As this giddy and dissipated creature gave rise to a noble and most worthy family, one would have nothing desired against her by way of romance; she had some very good qualities to contrast against her bad education and vicious habits.

Without proofs and citations, one can pay but a proportionate regard to many facts reported of her in a pamphlet, which is certainly well-written; nevertheless many assertions there clash with accounts better known, and offend against probability.

It no way appears that Lord Rochester was ever enamoured of her. Mrs. Barry was his passion, and Mrs. Botel antecedently to Mrs. Barry, at the time when Miss Gwynn trod the stage; and the King never seeing her till at a certain nobleman's house, it is well known that he had seen her uninterruptedly on the stage from 1667 to 1671, and fell in love with her on her speaking the epilogue of Tyrannical Love, which seems to have been written by Dryden on purpose. It is doubtful, too, if she ever played at Dorset Garden.

Nelly was highly favoured by Dryden. For many years he gave her the most showy and fantastic parts in his comedies.

It looks as if he played her at the monarch for a considerable time, since, not to mention the epilogue last spoken of, he wrote on purpose for her an equally whimsical and spirited prologue, prefixed to Orengzebe. At the other house (viz., the Duke's, under Killigrew's patent) Nokes had appeared in a hat larger than Pistol's, which gave the town wonderful delight, and supported a bad play by its pure effect (perhaps Mamamouchi, or The Citizen Turned Gentleman, a comedy by Ravenscroft). Dryden, piqued at this, caused a hat to be made the circumference of a hinder coach wheel, and as Nelly was low of stature, and what the French call "mignon and piquante," he made her speak under the umbrella of that hat, the brims thereof being spread out horizontally to their full extension. The whole theatre was in convulsions of applause; nay, the very actors giggled, a circumstance none had observed before. Judge, therefore, what a condition the merriest prince alive was in at such a conjuncture. He wanted little of being suffocated with laughter.