2024/135: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock — Imogen Hermes Gowar

2024/135: The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock — Imogen Hermes Gowar

‘How was the play?’ asks Mrs Frost. ‘Did you take in even a line of it?’
‘Oh! I regret I watched a great deal too much of it, knowing I was only invited there for one night. I should have looked more about myself; I believe I missed some gossip. I must find a gentleman who has a good box, Eliza, and who will let me sit in it every night; that way I need pay no mind to the play unless there is really nothing else to see.’ [loc. 863]

Mr Hancock is a successful merchant, a childless widower who shares his Deptford house with his niece Sukie and Bridget the maid. He is a philanthropist and a thoroughly decent fellow. Mrs Angelica Neal is a successful courtesan, beautiful and profligate, sharing an apartment on Dean Street with her companion Mrs Frost. She is exuberant and likeable. They are brought together by spectacle: for one night, one of Mr Hancock's sea-captains returns from a long voyage to tell his employer that he has sold the ship he captained, and purchased with the proceeds a mermaid.

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