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THE PALMY DAYS OF NANCE OLDFIELD
BY
EDWARD ROBINS
WITH PORTRAITS
1898
[Illustration: Mrs. Oldfield the celebrated Comedian]
CONTENTS
I. FROM TAVERN TO THEATRE II. AN ENTRE-ACTE III. A BELLE OF METTLE IV. MANAGERIAL WICKEDNESS V. A DEAD HERO VI. IN TRAGIC PATHS VII. NANCE AT HOME VIII. THE MIMIC WORLD IX. "GRIEF À LA MODE" X. THE BARTON BOOTHS XI. THE FADING OF A STAR APPENDIX
PORTRAITS
Frontispiece: Mrs. Anne Oldfield
Title-page: Mrs. Oldfield in the Character of Fair Rosamond
Colley Cibber in the Character of Sir Novelty Fashion
Robert Wilks
William Congreve
Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle
Mrs. Bracegirdle as the "Sultaness"
Joseph Addison
Mrs. Anne Oldfield
Mr. Mills, Mrs. Porter, Mr. Cibber
Sir John Vanbrugh
Sir Richard Steele
Barton Booth
THE PALMY DAYS OF NANCE OLDFIELD
CHAPTER I
FROM TAVERN TO THEATRE
"Out of question, you were born in a merry hour," says Don Pedro tothe blithesome heroine of "Much Ado About Nothing."
"No, sure, my lord," answers Beatrice. "My mother cried; but thenthere was a star danced, and under that was I born."
Surely a star, possibly Venus, must have danced gaily on a certainnight in the year of grace 1683, when the wife of Captain Oldfield,gentleman by birth and Royal Guardsman by profession, brought into thebusy, unfeeling world of London a pretty mite of a girl. 'Twas a yearof grace indeed, for the little stranger happened to be none otherthan Anne Oldfield, whose elegance of manner, charm of voice andaction and loveliness of face would in time make her the mostdelightful comedienne of her day. Perhaps she found no instantwelcome, this diminutive maiden who came smiling into existence ladenwith a message from the sunshine; her father was richer in ancestrythan guineas, and the arrival of another daughter may have seemed anhonour hardly worth the bestowal.[A] But Thalia laughed, as well shemight, and even the stern features of Melpomene relaxed a little inwitnessing the birth of one who would prove almost as wondrous intragedy, when she so minded, as she was fascinating in the gentlerphases of her art.
[Footnote A: According to Edmund Bellchambers, Anne Oldfield "wouldhave possessed a tolerable fortune, had not her father, a captain inthe army, expended it at a very early period."]
Yet the laughter of Thalia and the unbending of her sister Muse werehardly likely to make much impression in the Oldfield household, wheremoney had more admirers than mythology, and so we are not surprised tolearn that, with the death of the gallant captain, this "incomparablesweet girl," who would ere long reconcile even a superciliousFrenchman to the English stage, had to seek her living as aseamstress. How she sewed a bodice or hemmed a petticoat we know not,nor do we care; it is far more interesting to be told that, thoughonly in her early teens, the toiler with t