Books: Nell Gwyn

PRETTY WITTY NELL—Clifford Bax—Morrow ($3).

Nell Gwyn's 37 years were not all beer & skittles, but Biographer Bax is of the cheerful opinion that her short life was mostly merry. In a musical-comedy age she played one of the star parts, and the applause has not yet died away. Born in the slums of London, her father dead and her mother already a drunkard, Nell served drinks in a bawdy-house when she was still a moppet. She was only 10 when the Restoration brought her future lover, Charles II, back to England. Puritanism no longer...