The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland/Volume 4/Mrs. Susanna Centlivre

Mrs. Suſanna Centlivre.

This lady was daughter of one Mr. Freeman, of Holbeack in Lincolnſhire. There was formerly an eſtate in the family of her father, but being a Diſſenter, and a zealous parliamentarian, he was ſo very much perſecuted at the reſtoration, that he was 'aid under a neceſſity to fly into Ireland, and his eſtate was confiſcated; nor was the family of our authoreſs’s mother free from the ſeverity of thoſe times, they being likewiſe parliamentarians. Her education was in the country, and her father dying when ſhe was but three years of age, and her mother not living ’till ſhe was twelve, the improvements our poeteſs made were merely by her own induſtry and application. She was married before the age of fifteen, to a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox. This gentleman living with her but a year, ſhe afterwards married Mr. Carrol, an officer in the army, and ſurvived him likewiſe in the ſpace of a year and a half. She afterwards married Mr. Joſeph Centlivre, yeoman of the mouth to his late Majeſty. She gave early diſcoveries of a genius for poetry, and Mr. Jacob in his Lives of the Poets tells us, that ſhe compoſed a ſong before ſhe was ſeven years old. She is the author of fifteen plays; her talent is comedy, particularly the contrivance of the plots, and incidents. Sir Richard Steele, in one of his Tatlers, ſpeaking of the Buſy Body, thus recommends it. ‘The plot, and incidents of the play, are laid with that ſubtilty, and ſpirit, which is peculiar to females of wit, and is very ſeldom well performed by thoſe of the other ſex, in whom craft in love is an act of invention, and not as with women, the effect of nature, and inſtinct.’

She died December 1, 1723; the author of the Political State thus characterizes her. ‘Mrs. Centlivre, from a mean parentage and education, after ſeveral gay adventures (over which we ſhall draw a veil) ſhe had, at laſt, ſo well improved her natural genius by reading, and good converſation, as to attempt to write for the ſtage, in which ſhe had as good ſucceſs as any of her ſex before her. Her firſt dramatic performance was a Tragi-Comedy, called The Perjured Huſband, but the plays which gained her moſt reputation were, two Comedies, the Gameſter, and the Buſy Body. She wrote alſo ſeveral copies of verſes on divers ſubjects, and occaſions, and many ingenious letters, entitled Letters of Wit, Politics, and Morality, which I collected, and publiſhed about 21 years ago.’^[1]

Her dramatic works are,

1. The Perjured Huſband, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal 1702, dedicated to the late Duke of Bedford. Scene Venice.

2. The Beau’s Duel, or a Soldier for the Ladies, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, 1703; a Criticiſm was written upon this play in the Poſt-Angel for Auguſt.

3. The Stolen Heireſs, or The Salamancha Doctor Out-plotted; a Comedy; acted at the Theatre in Lincolns-Idn-Fields 1704. The ſcene Palermo.

4. The Gameſter, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre in Lincolns-Inn-Fields 1704, dedicated to George Earl of Huntingdon. This play is an improved tranſlation of one of the ſame title in French. The prologue was written by Mr. Rowe.

5. The Baſſet Table, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, dedicated to Arthur Lord Altham, 4to. 1706.

6. Love’s Contrivance, or Le Medicin Malgre lui, a Comedy; acted at Drury-Lane 1705, dedicated to the Earl of Dorſet. This is a tranſlation from Moliere.

7. Love at a Venture, a Comedy; acted at Bath, 4to. 1706, dedicated to the Duke of Beaufort.

8. The Buſy Body, acted at the Theatre-Royal 1708, dedicated to Lord Somers. This play was acted with very great applauſe.

9. Marplot, or the Second Part of the Buſy Body; acted at the Theatre-Royal 1700, dedicated to the Earl of Portland.

10. The Perplex’d Lovers, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal 1710, dedicated to Sir Henry Furnace.

11. The Platonic Lady, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal 1711.

12. The Man’s Bewitch’d, or The Devil to do about Her; a Comedy; acted at the Theatre in the Haymarket 1712, dedicated to the Duke of Devonſhire.

13. The Wonder a Woman keeps a Secret, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. This play was acted with ſucceſs.

14. The Cruel Gift, or The Royal Reſentment; a Tragedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal 1716, for the ſtory of this play, conſult Sigiſmonda and Guiſcarda, a Novel of Boccace.

15. A Bold Stroke for a Wife, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields 1717, dedicated to the Duke of Wharton. Beſides theſe plays Mrs. Centlivre has written three Farces; Bickerſtaff’s Burying, or Work for the Upholders. The Gotham Election. A Wife well Managed.

 

1. See Boyer’s Political State, vol. xxvi. p. 670.