Clive, KITTY

Clive, KITTY, comic actress, was born in London in 1711, the daughter of William Raftor, a Jacobite lawyer from Kilkenny. She came out at Drury Lane about 1728, and chiefly at Drury Lane she continued to play till 1769, when she quit the stage, and retired to Twickenham. About 1731 she had married George Clive, a barrister, but they soon parted. She died at Little Strawberry Hill, 6th December 1785. Garrick, Handel, Horace Walpole, and Dr Johnson all liked her, the last remarking to Boswell that 'in the sprightliness of humour he never had seen her equalled.' And of him she said: 'I love to sit by Dr Johnson; he always entertains me.' See her Life by Percy Fitzgerald (1888).