Susanna Centlivre
Encyclopedia
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
. Many actors and actresses of the 18th and 19th centuries won their fame through their performances of characters in her celebrated plays. Perhaps the best known of these was David Garrick
, who chose to end his acting career as Don Felix in The Wonder, a role that had brought him critical acclaim.
, who claimed that he had received an account of her life directly from her (published in The Poetical Register (1719)); however, there is little biographical information contained in this account about her early life, although she gave her father's last name as Freeman. Both of her parents were parliamentarians
, her father eventually being forced to flee to Ireland
as a known dissenter
. Several sources state that Holbeach
was the possible place of her birth or, at the very least, the place of her childhood (Abel Boyer
gives no opinion on the matter). A biographer, John Bowyer, writes of "one assumption that Susanna’s father died when she was three, that her mother re-married but died before Susanna was twelve, and that her step-father himself remarried shortly after." Abuse by this new stepmother eventually motivated Centlivre to leave her childhood home before the age of 15.
There are two stories on how she then made the transition to acting, eventually arriving in London. The more fantastic version, by John Mottley
, has Centlivre being found weeping at the roadside by Anthony Hammond
, a student at the University of Cambridge
. He, enraptured by her manners and good looks, smuggled her into the school where she was disguised as his male cousin, Jack. There, she remained hidden for some months learning "a little Grammar" and "some of the Terms of Logic, Rhetoric, and Ethics" before eventually setting off for London. The more likely version, by W. R. Chetwood, states that she joined a company of strolling actors in Stamford
, where she gained popularity acting in breeches role
s, which she was suited for due to the "small Wen on her left Eye lid, which gave her a Masculine Air." Mottley claims that, in such roles, Centlivre's skill charmed many men, especially "one Mr. Fox, a Nephew of the late Sir Stephen Fox" to whom Centlivre "was married, or something like it; in the sixteenth [possibly fifteenth] Year of her Age; but, whether by Death, or whatever Accident it happened, they lived not together above one Year." Following Fox's death, Centlivre is claimed to then marry an army officer named Caroll (also spelled Carroll), who died shortly after their union, possibly in a duel. She kept the name Carroll until her next marriage.
Joseph Centlivre was smitten with her when she played the role of Alexander the Great in Nathaniel Lee
's tragedy The Rival Queens; or, the Death of Alexander the Great for the court at Windsor Castle
. Though he was of a lower social class, a mere "yeoman of the mouth [cook] to Queen Anne", they were married on 23 April 1707. Their marriage was considered a family affair, since the two were from separate parts of the royal household; the couple eventually moved into residence at Buckingham Court, paying the highest rent second only to the Admiralty Office. They resided here until her death.
’s penname of Astraea as her own poetic name, claiming a great admiration for the "genius of Mrs. Aphra Behn
(the earlier Astraea)." Under this pen name, she had a possible romance through letters with Celadon (also spelled Celedon), one Captain William Ayloffe; however, the letters "are clever [and] artificial" and more likely practices in the epistolary fiction form.
, an elegiac
poetry collection left on the grave of John Dryden
. She had joined the Drury LaneTheatre
in London by that year, and her first play, The Perjur'd Husband, appeared. As with other plays of that year, it was a tragedy with a sexually titillating subplot, like the plays of John Vanbrugh
and Colley Cibber
. The play was a great success, and the prologue explicitly boasted that it had been written by a woman. She was a prolific author and actress thereafter.
In 1702, she wrote The Beau’s Duel and The Stolen Heiress, both of which were produced that same year, and then Love's Contrivance for the next season. In 1705, she wrote The Gamester and The Basset Table, the first of which was a great theatrical success. The author appears to have moved in the highest literary and political circles; she was a friend to George Farquhar
, William Burnaby, Nicholas Rowe
, Colley Cibber
, Ambrose Philips
, Thomas Baker
, Thomas Burnet
, and Richard Steele
, and she contributed prologues to their plays, while they contributed to hers. In addition to these plays, she was also acting. In 1706, she wrote Love at a Venture in continuation of her gaming theme. Colley Cibber
rejected the play as too bawdy; nonetheless, he plagiarized
the play for his own The Double Gallant. The next year, she wrote The Platonick Lady, with a preface to the printed play which denounced the prejudice that led to any work by a woman being judged as inherently inferior to a work by a man.
