Lola Montez the Pomegranate

As one ardent fan wrote, “Lola Montez was an enchantress. There was about her something provoking and voluptuous which drew you. Her skin was white, her wavy hair like tendrils of the woodbine, her eyes tameless and wild, her mouth like a budding pomegranate. Add to that a dashing figure, charming feet and perfect grace.” Dumas père and others were smitten by the pomegranate.

The speculation about Lola turned out to be right – she was born Maria Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, probably in 1821 in Limerick, Ireland, with her mother’s side providing the Spanish names and dark Spanish eyes that bewitched her fans. Lola Montez was just the stage name for this wild Irish wanderer who was in her heyday in the 1840s and dead by 1861, not yet 40 years old.