Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Susanna Centlivre
-
Standard Name: Centlivre, Susanna
Birth Name: Susanna Freeman
Married Name: Susanna Rawkins
Married Name: Susanna Carroll
Married Name: Susanna Centlivre
Married Name: Susanna Ustick
Married Name: Susanna Fox
Pseudonym: Astraea
Pseudonym: Mrs D. E.
Pseudonym: The Author of The Gamester
Used Form: Mrs Cent-Livre
Used Form: Mrs Centlivre
Used Form: R. M.
Used Form: the author of The Gamester and Love's Contrivance
SC
was a versatile professional writer of the early eighteenth century, who used many genres (poetry, letters, possibly journalism), but whose fame rests on her comedies. Of fourteen of these (including adaptations), several held their place in the repertory for a century or more.
William Cookworthy
of Plymouth, who heard her speak in 1744, commented on her surprising genius and quick, lively, penetrating comprehension. He called her a great connoisseur of the human heart in all its emotions, passions...
Anthologization
Martha Fowke
Five poems by MF
(as Mrs. Fowke) appeared in good poetic company (with Pope
, Prior
, Susanna Centlivre
, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
, and others) in Anthony Hammond
's A New Miscellany, published on 19 May 1720.
Textual Production
Sarah Fyge
SF
published her Poems on Several Occasions, with prefatory verses probably by Mary Pix
and Susanna Centlivre
.
Foxon, David F. English Verse 1701-1750. Cambridge University Press.
Bowyer, John Wilson. The Celebrated Mrs Centlivre. Duke University Press.
31-2
Textual Production
Sarah Gardner
The sub-title repeats and reverses the title of Susanna Centlivre
's A Bold Stroke for a Wife, 1718. SG
said she wrote this play not from vanity or desire of applause but a view...
Friends, Associates
Eliza Haywood
At this point in her life EH
entered on literary relationships with Aaron Hill
(who, with some gallant condescension, was a good friend to women writers) and his circle. They included Richard Savage
(who has...
Reception
Margaret Holford
The writer of the note which follows this play in The New British Theatre was not sure if it had ever been staged. The note maintained that the play's quality contradicted the common belief that...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Inchbald
EI
did not choose the plays herself. Shakespeare fills the first five volumes, apart from one piece by Ben Jonson
, and five of her own plays fill volume 20. The eighteenth century is better...
Friends, Associates
Delarivier Manley
The early years of Queen Anne
's reign found DM
bitterly divided by politics from most of the women she had written and collaborated with: Centlivre
, Pix
and Trotter
, as well as Fyge.
Manley, Delarivier. “Introduction”. New Atalantis, edited by Ros Ballaster, Pickering and Chatto, p. v - xxviii.
xiii
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Mary Seymour Montague
The third epistle performs the conventional act of praising historical women: the monarchs Elizabeth I
and Catherine the Great
of Russia for their exercise of power, the French scholar Anne Dacier
, and eleven British...
Wealth and Poverty
Mary Pix
Just over a week after MP
died, a performance of Susanna Centlivre
's The Busie Body was given for the benefit of her executor (indirectly, therefore, for her family).
Lyons, Paddy, and Fidelis Morgan, editors. Female Playwrights of the Restoration: Five Comedies. J. M. Dent.
MP
supported Susanna Centlivre
in the early stages of the latter's career, and may even have had a hand in her greatest hit, The Busie Body, 1709.
Greer, Germaine et al., editors. Kissing the Rod. Virago.
414
Textual Features
Alexander Pope
The play is remarkable among its other fun for a minor characater, Phoebe Clinket, an unhinged woman poet. She was wrongly identified in Edward Parker
's Key as Anne Finch
, a mistake which has...
Intertextuality and Influence
Clara Reeve
As in Scott's novel, the central characters in this novel have suffered in marriage before gaining their freedom. Frances Darnford
has resisted all temptation to be unfaithful to the husband who gambles away their resources...
Textual Features
Mary Robinson
To demonstrate, as well as arguing for, mental equality, MR
learnedly surveys the course of political and literary history. She honours many women writers of the past (Aphra Behn
and Susanna Centlivre
as well...
