3). She exits, vowing that she will never see him again but with her final words ringing in his ears. Nemours, the rascal until the end, does not believe the parting will be permanent, saying to his friend, "'Believe that you shall never see me more.' She lies. I'll wager my state I bed her eighteen months three weeks hence at half an hour past two in the morning" (5.3.255-257). She has become one more challenge to be met.
The author who makes the story of Nemours and his princess so much his own enjoyed a colorful career and a reckless life. Nathaniel Lee, like his contemporary playwright Thomas Otway, was the son of a clergyman, attended university, failed at an attempt to establish himself as an actor, and subsequently turned to playwriting. He produced his first play in 1675; in the mode of the day, his first three tragedies were written in rhyme, but he eventually adopted a combination of blank verse and prose for his later works.
George Henry Nettleton notes that The Princess of Cleves "is described in the dedication as 'this Farce, Com
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