Elizabeth Griffith (1720 – 5 January 1793), sometimes also credited Elizabeth Griffiths, was an 18th-century Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 dramatist, fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

 writer, essayist and actress, best known for her edition of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's comedies

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 published in 1775.

Biography

Griffith was born in Glamorgan

Glamorgan

Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...

, Glamorganshire, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 to Dublin theatre manager Thomas Griffith and his wife Jane Foxcroft Griffith sometime in the 1720s, though more recent scholarship suggests she was born in 1727. Very little about Griffith's early life is known. Her father, who had doted on her, died in 1744. The family was rocked by sudden financial insecurity and the seventeen-year-old Griffith began seeking means to earn her own keep, likely taking small provincial acting jobs. She certainly eventually became a professional actress; her theatrical debut occurred on October 13, 1749, and in her two-year career on the stage she played such roles as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, Cordelia in King Lear

King Lear

King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...

, Sylvia in The Double Gallant, and Ismene in Phaedra and Hippolitus, among others. Though she was not formally educated beyond what was considered appropriate for her gender (with some guidance in polite literature and social graces), her acting career gave her exposure to many different writers and allowed her a kind of make-shift literary education.

In 1751, Griffith was married in secret to Richard Griffith (no relation). Richard's parents did not approve of the match, as they had wished their son to marry a wealthy woman, and Richard attempted to take Griffith as his mistress. She refused, holding out for marriage. After the clandestine wedding, Griffith left the theatre (though there are reports that she took on minor roles in later years for purposes of income), and gave birth to two children, Catherine and Richard. Her husband travelled once the couple had married, and was absent for extended periods. The marriage was rumoured to have been deeply troubled, with Richard taking a mistress for a period during the marriage; Griffith's increasing celebrity was also cause for conflict and separations between the two, as Richard's own career floundered. He had borrowed a large sum of money to develop a linen business, which went bankrupt in 1756. During this time, and while Richard was avoiding debtor’s court, income generated by Griffith's writing sustained the family, and eventually she opted to move alone to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 (leaving the children in the care of her mother) to earn more money producing her plays.

Griffith's son worked for the East India Company

British East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 as an accountant

Accountant

An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...

, and eventually returned to Ireland in 1786. He settled at Millicent House in Kildare, and Griffith and her husband lived out the rest of their days at this residence. Griffith died at Millicent House in 1793.

Themes and connections

Though Griffith’s first plays were deeply critical of the treatment of women, her work underwent a shift soon after her move to London. Griffith found herself attacked by London critics, and she was seen as audacious for demanding respect for women. Where other female playwrights of the time, such as Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...

, were able to work through such criticism, Griffith was not. The need to earn money to support her husband and children led her to conform to contemporary sexual stereotypes; she could not afford to challenge expected norms if it meant losing audiences and pounds.

After this shift, Griffith’s main focus became the domestic sphere. It was at this point that she abandoned the intelligent female protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

 and began to create meek, long-suffering and deeply pained female characters who bear the brunt of a traumatic life with a ne’er-do-well (and often violent) husband. From here her work became quite moralistic; for example, The Times is a warning against the dangers of gambling. But, though she had to package it differently in order to retain an audience, she never fully lost her focus on women’s issues, and her female characters are always the moral superiors of their male counterparts. Overall, her texts focus on a need for moral development – literature as didactic – and she tends to use her female characters as the barometer

Barometer

A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...

 of moral correctness.

Griffith did not see herself as alone in this moral quest. She edited a collection of female dramatists such as Eliza Haywood

Eliza Haywood

Eliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...

 and Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...

. Though these women’s plays were at the time linked to sexual immorality, Griffith argued instead that these women were instructional dramatists who were trying to teach the world about proper morality. This was likely the first reassessing of Behn’s work particularly, but that of women writers in general, and illustrates the important premium Griffith placed upon proper morality.

Contemporary reception

In her own lifetime, Griffith was probably best regarded for the letters between her and her husband that were published over six volumes. A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances (1757–1770) was a celebrated series that featured the edited letters of Mr. and Mrs. Griffith as they moved through courtship to marriage. In the letters, genuine sentimentality

Sentimentality

Sentimentality originally indicated the reliance on feelings as a guide to truth, but current usage defines it as an appeal to shallow, uncomplicated emotions at the expense of reason....

 is the mode of discourse

Discourse

Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...

, and women seem to have been drawn to Griffith as a model of womanhood, illustrating sought-after traits such as intelligence, reflection, and humour. Frances Burney was a fan of this collection, and she referred to the letters as an encouragement for her own style of heartfelt writing.

Her plays seem to have received mixed reviews. The Dictionary of Literary Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography

The Dictionary of Literary Biography is a specialist encyclopedia dedicated to literature. Published by Gale, the 375-volumes set covers a wide variety of literary topics, periods, and genres, with a focus on American and British literature....

states that reviewers of productions of Griffith's work occasionally complained "about poor plotting or lack of incident," but that overall audiences were engaged by Griffith's "admirable" sentiments and morals (175). Though audiences occasionally complained that her female characters were too heavily foregrounded, Griffith's women were always serious characters with well-developed personal values. Griffith was seen as a moralist in much of her work, and was sometimes accused of being unseemly for her use of satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

, as it was not considered feminine.

Griffith chose to publish some plays by subscription, and subscribers to her work included Gertrude Russell, Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....

, James Boswell

James Boswell

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for the biography he wrote of one of his contemporaries, the English literary figure Samuel Johnson....

, Elizabeth Montagu

Elizabeth Montagu

Elizabeth Montagu was a British social reformer, patron of the arts, salonist, literary critic, and writer who helped organize and lead the bluestocking society...

, and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Recent research

According to the Dictionary of Literary Biography, modern historians of drama have generally considered Griffith's plays "undistinguished, often dramatically inept and tediously sententious" (175). Modern readers often feel uncomfortable with the conflicting relationship between women's ability and wifely duty and the general tone of subordination to men encompassed within the play.

Though there remains very little scholarly work on Griffith's life and literature, her body of work represents both an interesting life and an illustration of the struggles of an ordinary woman of modest means attempting to make a career for herself in the 18th century. While not as well-known to modern times as her contemporaries (like Susanna Centlivre

Susanna Centlivre

Susanna Centlivre born Susanna Freeman, also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress and one of the premier dramatists of the 18th century. During her long career at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the Second Woman of the English Stage after Aphra Behn...

), she was certainly a prolific writer in her own period and had made her name in the literary world by the time of her death.

Links

• Millicent House, Kildare, Ireland http://kildare.ie/Heritage/historic-sites/millicent-house.asp
• Elizabeth Eger, ‘Griffith, Elizabeth (1727–1793)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 11 Nov 2006