Centlivre

Centlivre, SUSANNAH, an English dramatic authoress, was the daughter of a Lincolnshire gentleman named Freeman, of Holbeach, and born (say some authorities) in Ireland about 1667. Her early history is obscure; but such were her wit and beauty that on her arrival in London, though a destitute orphan, and only sixteen years of age, she won the heart of a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox, who died shortly after their marriage. Her second husband, an officer named Carroll, lost his life in a duel. Left in extreme poverty, his widow endeavoured to support herself by writing for the stage, and after producing a tragedy called The Perjured Husband (performed first in 1700), made her appearance on the stage at Bath. She afterwards married (1706) Joseph Centlivre, head-cook to Queen Anne, with whom she lived happily until the time of her death, December 1, 1723. Her plays—The Busybody (with 'Marplot' for leading character, 1709), and A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1717)—are lively in their plots, and have kept their place on the stage. Nineteen in all, they were collected in 3 vols. 1761, with a biography, and reprinted 1872.