ANOTHER CYNTHJA

Although this story of Cynthia Bright, Lady Ffulkes, is listed as fiction, it can almost be best sold as biography, based as it on contemporary records and diaries, told with great deference for the period and for authenticity. It's an amazing story, meteoric, colorful, but nonetheless specialized in appeal. Born in a tavern and married in a jail, Cynthia was a quixotic, dynamic chameleon. A childhood as servant girl, to two stiff old ladies, she escaped to London where she became an actress' protege and was soon herself starred at Bath by Kemble. She loved a wastrel scion of noble family for many years, paid his debts, bore his child, only to be deserted later on. Cynthia, after years of casual and admittedly mercenary dalliance then married her oldest friend, Dickon, a fly-by-night, jack of all trades who turned out to be Lord Ffulkes, and a strong agitator for the common man's cause under Cobbett. A fine background of theatre, aristocracy, Whig and Tory politics for the story of a lovable hothead.