Elizabeth Polwhele

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Writing during the early Restoration period, EP left in manuscript two plays (a tragedy and a comedy), another work whose genre is unidentified but which may have been a masque, and probably a eulogistic poem.
  • BirthName: Elizabeth Polwhele
    Elizabeth depends on the speculative identification of the plawright, who left only the initial of her Christian name, and who herself spelled her surname Polewheele.
    Polwhele, Elizabeth. “Introduction: A ’Lost’ Play and its Context”. The Frolicks, edited by Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, Cornell University Press, 1977, pp. 13-49.
    34

  • Married: Lobb
    This name, if it was indeed hers, was also spelt Lob.
  • Pseudonym: E. P.
    She may also be the Mrs. E. P. to whom a manuscript poem was attributed.

Milestones

In or after 1651

EP the future dramatist was born—if she was indeed the EP with whom her editors, Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume , identify her.
Polwhele, Elizabeth. “Introduction: A ’Lost’ Play and its Context”. The Frolicks, edited by Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, Cornell University Press, 1977, pp. 13-49.
44
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

By 25 March 1672

EP wrote her only play to have reached print (centuries after its composition), the comedy The Frolicks; or, the Lawyer Cheated.
She dated it 1671, which in old-style terms ran until this date in March.
Polwhele, Elizabeth. “Introduction: A ’Lost’ Play and its Context”. The Frolicks, edited by Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, Cornell University Press, 1977, pp. 13-49.
34, 41
Polwhele, Elizabeth. “Introduction: A ’Lost’ Play and its Context”. The Frolicks, edited by Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, Cornell University Press, 1977, pp. 13-49.
18

By 1691

The former EP , wife of Stephen Lobb and probably the playwright of the 1670s, died by the time that her funeral sermon was printed during the course of this year.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Possible Identity

In or after 1651

EP the future dramatist was born—if she was indeed the EP with whom her editors, Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume , identify her.
Polwhele, Elizabeth. “Introduction: A ’Lost’ Play and its Context”. The Frolicks, edited by Judith Milhous and Robert D. Hume, Cornell University Press, 1977, pp. 13-49.
44
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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