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.
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...
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
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.
Literary responses
May Drummond
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...
Textual Production
Mary Davys
MD
may have written An Answer from the King of Sweden
to the British Lady's Epistle, in response to a poem by Susanna Centlivre
.
Bowden, Martha F., and Mary Davys. “Introduction”. The Reform’d Coquet; or, Memoirs of Amoranda; Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady; and, The Accomplish’d Rake; or, Modern Fine Gentleman, University Press of Kentucky, p. ix - xlix.
xx
Textual Production
Clemence Dane
The tale of Covent Garden begins with Inigo Jones
's building there in the 1630s of the first London square, prototype for many more. CD
throws together a colourful account of its local characters and...
Occupation
Edmund Curll
Curll was apprenticed sometime around 1697 to 1699, and set up in business for himself by early 1706.
Baines, Paul, and Pat Rogers. Edmund Curll, Bookseller. Clarendon Press.
12, 22
He became a particularly agile entrepreneur with a nose for new market niches and an...
Textual Features
May Crommelin
The story opens as Irene Ronaldson receives the news that she has inherited a fortune of twenty thousand pounds a year.
“May Crommelin (Maria Henriette de la Cherois-Crommelin) (1849 - 1930)”. Crommelin Family, The Netherlands.
Irene is an orphan: her father lost everything in a bank crash, went out...
Intertextuality and Influence
Hannah Cowley
A prologue refers to the chivalric ages, when nobody criticised women except men of learning who were unequal to fighting with their own sex. Today, it observes, such criticism is more widespread. The play's satire...
Literary responses
Hannah Cowley
The Critical called The Belle's Stratagemthe best dramatic production of a female pen which has appeared since the days of Centlivre
, to whom Mrs. Cowley is at least equal in fable and character...
Intertextuality and Influence
Hannah Cowley
The action is set in Madrid. The title reverses the gender roles of Susanna Centlivre
's A Bold Stroke for a Wife. Of the paired heroines, Victoria reclaims her faithless husband, Carlos, by...
Literary responses
Hannah Cowley
Anna Seward
included HC
among her seven celebrated Female Poets
Gentleman’s Magazine. Various publishers.
59 (1789): 292
of the present day in April 1789. Recent critical comment on her includes an examination of her use of marriage law in...
Intertextuality and Influence
Frances Burney
This novel adopts the point of view of an omniscient, often moralising, narrator. Its language has been often criticised as Johnson
ian. It has in fact little in common with Johnson's style, though it betrays...
Education
Elizabeth Boyd
EB
says nothing about how she learned the things she knew—an acquaintance with English literature, some history, and at least a smattering of French and Latin—but she may well have been largely self-taught. She often...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Boyd
EB
offers original, discriminating praise for women's writing: Susanna Centlivre
(her inspiration, she says), Eliza Haywood
(though she regrets her exposure of women's faults), Aphra Behn
, and Delarivier Manley
, whom she calls the...
