Leah Sumbel

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Standard Name: Sumbel, Leah
Birth Name: Mary Stephens Davies
Married Name: Mary Stephens Wells
Nickname: Cowslip
Nickname: Becky
Pseudonym: Old Kent
Self-constructed Name: Mary Weston
Married Name: Mary Stephens Sumbel
Self-constructed Name: Leah Sumbel
LS , an actress of the later eighteenth century, became a remarkable memoirist as well as a journalist and a dabbler in writing for the stage. Her account of her life may be grouped with courtesan-memoirs or with theatrical memoirs.
Photo of a full-length painting of Leah Sumbel by Samuel de Wilde, performing (under her original name, Mary Wells) as Anne Lovely in Susannah Centlivre's "A Bold Stroke for a Wife". She stands on stage, wearing a long, plain grey dress laced up the bodice, its square neckline filled with a fichu, Her hair is powdered under a tall mob cap with a blue ribbon, and she holds a paper in her hands.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Friends, Associates Elizabeth Inchbald
EI laid the foundations of her lifelong friendship with Sarah Siddons while the two of them were acting with Joseph Younger 's company in Liverpool in 1776. Later she became a close friend of another...
Textual Features Mary Julia Young
MJY 's poem, in fast-moving heroic couplets, opens with Genius invoking the aid of Fancy. Fancy insists that the most beautiful and versatile of the muses is Thalia (who presides over comedy). After urging the...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Elizabeth Jenkins
The ten women here share varying degrees and varying combinations of sexual, political, or literary notoriety. Two of them—Elizabeth Inchbald and Lady Blessington —hold the status of professional authors. Two more—Becky Wells (whom...

Timeline

No timeline events available.

Texts

Sumbel, Leah. Memoirs. C. Chapple, 1811, 3 vols.