A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Centlivre, (Susannah)
CENTLIVRE, (SUSANNAH) Daughter of Mr. Freeman, of Holbeach, in Lincolnshire. Born 1667, died 1723; aged 56;
A celebrated comic writer; was of a respectable family, who suffered much for their attachment to whig principles. Her education was entirely of her own acquiring, with the assistance of a neighbouring French gentleman, who undertook to instruct her in the French language, wherein she made such a rapid progress, that, before she was twelve years of age, she could read Moliere with vivacity and interest. After the death of her father, the ill-usage of her step-mother induced her to leave home to seek her fortune, on foot and unprotected. Her beauty struck a young man of the university of Cambridge, who persuaded her to become his mistress, and to reside there with him in the disguise of a boy. Afterwards she came to London, and married, in her sixteenth year, a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox; and, afterwards, a young officer, named Carrol, who was likewise shortly after killed in a duel.
On his death she became an author for subsistence, and wrote fifteen plays, three farces, and several little poems; for some of which she is said to have received considerable complimentary presents from very great personages. Her most popular plays are, The Busy Body; The Wonder, a Woman keeps a Secret; and A Bold Stroke for a Wife. Their character is bustle, spirit, and plot. She afterwards went upon the stage, and at Windsor, in 1706, when she was acting the part of Alexander the Great, Mr. Joseph Centlivre, who had been one of Queen Anne's cooks, fell in love with and married her. She unfortunately wrote a song against Pope's Homer, before he published it, which made him give her a place in the Dunciad. She corresponded, for many years, with several men of wit, particularly with Steele, Rowe, Budgell, Sewell, Amherst, &c.