List of early-modern women playwrights

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This is a chronological list of women playwrights who were active in the United Kingdom before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. (NB. Drama is the focus of this list, though many of these writers worked in more than one genre).

Contents

[edit] Playwrights

  • Lady Jane Lumley (née Fitzalan) (1537–1578): first translator of Euripides into English
  • Mary Sidney Herbert (1561–1621): translated one play
  • Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639): wrote the first original play in English by a woman
  • Mary Wroth (1587–1652): primarily a poet; one drama extant
  • Lady Jane Cheyne (née Cavendish) (1620/21–1669): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Lady Elizabeth Brackley
  • Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673): writer of closet dramas
  • Katherine Philips (1631-1664): mainly a poet; author of two plays (one unfinished)
  • Aphra Behn (1640-1689): highly successful playwright
  • Elizabeth Polwheele (ca. 1651-ca. 1691): two plays extant
  • Anne Finch (1661–1720): primarily a poet; wrote verse dramas
  • Frances Boothby (fl. 1669–1670): author of the first original play by a woman to be produced in London
  • Delarivier Manley (1663 or ca. 1670-1724): successful playwright
  • Mary Pix (1666-1709): successful playwright
  • Susannah Centlivre (ca. 1667-1723): highly successful playwright
  • Mary Davys (1674-1732): novelist; produced one play; had another published
  • Penelope Aubin (ca. 1679–ca. 1731): primarily a novelist; had one play produced
  • Catherine Trotter (1679-1749): successful playwright
  • Jane Wiseman (fl. ca. 1682–1717): author of one successfully produced play
  • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (ca. 1689-1762): wrote primarily in other genres
  • Eliza Haywood (1693-1756): successful as a playwright; wrote primarily in other genres
  • Catherine Clive (1711–1785): highly successful actress; wrote farces with some success
  • Charlotte Charke (1713-1760): playwright/actress/manager
  • Charlotte Lennox (1720-1804): wrote primarily in other genres; two plays (one an adaptation)
  • Frances Brooke (1723-1789): primarily a novelist; successful with comic opera
  • Frances Sheridan (1724-1766): successful playwright
  • Elizabeth Griffith (ca. 1727-1793): successful playwright
  • Charlotte Lennox (ca. 1727-1804): limited success as playwright; primarily a novelist
  • Hannah More (1745-1833): successful as a playwright; published in many genres
  • Mary Bowes (1749–1800): published one play
  • Charlotte Smith (1749-1806): novelist and poet; one comedy attributed to her
  • Elizabeth Craven (née Berkeley) (1750-1828): limited success as a writer of light plays
  • Sophia Lee (1750–1824): successful playwright.
  • Frances Burney (1752-1840): primarily a novelist; writer of several plays, only one of which was produced in her lifetime
  • Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821): successful playwright
  • Ann Yearsley (ca. 1753-1806): primarily a poet; produced and published one play
  • Hannah Brand (1754–1821): productions largely unsuccessful; published plays
  • Harriet Lee (1757-1851): successful playwright
  • Mary Robinson (1757-1800): wrote primarily in other genres; one play produced
  • Jane West (1758-1852): wrote primarily in other genres; her plays enjoyed limited success
  • Ann Plumptre (1760-1818): wrote primarily in other genres; translated dramas
  • Joanna Baillie (1762-1851): prolific playwright
  • Lady Barbarina Dacre Brand (née Ogle) (1768–1854): author of four published plays, one produced
  • Frances Burney (1776–1828): published two tragedies, never produced
  • Jane Porter (1776-1850): two plays; limited success
  • Jane Scott (ca. 1779-1839): prolific writer of stage pieces; theatrical manager; performer
  • Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855): some success as a playwright
  • Felicia Hemans (1793-1835): primarily a poet; wrote some verse drama
  • Catherine Gore (1799-1861): eleven plays produced
  • Catherine Crowe (1800-1876): primarily a writer of fiction; wrote two plays, one of which was produced
  • Elizabeth Polack (active 1830-1838): author of five plays, three of which survive

[edit] References

  • Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990.
  • Buck, Claire, ed.The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Prentice Hall, 1992.
  • Chadwyck-Healey Database of English Prose Drama (through 1750) and (1750-1939)
  • Greer, Germaine, ed. Kissing the Rod: an anthology of seventeenth-century women's verse. Farrar Staus Giroux, 1988.
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
  • Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. London: Routledge, 1989.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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