Chronicles of Florizel and Perdita

Abstract

On December 3, 1779, members of the British royal family, including the King, Queen, and Prince of Wales, attended a command performance at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. The play was Florizel and Perdita, a 1756 adaptation by David Garrick of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. Mary Robinson played the title role.¹ The Prince sat in his own box, opposite his parents’, and according to Robinson’s Memoirs, spent most of the evening staring at her (Robinson Memoirs II. 38). He had probably seen Robinson before, but they both claim this evening marked the beginning of his infatuation.² He began to woo her “almost daily” (II. 46) in letters, addressing her as “Perdita” and signing himself “Florizel.” Their romance lasted slightly less than one year. They became lovers in June 1780, after the Prince gave Robinson a promissory note for 20,000 pounds, to be paid when he came of age at twenty-one. They met frequently throughout the summer and early fall. Sometime in December 1780, the Prince ended the affair, possibly out of jealousy at Robinson’s reputed liaison with his friend and go-between Lord Malden. It is more likely the affair ended because the Prince was already involved with another actress, Elizabeth Armistead (who later became the mistress and eventually wife of Charles James Fox).