Susannah Centlivre

Laura Favero Carraro (Università degli Studi di Padova)

Ed. by Janet Todd, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele)

Dates

Born 1669
Died 1723
Activity 1700-1722

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist

Resources

Susanna Centlivre, daughter of William and Anne Freeman, was born in 1669 in Lincolnshire, probably at Holbeach. In November, a Susanna Freeman was baptized in the parish church of Whaplode. In spite of her being the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century, playing well almost into the twentieth, very little is known of Centlivre's early life. Her youth is marked by a series of romantic adventures probably invented by later anecdotists, but apparently well suiting her personality and the established facts of the following years.

Information about her life is mainly based on three principal sources: a biography written by Giles Jacob for the Poetical Register in 1719 when Centlivre was still alive; the …

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1935 words

Citation: Carraro, Laura Favero. "Susannah Centlivre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=805, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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