In 1709, she had one of her greatest successes with The Busy Bodie. The play ran for thirteen nights, a remarkable run for the time, and was revived the following season. In it, the character Marplot brings utter confusion to a series of couples who are attempting to woo one another. The comedic twist is that his well-intentioned efforts nearly derail all the romances. Marplot was one of David Garrick
's favorite roles. The play had over 450 performances by 1800, and went through 40 editions by 1884, with both George I
and George II
commanding performances to be done. The sequel, Marplot; or, the Second Part of The Busy Bodie, was, however, not much of a success. Also in 1709, she wrote The Man's Bewitched, a play satirizing the squirearchy
of Tory gentlemen in the country. This political satire was given during an ongoing election struggle, and the Tory press struck back. The weekly journal The Female Tatler printed an "interview" that it had done with Centlivre, where she insulted the actors and blamed them for all her failures. The acting company was on the verge of walking out on her until she persuaded them that she was the victim of a political fight and a hoax.
, at a time when both parties were making secret overtures to the Old Pretender
, Centlivre took an explicit pro-Hanoverian
position in public. In 1714, when Queen Anne
died and the Hanoverians were invited to the throne, Centlivre bragged of her foresight and acumen with her poem, "A Woman's Case", while also dedicating her play, The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret, to King George I. In 1715, a year of Jacobite
uprising and a Parliamentary election, she wrote The Gotham Election, which was a satire of electioneering and local bribery. The managers of Drury Lane suppressed its performance, however, and it did not debut until 1724 at the Haymarket Theatre
.
In 1716, Centlivre wrote The Cruel Gift, a tragedy, with Nicholas Rowe
, which she followed in 1718 with one of her best-known plays, A Bold Stroke for a Wife
. Centlivre became seriously ill in 1719. Nicholas Amhurst
referenced her and her illness in a poem describing a plea for death to "stop thy savage hand". Her last play, The Artifice, was produced and published in October 1722, though she continued to write poetry after that.
Centlivre died on 1 December 1723 and was buried three days later at the actor's church, St. Paul's, Covent Garden
. In the church's burial register, she is listed as "Susanna Wife of Joseph Centlivre, from St. Martin in the Fields."
." This type of comedy tended to focus on the romantic intrigues among a triangle of wealthy main characters (generally one young woman being fought over by two young men, one promiscuous, the other devoted) involving disguises, duels (or talk of them), and scenarios that balance emotion and farce
. Her best known comedies feature quick-witted female intellect to equal the male counterparts. Centlivre believed that the purpose of comedy was to entertain. Due to the prejudice many people of the time had against women playwrights, Centlivre was forced to prioritize her aim to please over theatrical unities and controversial messages.
Centlivre was sometimes a political dramatist who not only allied herself with Whig authors, but who took deliberate pains to strike out at Tories and their causes. She was anti-Catholic to the extreme, as shown through some of her play dedications, prologues and epilogues. This is especially apparent in her dedication at the beginning of The Wonder, where she expressed her strong support for the proposed protestant succession. A majority of her plays escape party-political comments, while her only work with an overtly political agenda is The Gotham Election. Some of her more controversial epilogues, such as in The Perplexed Lovers where she identifies the out of favor war hero Marlborough as the "ONE", were not spoken aloud but published with the play text instead.
wrote condescendingly of them. Alexander Pope
found her writings offensive for political and religious reasons, and also thought them threatening to greater dramatists by pandering to popular taste. He even went so far as to assume that she had helped with Edmund Curll
’s pamphlet The Catholic Poet: or, Protestant Barnaby’s Sorrowful Lamentation. For those reasons, she was lampooned as having a supposedly mannish appearance (among other faults), most famously by Alexander Pope
in several pieces. Regardless of her peers’ opinions, her plays continued to be performed for over 150 years after her death.
Overall, Centlivre was a powerful influence on society as a female intellect, and works encouraged female writers to continue to push the limits of traditional feminine roles by publicly treating the theme of equality between sexes.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
of the 18th century. During her long career at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, she became known as the Second Woman of the English Stage after 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:...
