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.
"Susanna Centlivre" Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Susanna_Centlivre.jpg.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. This work is in the public domain.
The ascription has been subject to some question, since the formerly accepted birthdate for CT
made her only fourteen at the time; the date established by more recent scholarship makes her approaching twenty.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray, Brian Harrison, and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/, http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
The volume,...
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.
Anthologization
Jane Wiseman
Also in 1701, before JW
's the play appeared, Abel Boyer
included in his Letters of Wit, Politicks and Morality several writings by her: letters (under the name of Daphne) to George Farquhar
and...
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...
Friends, Associates
Sarah, Lady Piers
SLP
was in correspondence with Catharine Trotter
from at least 1697 to 1709 (the year after Trotter's marriage). The relationship was warm: when Trotter, now Cockburn, was married and expecting her first child, Piers hoped...
She was a friend and correspondent of George Farquhar
and the future Susanna Centlivre
; the fact that she addressed a poem to Aphra Behn
and that Abel Boyer
published letters by her may indicate...
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...
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, 1991, p. v - xxviii.
xiii
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Timeline
8 July 1709-31 March 1710
The thrice-weekly Female Tatler appeared, an explicitly woman-centred riposte to the condescending or gender-prejudiced element in Richard Steele
's still-new Tatler.
6 December 1718
Nicholas Rowe
, playwright, translator, and editor of Shakespeare
, died after four years in the post of Poet Laureate.
Kitty Clive
gave her farewell performance. She had enjoyed great success as a comic actress, and some as a playwright.
23 September 1782
Covent Garden Theatre
re-opened after a three-month reconstruction, enlargement, and renovation.
1994
Juggernaut
was set up as a small New York theatre company; in 2001 it decided to publicise the work of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century women playwrights.
