History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1994. (942.1, P83l)

While Porter's London is broad in scope, it provides an excellent overview of the times of Nell Gwynne's life in chapters such as "War, Plague and Fire," "The Triumph of Town: From Restoration to Regency," and "Commercial City: 1650-1800." The book has a plethora of excellent illustrations and a superb annotated bibliography, divided and organized around the chapter titles.

Powell, Jocelyn. Restoration Theatre Production. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.

What, besides the advent of actresses on the stage, set Restoration theatre apart from its predecessors? Powell provides several satisfactory answers in a nicely organized book on the theatre that sprang to life after the restoration of Charles II in 1660. Her study is divided into three parts which examine the period and its style, including the participation of the audience, the new forms of drama and comedy that emerged, and the modernizing of music and spectacle; the characters the actors and actresses played; and the business of the theatres, and how women on the stage affected that business.

Prynne, William. Histrio-mastix.: The players scourge, or, actors tragædie, divided into two parts. Wherein it is largely evidenced, by divers arguments, by the concurring authorities and resolutions of sundry texts of Scripture ... That popular stage-playes ... are sinfull, heathenish, lewde, ungodly spectacles, and most pernicious corruptions; condemned in all ages, as intolerable mischiefes to churches, to republickes, to the manners, mindes, and soules of men. And that the profession of play-poets, of stage-players; together with the penning, acting, and frequenting of stage-playes, are unlawfull, infamous and misbeseeming Christians. All pretences to the contrary are here likewise fully answered; and the unlawfulnes of acting, of beholding academicall enterludes, briefly discussed; besides sundry other particulars concerning dancing, dicing, health-drinking, &c. of which the table will informe you. 1633. New York: Garland, 1974.

Randall, Dale B.J. Winter Fruit: English Drama 1642-1660. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1995.

Randall's analysis of the dramatic writings produced during the political strife of the twenty or so years preceding the restoration of Charles II targets a large number of texts, most of which are rarely ever read or studied. Randall gives more space to those texts whose historical or political pertinence can be ascertained.

The theatrical companies were silenced by Parliament in 1642, a full eight years before the birth of Nell Gwynne. It is significant to note that the theatres that were closed were theatres that did not employ women, but they did have a history of undeniable greatness. Randall proposes that the closing of the theatres implicitly reinforced the danger and effectiveness of dramatic performances of the day. And although the theatres were officially closed, dramatic productions did continue, though behind a great veil of secrecy.

English plays between 1642 and 1660 were affected by social, religious and political forces, but the period of time preceding the official closure of the theatres shows that there was a growing view of the stage and stage plays as entertainment coming from the devil, and this included men and boys performing female roles in female clothes, and the unremarked presence of whores and pimps in the theatres.

Playwriting and playacting, though outlawed, continued to take place, and it was during this time of sequestered dramatic efforts that the first appearances by women on the stage took place. In 1656, William Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes, the first English opera and the forerunner of the Restoration heroic play, was presented with elaborate movable scenery and the first proscenium arch on a public English stage. But most importantly for the purposes of this project, The Siege of Rhodes called for what is now generally regarded as the first appearance of an actress on a public stage in England. Catherine Coleman, the wife of Edward Coleman, was now the singer of an actual role. This cannot be overly emphasized. Of particular interest is the chaste nature of this first role professionally acted by a woman.

Long before Charles II's coronation, professional performances of plays had resumed, and on August 21, 1660, William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew received their warrants entitling them to a monopoly on professional theatrical performances in London. According to Randall, the use of scenery and music had a new life with the new reign, but both had precedents during the Interregnum. Definitely, though, the Restoration tendency toward realism on the stage was enhanced by the appearance of women playing women.

Schneider, Ben Ross, Jr. The Ethos of Restoration Comedy. Urbana: The U of Chicago P, 1971.

Shepherd, Simon. Amazons and Warrior Women: Varieties of Feminism in Seventeenth-Century Drama. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981.

Summers, Montague. The Playhouse of Pepys. New York: Humanities P, 1964.

In essence, this is Volume II of Summers' study of the Restoration stage; part one is his book The Restoration Theatre, first published in 1934. This volume covers the Restoration theatre from 1660 to 1682, a period encompassing Nell Gwynne's short-lived career on the stage, from the time of the restoration of King Charles II until the union of the two competing theatre companies.

Special emphasis is placed on the connection between the Theatre that was closed down in 1642 and the Theatre that reopened in 1659-1660, a connection that shows how the tradition of the English theatre, while modified, was never really broken, though it did endure disruption and loss. Of special interest and pertinence for the project is the insight that is provided concerning the conditions under which the authors of plays in the days of Charles II wrote their works.

---. The Restoration Theatre. 1934. New York: Humanities P, 1964.

Summers offers an excellent overview of the physical conditions of the Restoration playhouse, i.e., the apron stage, lighting, scenery and scene changing, advertising and admissions. This volume will prove helpful if there is a need to depict Nell at the theatre as an actress on the stage.

Thompson, Elbert N. S. The Controversy between the Puritans and the Stage. 1903. New York: Russell & Russell, 1966.

Trease, Geoffrey. London: A Concise History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975.

Beginning with Londinium and traveling into London's future as head of a vast empire, Trease's book is readable and--as he asserts--concise. Several chapters are devoted to the times of Charles I and Charles II, providing a great outline of the history of the times.

---. Samuel Pepys and His World. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972.

Trease offers a wonderfully readable biography of the diarist, Samuel Pepys, contemporary of the restored King Charles II, and the way in which his life mirrors all that has come to be associated with the vibrant world of London during Restoration England. The book offers a plethora of illustrations and a detailed chronology.

Wheatley, Henry B, ed. The Diary of Samuel Pepys M.A. F.R.S., Clerk of the Acts and Secretary to the Admiralty. 10 vols. London: George Bell & Sons, 1899.

Wheatley, Henry Benjamin. Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In. 1889. New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1975.

Wheatley explains his book as a complete analysis of the entire Diary and the incidents of Pepys' life, to be used a companion while reading the Diary. There is only one minor mention of Nell, but the book does annotate effectively the circumstances of Pepys' diary entries.