. Many actors and actresses of the 18th and 19th centuries won their fame through their performances of characters in her celebrated plays. Perhaps the best known of these was David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
, who chose to end his acting career as Don Felix in The Wonder, a role that had brought him critical acclaim.
Early life and marriage
The main source of information on Centlivre's early life is Giles JacobGiles Jacob
Giles Jacob was a British legal writer and literary critic who figures as one of the dunces in Alexander Pope's 1728 Dunciad:Pope's lines single Jacob out for satire primarily for his dogmatism and pettiness...
, who claimed that he had received an account of her life directly from her (published in The Poetical Register (1719)); however, there is little biographical information contained in this account about her early life, although she gave her father's last name as Freeman. Both of her parents were parliamentarians
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
, her father eventually being forced to flee to Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
as a known dissenter
Dissenter
The term dissenter , labels one who disagrees in matters of opinion, belief, etc. In the social and religious history of England and Wales, however, it refers particularly to a member of a religious body who has, for one reason or another, separated from the Established Church.Originally, the term...
. Several sources state that Holbeach
Holbeach
Holbeach is a fenland market town with in the South Holland district of southern Lincolnshire, England. The town lies from Spalding; from Boston; from King's Lynn; from Peterborough; and a by road from the county town of Lincoln. It is on the junction of the A151 and A17...
was the possible place of her birth or, at the very least, the place of her childhood (Abel Boyer
Abel Boyer
Abel Boyer was a French-English lexicographer, journalist and miscellaneous writer.-Biography:Abel Boyer was probably born on 24 June 1667 at Castres, in Upper Languedoc. His father, Pierre Boyer, one of the two consuls or chief magistrates of Castres, had been suspended and fined for his...
gives no opinion on the matter). A biographer, John Bowyer, writes of "one assumption that Susanna’s father died when she was three, that her mother re-married but died before Susanna was twelve, and that her step-father himself remarried shortly after." Abuse by this new stepmother eventually motivated Centlivre to leave her childhood home before the age of 15.
There are two stories on how she then made the transition to acting, eventually arriving in London. The more fantastic version, by John Mottley
John Mottley
John Mottley was an English writer, known as a dramatist, biographer, and compiler of jokes.-Life:He was the son of Colonel Thomas Mottley, a Jacobite adherent of James II in his exile, who entered the service of Louis XIV, and was killed at the battle of Turin in 1706; his mother was Dionisia,...
, has Centlivre being found weeping at the roadside by Anthony Hammond
Anthony Hammond
-Life:Born 1 September 1668, he was the son and heir of Anthony Hammond of Somersham Place, Huntingdonshire, who was the third son of Anthony Hammond of St. Alban's Court, Kent, elder brother of William Hammond. His mother was a Miss Amy Browne of Gloucestershire. He was educated at St Paul's...
, a student at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He, enraptured by her manners and good looks, smuggled her into the school where she was disguised as his male cousin, Jack. There, she remained hidden for some months learning "a little Grammar" and "some of the Terms of Logic, Rhetoric, and Ethics" before eventually setting off for London. The more likely version, by W. R. Chetwood, states that she joined a company of strolling actors in Stamford
Stamford, Lincolnshire
Stamford is a town and civil parish within the South Kesteven district of the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is approximately to the north of London, on the east side of the A1 road to York and Edinburgh and on the River Welland...
, where she gained popularity acting in breeches role
Breeches role
A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing .In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer...
s, which she was suited for due to the "small Wen on her left Eye lid, which gave her a Masculine Air." Mottley claims that, in such roles, Centlivre's skill charmed many men, especially "one Mr. Fox, a Nephew of the late Sir Stephen Fox" to whom Centlivre "was married, or something like it; in the sixteenth [possibly fifteenth] Year of her Age; but, whether by Death, or whatever Accident it happened, they lived not together above one Year." Following Fox's death, Centlivre is claimed to then marry an army officer named Caroll (also spelled Carroll), who died shortly after their union, possibly in a duel. She kept the name Carroll until her next marriage.
