o address letters to each other,
exchanging reproaches in regard to the impropriety of their manner of
life. Nell Gwynne accuses her correspondent of squandering her money
and of gaming. "I am ashamed to think that a woman who had wit enough
to tickle a Prince out of so fine an estate should at last prove such
a fool as to be bubbled of it by a little spotted ivory and painted
paper." "Peg Hughes," as she is called, replies, congratulating
herself upon her generosity, treating the loss of her estate as "the
only piece of carelessness I ever committed worth my boast," and
charging "Madam Gwynne" with vulgar avarice and the love of "lucre of
base coin." We can glean nothing more of the story of Mrs. Hughes.

It is uncertain indeed in what degree the advent of the first actress
affected her audience; whether the novelty of the proceeding gratified
or shocked them the more. It was really a startling innovation--a
wonderful improvement as it seems to us; yet assuredly there were
numerous conservative playgoers who held fast to the old ways of the
theatre, and approved "boy-actresses"--not needing such aids to
illusion as the personation of women by women, but rather objecting
thereto, for the same reason that they deprecated the introduction of
scenery, because of appeal and stimulus to the imagination of the
audience becoming in such wise greatly and perilously reduced. Then of
course there were staid and sober folk who judged the profession of
the stage to be most ill-suited for women. And certainly this view of
the matter was much confirmed by the conduct of our earlier actresses,
which was indeed open to the gravest reproach. From Mr. Jordan's
prologue may be gathered some notion of the situation of the
spectators on the night, or rather the afternoon, of December 8th,
1660. The theatre was probably but a poor-looking structure, hastily
put together in the Tennis-court to serve the purpose of the manager
for a time merely. Seven years later, Tom Killigrew, talking to Mr.
Pepys, boasted that the stage had become "by his pains a thousand
times better and more glorious than ever before." There had been
improvement in the candles; the audience was more civilised; the
orchestra had been increased; the rushes had been swept from the
stage; everything that had been mean was now "all otherwise." The
manager possibly had in his mind during this retrospect the condition
of the Vere Street Theatre while under his management. The au