![]() ![]() ![]() Proposing to act as an intermediary for this “Cromwelian calf” (2) unconversant with the usages and habits (5) of Peckham, the Killigrew character points out that the language of the place “is not very copious… we have but two vowels which govern our whole alphabet, and they are U and I: but U is always kept in slavish subjection to I” (7). Neither very scandalous nor very comic, the action of The Peckham Frolic centres on Nell Gwyn’s attempts, in the interest of diversion and financial gain, to pair off Killigrew’s maiden aunt Ann with Sir Oliver Luke, a well-to-do country gentleman knighted in the days of Oliver Cromwell and now seeking to redeem himself with the king. Inspired by the legend that it was in Peckham, Surrey, that Charles II used to be entertained by his mistress Nell Gwyn (1650-1687), Jerningham’s comedy not only featured the Merry Monarch himself but also a handful of disreputable writers whose names had become associated with the proverbially immoral Restoration court: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680) Sir Charles Sedley (c.1639-1701) and Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683). 1In 1799, the poet and playwright Edward Jerningham (1737-1812) brought out The Peckham Frolic: or Nell Gwyn, a short historical play of the kind at which he had rather unsuccessfully tried his hand in previous decades (Smith). ![]()
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