Joseph Centlivre was smitten with her when she played the role of Alexander the Great in Nathaniel Lee
Nathaniel Lee
Nathaniel Lee was an English dramatist.He was the son of Dr Richard Lee, a Presbyterian clergyman who was rector of Hatfield and held many preferments under the Commonwealth...
's tragedy The Rival Queens; or, the Death of Alexander the Great for the court at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. Though he was of a lower social class, a mere "yeoman of the mouth [cook] to Queen Anne", they were married on 23 April 1707. Their marriage was considered a family affair, since the two were from separate parts of the royal household; the couple eventually moved into residence at Buckingham Court, paying the highest rent second only to the Admiralty Office. They resided here until her death.
Early writings as Astraea
In her letters of correspondence (later collected in three book anthologies), Centlivre used Aphra BehnAphra 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:...
’s penname of Astraea as her own poetic name, claiming a great admiration for the "genius of Mrs. 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:...
(the earlier Astraea)." Under this pen name, she had a possible romance through letters with Celadon (also spelled Celedon), one Captain William Ayloffe; however, the letters "are clever [and] artificial" and more likely practices in the epistolary fiction form.
1700–1710
In 1700, she possibly contributed a poem "Polminia: Of Rhetorick" to The Nine MusesThe Nine Muses
The Nine Muses, Or, Poems Written by Nine severall Ladies Upon the death of the late Famous John Dryden, Esq. was an elegiac volume of poetry published pseudonymously. The contributors were English women writers, each of whom signed their poems with the names of Muses...
, an elegiac
Elegiac
Elegiac refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. The Classical elegiac meter has two lines, making it a couplet: a line of dactylic hexameter, followed by a line of dactylic pentameter...
poetry collection left on the grave of John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
. She had joined the Drury LaneTheatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
in London by that year, and her first play, The Perjur'd Husband, appeared. As with other plays of that year, it was a tragedy with a sexually titillating subplot, like the plays of John Vanbrugh
John Vanbrugh
Sir John Vanbrugh – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...
and Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
. The play was a great success, and the prologue explicitly boasted that it had been written by a woman. She was a prolific author and actress thereafter.
George Farquhar
George Farquhar was an Irish dramatist. He is noted for his contributions to late Restoration comedy, particularly for his plays The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux' Stratagem .-Early life:...
, William Burnaby, Nicholas Rowe
Nicholas Rowe (dramatist)
Nicholas Rowe , English dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer, was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715.-Life:...
, Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
, Ambrose Philips
Ambrose Philips
-Life:He was born in Shropshire of a Leicestershire family. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow in 1699. He seems to have lived chiefly at Cambridge until he resigned his fellowship in 1708, and his pastorals were probably written in...
, Thomas Baker
Thomas Baker (attorney)
Thomas Baker was a British attorney writer. He was active as a playwright in London in the first decade of the eighteenth century, penning The Fine Lady's Airs and other plays, then moved to Bedfordshire and lived there as a schoolmaster and vicar until his death in 1749...
, Thomas Burnet
Thomas Burnet
Thomas Burnet , theologian and writer on cosmogony.-Life:He was born at Croft near Darlington in 1635. After studying at Northallerton Grammar School under Thomas Smelt, he went to Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1651. There he was a pupil of John Tillotson...
, and Richard Steele
Richard Steele
Sir Richard Steele was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator....
, and she contributed prologues to their plays, while they contributed to hers. In addition to these plays, she was also acting. In 1706, she wrote Love at a Venture in continuation of her gaming theme. Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style...
rejected the play as too bawdy; nonetheless, he plagiarized
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
the play for his own The Double Gallant. The next year, she wrote The Platonick Lady, with a preface to the printed play which denounced the prejudice that led to any work by a woman being judged as inherently inferior to a work by a man.
