Susanna Centlivre

The Busie Body (Dodo Press) Susanna Centlivre

Susanna Centlivre nee freeman (1667-1723), later Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Carroll was an English poet and actress and one of the premier dramatists of the eighteenth century. In 1702, she wrote and had produced both The Beau Duel and The Stolen Heiress, with Love's Contrivance the next season. In 1705, she wrote The Gamester and The Basset Table. In 1709, she had one of her greatest successes with The Busybody. The play ran for thirteen nights, which was a remarkable run for the time, and was revived the following season. In it, the character Marplot brings utter confusion to a series of couples who are attempting to woo. Also in 1709, she wrote The Man's Bewitched, a play satirizing the squirearchy of Tory gentlemen in the country. 1716 saw her write The Cruel Gift with Nicholas Rowe, a tragedy, and she followed that with one of her bestknown plays, A Bold Stroke for a Wife in 1718. During her long career at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane she produced several plays that would remain popular for over a century after her death.