User:30baglunches/SusannaCentlivre

Susanna Centlivre (Born sometime between 1667 and 1670; died 1 December 1723) was an English poet, actress, and playwright and one of the premier dramatist of the 18th Century. Her plays were so celebrated that many famous actors and actresses of the 18th and 19th centuries won their fame through their performances of her characters; perhaps the best known example is David Garrick who chose to end his acting career as Don Felix from The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret, a role that had previously brought him critical acclaim.

Education and Writing Career

Although prejudices against women were rampant at the time Susanna Centlivre’s works were wildly popular for the better part of two centuries. The only playwright whose works have been revived more frequently is William Shakespeare. Many of the prologues that preceded Centlivre's plays were reported as having been written by her. The remainder are identified as the products of an anonymous "Gentleman," as is the case with the prologue to Bold Stroke. Centlivre was experienced with the hardships women faced in legitimating their writing. She constantly struggled with securing publication and patronage, drawing audiences, and garnering positive or at least serious critical attention. The difficulties of "a Female Pen," as she said in the Dedication "To all the Generous Encouragers of Female Ingenuity" that preceded her 1707 play The Platonick Lady and exposed prejudice against women authors as well as bias against women generally in male-dominated "Sphere[s]"—in the "Arts, in Musick, Painting, Poetry; also in War."

Themes

"With very good reason Centlivre's plays may be described as studies in the concept of liberty, which, significantly, often appears in conjunction with the notion of property and in almost every play represents an unbroken nationalist pride and a hearty faith in England's political, economic, and juridical systems."

Politics

Throughout Centlivre's work there is clear evidence concerning her support of the Whig Party in England. The two issues she is most outspoken about concern the two dominating political discussions of the time in England which were the succession, and the War of Spanish Succession. Usually her political remarks appeared within the prologues and epilogues of her plays, and also in numerous poems. The only play with an overtly political agenda is The Gotham Election.

List of Works

Plays

• The Perjur'd Husband; or, The Adventures of Venice (Produced September, 1700 | Published October 22, 1700)
• The Beau's Duel; or, A Soldier for the Ladies (Produced June, 1702 | Published July 8, 1702)
• The Stolen Heiress; or, the Salamanca Doctor Outplotted (Produced December, 1702 | Published January 19, 1703)
• Love's Contrivance; or, Le Médecin Malgré Lui (Produced June 4, 1703 | Published June 14, 1703)
• The Gamester (Produced February 1, 1705 | Published February 22, 1705)
• The Basset Table (Produced November 20, 1705 | Published November 21, 1705)
• Love at a Venture (1706)
• The Platonic Lady (Produced November 25, 1706 | Published December 9, 1706)
• The Busie Body (Produced May 12, 1709 | Published May 31, 1709)
• The Man's Bewitched; or, the Devil to Do About Her (Produced December 12, 1709 | Published December 31, 1709)
• A Bickerstaff's Burying; or, Work for the Upholders (Produced March 27, 1710 | Published December 26, 1710)
• Marplot; or, the Second Part of The Busie Body (Produced December 30, 1710| Published January 10, 1711)
• The Perplex'd Lovers (Produced January 19, 1712)
• The Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret (Produced April 27, 1714 | Published May, 1714)
• A Gotham Election (1715, never produced)
• A Wife Well Managed (1715, not produced until May 2, 1724)
• The Cruel Gift (Produced December 16, 1716 | Published January 3, 1717)
• A Bold Stroke for a Wife (Produced February 3, 1718 | Published February 28, 1718)
• The Artifice (Produced October 2, 1722 | Published October 27, 1722)

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" (Published September 3, 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" (Published November 7, 1714)
• "An Epistle to Mrs. Wallup, Now in the Train of Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales" (Published November 14, 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" (Published March 12, 1717)
• "A Woman's Case: In an Epistle to Charles Joye, Esq; Deputy-Governor of the South-Sea" (July, 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)

References

Swenson, Rivka. ""A Soldier Is Her Darling Character": Susanna Centlivre, Desire, Difference, and Disguise." Journal of Narrative Theory 37.1 (2007).