In 1709, she had one of her greatest successes with The Busy Bodie. The play ran for thirteen nights, a remarkable run for the time, and was revived the following season. In it, the character Marplot brings utter confusion to a series of couples who are attempting to woo one another. The comedic twist is that his well-intentioned efforts nearly derail all the romances. Marplot was one of David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
's favorite roles. The play had over 450 performances by 1800, and went through 40 editions by 1884, with both George I
George I of Great Britain
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....
and George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
commanding performances to be done. The sequel, Marplot; or, the Second Part of The Busy Bodie, was, however, not much of a success. Also in 1709, she wrote The Man's Bewitched, a play satirizing the squirearchy
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....
of Tory gentlemen in the country. This political satire was given during an ongoing election struggle, and the Tory press struck back. The weekly journal The Female Tatler printed an "interview" that it had done with Centlivre, where she insulted the actors and blamed them for all her failures. The acting company was on the verge of walking out on her until she persuaded them that she was the victim of a political fight and a hoax.
Later years
In 1712, two years before the death of Queen AnneQueen Anne
"Queen Anne" generally refers to Anne, Queen of Great Britain , Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1702, and of Great Britain from 1707.Queen Anne may also refer to:-Uses relating to Queen Anne of Great Britain:...
, at a time when both parties were making secret overtures to the Old Pretender
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
, Centlivre took an explicit pro-Hanoverian
House of Hanover
The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
position in public. In 1714, when Queen Anne
Queen Anne
"Queen Anne" generally refers to Anne, Queen of Great Britain , Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1702, and of Great Britain from 1707.Queen Anne may also refer to:-Uses relating to Queen Anne of Great Britain:...
died and the Hanoverians were invited to the throne, Centlivre bragged of her foresight and acumen with her poem, "A Woman's Case", while also dedicating her play, The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret, to King George I. In 1715, a year of Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
uprising and a Parliamentary election, she wrote The Gotham Election, which was a satire of electioneering and local bribery. The managers of Drury Lane suppressed its performance, however, and it did not debut until 1724 at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
.
In 1716, Centlivre wrote The Cruel Gift, a tragedy, with Nicholas Rowe
Nicholas Rowe (dramatist)
Nicholas Rowe , English dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer, was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715.-Life:...
, which she followed in 1718 with one of her best-known plays, A Bold Stroke for a Wife
A Bold Stroke for a Wife
A Bold Stroke for a Wife is Susanna Centlivre's 18th-century satirical English play developed in 1717. The plot expresses the author's unabashed support of the British Whig Party: she criticizes the Tories, religious hypocrisy, and the greed of capitalism....
. Centlivre became seriously ill in 1719. Nicholas Amhurst
Nicholas Amhurst
Nicholas Amhurst was an English poet and political writer.Amhurst was born at Marden, Kent. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and at St John's College, Oxford. In 1719 he was expelled from the university, ostensibly for his irregularities of conduct, but in reality because of his whig...
referenced her and her illness in a poem describing a plea for death to "stop thy savage hand". Her last play, The Artifice, was produced and published in October 1722, though she continued to write poetry after that.
Centlivre died on 1 December 1723 and was buried three days later at the actor's church, St. Paul's, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
. In the church's burial register, she is listed as "Susanna Wife of Joseph Centlivre, from St. Martin in the Fields."
Themes and genres
Centlivre wrote in positive reflection of England's political, economic, and juridical systems. Her plays were often concerned with a theme of liberty within the areas of marriage and citizenry.Comedies
Centlivre is best known for comedies, often following the Spanish style, which is "romantic in plot and spirit, [but containing] far more of the emotions of love and jealousy than Restoration comediesRestoration comedy
Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama...
." This type of comedy tended to focus on the romantic intrigues among a triangle of wealthy main characters (generally one young woman being fought over by two young men, one promiscuous, the other devoted) involving disguises, duels (or talk of them), and scenarios that balance emotion and farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
. Her best known comedies feature quick-witted female intellect to equal the male counterparts. Centlivre believed that the purpose of comedy was to entertain. Due to the prejudice many people of the time had against women playwrights, Centlivre was forced to prioritize her aim to please over theatrical unities and controversial messages.
