COURTESANS

See Also: POOR NELLY PROSTITUTION; MENU; MENU

King Charles II's Mistresses

The Duchess of Cleveland

Barbara Palmer regarded Moll Davis as presenting a potential threat to her own place in the monarch's interests. Therefore, upon one occasion when she knew the woman was due to meet with the king, Palmer invited her to eat with her. Davis s food was laced with a strong emetic. Therefore, while she and Charles were in congress when she suffered a severe bout of projectile vomiting. Subsequently, Charles's interest in her waned.

The Duchess of Portsmouth

The anonymous manuscript An Essay on Satire (1679) attacked a range of court figures including King Charles II, the 6^th Earl of Dorset, the 2^nd Earl of Rochester (who was also a poet), and the Duchess of Portsmouth, who was the snootiest of the king's mistresses. Close to The Lamb & Flag pub the poet and playwright John Dryden was almost assassinated by some men who had been hired by the duchess to attack him. His survival is commemorated annually in the establishment. It is almost certain that Dryden was not the principal author of the Essay, which does not bear his flourish. The work was probably composed by the 3^rd Earl of Mulgrave, who may have called upon the writer to aid him with some of its lines. Dryden may have been a long-standing target of the duchess. His career as a playwright had been launched in 1663 with the aid of the Duchess of Cleveland, who was another of the king's mistress.

Location: 33 Rose Street, WC2E 9EB (orange, orange)

See Also: THE WHITBY TRADE

Lillie Langtry

The D Oyly Carte Company induced Oscar Wilde to promote Gilbert and Sullivan s operetta Patience (1881), which was a spoof of aestheticism, a movement that he was closely associated with. Jumbo and Lily Langtry were also touring in parallel.

Location: 19 Dunraven Street, W1K 7DF. The home of Langtry during the 1870s. (blue, brown)

'Skittles' Walters

Catherine `Skittles Walters was a renowned Victorian courtesan.

Location: 15 South Street, W1K 2XB (orange, yellow)

Harriette Wilson

Harriette Wilson was a highly successful courtesan who sought to profit from her exploits a second time by writing her memoirs. She and her publisher John Joseph Stockdale showed the proofs to her numerous ex-lovers, with the intention of inducing them to pay her hush money so that she would leave them out of the book. Her actions induced the Duke of Wellington, with whom she is supposed to have been involved with for a while, to exclaim Publish and be damned! This is now stock phrase in the English language. When Walters and Stockdale did publish the book in 1826, they made a lot of money but promptly lost it in a series of libel suits, ruining themselves in the process.

David Backhouse 2024