The King's Mistress

The King's Mistress is a play by an unnamed author.

The original text

No play by this name has been traced, but it is probably a play about the popular figure of Nell Gwynne[1], Charles II's mistress, in which case it is also likely to have been one of three plays about her that made their debut in 1900. (Sweet Nell of Old Drury by Paul Kester, Mistress Nell by George Hazelton or English Nell by Edward Rose, later retitled Nell Gwynne).

However, since the company that performed the play in Cape Town came from the USA, the m,ost likely candidate would have been (a version) of Mistress Nell, a popular four act play subtitled "a Merry Tale of a Merry Time ('twixt fact and fancy). Written by the American author George C. Hazelton ()[], the play opened at Wallack's Theatre on Broadway on 21 April, 1901, and was published by Scribner's, New York, 1901

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1907: Performed as The King's Mistress in Cape Town by the visiting Woods-Williamson Company during the first part of the year, as part of a short season at the Opera House, under the auspices of the Wheeler Brothers. The season also included The Garden of Lies (Grundy), In the Palace of the King (Stoddard) and The Gates of Bondage (Williamson). The season was not well received by the Cape Town public.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_Gwyn

John Charles Franceschina. 2003. David Braham: The American Offenbach. Psychology Press: p.252[2]

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8249811757&searchurl=fe%3Don%26sortby%3D17%26tn%3Dmerry%2Btime&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1932. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1912. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp.426-427

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