Tragedies
Considered much less skilled at this genre, little positive is said about her two tragicomedies, The Perjur'd Husband and The Stolen Heiress, though her pure tragedy, The Cruel Gift, was better received (though not on the level of her comedies). These plays were thought to have "figures [that] are shadowy and [a] plot [that] is unconvincing."Politics
Reception
Centlivre's plays show a strikingly liberal point of view, and she was a woman who was not afraid to speak frankly in the face of strong sexual mores that discouraged women playwrights. Centlivre managed to push the boundaries of contemporary social norms, and yet she was widely appreciated only as a comedic writer. She did not garner much positive critical reputation; even while her plays enjoyed success in theatres, critics such as William HazlittWilliam Hazlitt
William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...
wrote condescendingly of them. Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
found her writings offensive for political and religious reasons, and also thought them threatening to greater dramatists by pandering to popular taste. He even went so far as to assume that she had helped with Edmund Curll
Edmund Curll
Edmund Curll was an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary...
’s pamphlet The Catholic Poet: or, Protestant Barnaby’s Sorrowful Lamentation. For those reasons, she was lampooned as having a supposedly mannish appearance (among other faults), most famously by Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
in several pieces. Regardless of her peers’ opinions, her plays continued to be performed for over 150 years after her death.
Overall, Centlivre was a powerful influence on society as a female intellect, and works encouraged female writers to continue to push the limits of traditional feminine roles by publicly treating the theme of equality between sexes.
Plays
- The Perjur'd Husband; or, The Adventures of Venice (1700)
- The Beau's Duel; or, A Soldier for the Ladies (1702)
- The Stolen Heiress; or, the Salamanca Doctor Outplotted (1702; published 1703)
- Love's Contrivance; or, Le Médecin Malgré Lui (1703)
- The Gamester (1705)
- The Basset Table (1705)
- Love at a Venture (1706)
- The Platonic Lady (1706)
- The Busie Body (1709)
- The Man's Bewitched; or, the Devil to Do About Her (1709)
- A Bickerstaff's Burying; or, Work for the Upholders (1710)
- Marplot; or, the Second Part of The Busie Body (1710; published 1711)
- The Perplex'd Lovers (1712)
- The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret (1714)
- A Gotham Election (1715, never produced)
- A Wife Well Managed (1715; produced 1724)
- The Cruel Gift (1716; published 1717)
- A Bold Stroke for a WifeA Bold Stroke for a WifeA Bold Stroke for a Wife is Susanna Centlivre's 18th-century satirical English play developed in 1717. The plot expresses the author's unabashed support of the British Whig Party: she criticizes the Tories, religious hypocrisy, and the greed of capitalism....
(1718) - The Artifice (1722)
Books
- Familiar and Courtly Letters as Astraea (1700)
- The Second Volume of Familiar Letters as Astraea (1701)
- Letters of Wit, Politicks and Morality as Astraea (1701)
Poems
- "Polminia: Of Rhetorick" (1700, unconfirmed)
- "To Mrs. S.F. on her incomparable Poems" (1706)
- "The Masquerade, A Poem, Humbly Inscribed to his Grace the Duke D'Aumont" (1713)
- "On the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Halifax being made Knight of the Garter" (1714)
- "A Poem Humbly Presented to His Most Sacred Majesty George, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. Upon his Accession to the Throne" (1714)
- "An Epistle to Mrs. Wallup, Now in the Train of Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales" (1714)
- "To Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales. At her Toylet, on New-Years Day" (1715)
- "Ode to Hygeia" (1716)
- "Upon the Bells ringing at St. Martins in the Fields, on St. George's Day, 1716, being the Anniversary of Queen Anne's Coronation" (1716)
- "These Verses were writ on King George's Birth-Day, by Mrs. Centlivre, and sent to the Ringers while the Bells were ringing at Holbeach in Lincolnshire" (1716)
- "An Epistle to the King of Sweden from a Lady of Great-Britain" (1717)
- "A Woman's Case: In an Epistle to Charles Joye, Esq; Deputy-Governor of the South-Sea" (1720)
- "From the Country, to Mr. Rowe in Town" (1720)
- "A Pastoral to the Honoured Memory of Mr. Rowe" (1720)
- "To the Duchess of Bolton, Upon seeing her Picture drawn unlike her" (1720)
- "To the Earl of Warwick, on his Birthday" (1720)
- "Letter on the Receipt of a Present of Cyder" (1721)