In and About Drury Lane, and Other Papers, Vol. 2 (of 2): Reprinted from the pages of the 'Temple Bar' MagazineDoran, Dr. (John)
History
In and About Drury Lane, and Other Papers, Vol. 2 (of 2): Reprinted from the pages of the 'Temple Bar' Magazine
Doran, Dr. (John)
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Theater -- England -- London -- Anecdotes
It is very clear that all along Finch perplexed Dering quite as much
as the widow did. The Recorder spoke well of Sir Edward to himself and
to his friends, and promised to speak well of him to the widow. And
perhaps he did; but at the same time Sir Heneage did not neglect his
own interests. One morning the bells of St. Dunstan’s in the West,
the fashionable church for marriages, rang out a merry wedding peal.
Dr. Raven came out of prison, where he was some time in durance for
his silly assault, just in time to hear the peal. Sir Edward may be
supposed to have put his head out inquiringly from his window. If so,
he must have enjoyed a pretty sight--that of Sir Heneage Finch, in
holiday array, leading into the beautiful widow Bennett’s house that
most tantalising of fair women, as his bride--Lady Finch! Bow bells
took up the peal, as if to announce to all Cocagne that they had all
the while known what was going on. Cockneydom protested that it had
never expected any other issue to the City comedy. Indeed there was a
double marriage. While the widow had been playing with her suitors, her
niece, pretty Mary Croke, daughter of Sir George, had been indulging
in pretty love passages with Harbottle, afterwards Sir Harbottle
Grimstone, Master of the Rolls. On April 16, 1629, aunt and niece, with
their respective lovers, met at St. Dunstan’s, and were then and there
happily married.
The marriage of Sir Heneage with the fair widow was productive of
two daughters,[1] of whom one, Anne, married that Earl of Conway
so celebrated by Burnet for his ignorance. When a foreign minister
once spoke to him of the Circles of Germany, my lord laughed, and
asked, ‘What have circles to do with affairs of state?’ We may
appropriately add that Mrs. Bennett’s son, Simon, became a man of
immense wealth--wealth which his three daughters carried into as many
noble families, very much to the satisfaction of the latter. But what
of the disappointed lover in this comedy? Well, the curtain went down
merrily for him also. He happened to see pretty Unton Gibbes, daughter
of the Warwickshire Sir Ralph, and Sir Edward, having an alacrity
in falling in love, was ‘over head and ears’ immediately. The lady
went straightway to the same depths. They came up together, happy man
and wife, and lived like young lovers. He was passionately attached
to her to the last; but she survived him full thirty years, finding
solace at the affectionate hands of two sons and two daughters. For
Unton, Sir Edward had one of those pet names which, outside the circle
of love, sound so unlovely. It was NUMPS! ‘My ever dear Numps,’ he
says, in a letter addressed to her from London, in 1640, full of
political intelligence, ‘thy pretious and hearty letter I received
with that ardor that it was written.... I shall not see thee so soon
as I wish.... God preserve my pretty children and send thee ease of
thy troublesome cough.... I thank thee for the length of thy welcome
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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