Even the intelligent and generally liberal-minded Evelyn speaks of the drama as abused to ’an atheistical liberty,’ by the circumstance of women being suffered to become performers. In his Diary, October 18, 1666, he writes: ’This night was acted my Lord Broghill’s tragedy, called "Mustapha," before their Majesties at Court, at which I was present, very seldom going to the public theatres for many reasons now, as they were abused to an atheistical liberty, foul and indecent women now (and never till now) permitted to appear and act, who, inflaming several young noblemen and gallants, became their misses, and to some their wives, witness ye Earl of Oxford, Sir R. Howard, P. Rupert, the Earl of Dorset, and another greater person than any of them, who fell into their snares, to ye reproach of their noble families, and ruin of both body and soul.’ By ’another greater person,’ Evelyn no doubt intended the King himself, Charles II., who had at least three avowed mistresses taken from the stage—Madam Davis, Mrs. Knight, and Nell Gwynne. Miss Davis was, according to Pepys, a natural daughter of the Earl of Berkshire. He went to see her perform on March 7, 1666, in ’The English Princess,’ and ’little Miss Davis did dance a jigg after the end of the play, and there telling the next day’s play, so that it came in by force only to see her dance in boy’s clothes.’ Mrs. Knight was a famous singer. Kneller painted her portrait. Of Nell Gwynne we shall have occasion to speak further on. At the same theatre Mrs. Davenport, the lady who played the part of Roxalana in ’The Siege of Rhodes,’ was taken to be the Earl of Oxford’s _misse_, as at this time they began to call lewd women, as Evelyn says. But Evelyn evidently was badly informed. Mrs. Davenport for a long time refused the Earl of Oxford’s presents and overtures, but, on his offering to marry her, she consented. The ceremony was performed, and they lived together for some time, and then the Earl informed her that the marriage was a sham, and that the mock parson was one of his trumpeters. In vain the deluded woman appealed to the laws, in vain she threw herself at the King’s feet to demand justice. She might consider herself lucky to obtain a pension of £300. Pepys saw her afterwards at the theatre, and says: ’Saw the old Roxalana in the chief box, in a velvet gown, as the fashion is, and very handsome, at which I was glad.’