A vulgar poem by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester describes the “pains it costs” to this “poor, laborious” woman as she works to “raise the member she enjoys.” For 10 points each:
[10m] Name this actress who played Florimel in John Dryden’s The Maiden Queen, whose original cast included her lover Charles Hart. Rochester’s poem describes this woman’s role as the king’s mistress.
ANSWER: Nell Gwyn [or Eleanor Gwyn; prompt on Nelly]
[10e] Nell Gwyn was a mistress of this king, whose court of libertines included the Earl of Rochester. He ended the Puritan ban on public stage performances.
ANSWER: Charles II [prompt on Charles]
[10h] Gwyn appears with Isaac Newton in this playwright’s In Good King Charles’s Golden Days. Shakespeare falls for Elizabeth I and tries to get her to establish a National Theatre in his play The Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
ANSWER: George Bernard Shaw
<British Literature>