This is an alphabetical list of women playwrights who were active in England and Wales , and the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. Nota Bene : Authors of dramatic works are the focus of this list, though many of these writers worked in more than one genre.
Aphra Behn , Restoration playwright, by Peter Lely
Playwrights
A
B
C Christian Carstairs (fl. 1763—1786): poet who wrote a short theatrical
Elizabeth Cary (née Tanfield) (1585–1639): first woman known to have written and published an original play in English
Jane Cavendish (1620/21–1669): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Elizabeth Egerton
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673): author of closet dramas
Dorothea Celesia (baptised 1738, d. 1790): translated Voltaire 's Tancrède
Susannah Centlivre (c. 1667–1723): playwright
Marianne Chambers (fl. 1799–1812): English playwright
Charlotte Charke (1713–1760): playwright/actor/manager
Susannah Cibber (1714–1766): actor who had at least one masque produced
Catherine Clive (1711–1785): actor; wrote farces with some success
Jane Collier (1714–1755): The Cry (1754), co-authored with Sarah Fielding
Elizabeth Cooper (née Price) (1698? – 1761?): actor, playwright, and poet
Misses Corbett , sisters Walterina Cunningham (died 1837) and Grace Corbett (c. 1765 – 1843): novelists, playwrights, and anthologists
Margaret Cornelys (1723–1797): author of two comedies and a ballad opera, only one produced (Dublin 1781)[ 1]
Hannah Cowley (1743–1809): playwright and poet
Elizabeth Craven (1750–1828): writer of farces and pantomimes
Catherine Crowe (1800–1876): primarily a fiction writer; two plays, one produced
Mrs. Cullum (fl. 1775): one drama, not produced[ 6]
Catherine Cuthbertson (fl. 1793): novelist who wrote one play
D Title page of Dramas for the Use of Young Ladies by Mrs C. Short (1792) (Etext , Google)
E
F Sarah Fielding (1710–1768): The Cry (1754), co-authored with Jane Collier
Anne Finch (1661–1720): primarily a poet; author of verse dramas
Elizabeth Forsyth (fl. 1784–1789): author of The Siege of Quebec [ 1]
Ann Francis (1738–1800): poetic dramatization of The Song of Solomon (1781)
Susan Fraser (fl. 1809–1816): author of one poetic tragedy, Comala (1809)[ 1]
G
H Elizabeth Harlow (fl. 1789): bookseller; author of one comedy[ 1]
Elizabeth Harrison (fl. 1724–1756): The Death of Socrates in Miscellanies on moral and religious subjects (1756)[ 1] [ 9]
Margaret Harvey (1768–1858): English poet, scholar, and playwright
Eliza Haywood (1693–1756): playwright; wrote primarily in other genres
Elizabeth Helme (1743–1814): educational writer who translated two children's plays
Felicia Hemans (1793–1835): primarily a poet; some verse drama
Philippina Hill (née Burton) (fl. 1768-87): poet and author of one produced play[ 1] [ 10]
Barbara Hofland (1770–1844): prolific writer who published one volume of dramas for children
Frances Holcroft (1780–1844): poet, novelist, translator of plays
Margaret Holford (1757–1834): one play produced
Margaret Holford (1778–1852): one play, neither published nor produced
Rachael Hoper (fl. 1742–1760): three plays produced[ 11]
Mary Hornby (fl. 1819–1820): two plays, not produced[ 1]
Harriet Horncastle Hook (fl . 1784): author of one comic opera[ 12]
Anne Hughes (fl . 1784–1797): novelist and poet who wrote Moral dramas intended for private representation (1790)[ 13]
Elizabeth Edmead Hull (fl. 1786–1832): The Events of the Day (prod. Norwich, 1795)[ 1]
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M
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P Eliza Parsons (1739–1811): prolific Gothic novelist who had one play produced
Anne Penny (née Hughes; 1729–1784): Welsh poet and author of one dramatic entertainment
Katherine Philips (1631–1664): mainly a poet; author of two plays (one unfinished)
Laetitia Pilkington (1709–1750): Anglo-Irish poet who had one play produced
Elizabeth Pinchard (née Sibthorpe; fl. 1791–1820): novelist who also wrote dramatic dialogues for young readers
Hester Thrale Piozzi (1741–1821): author and patron with two unpublished plays
Mary Pix (1666–1709): playwright
Francis Plowden (d. 1827): author of one comic opera[ 15]
Annabella Plumptre (1769–1838): collaborated with her sister, Anne Plumptre
Anne Plumptre (1760–1818): wrote primarily in other genres; translated dramas
Elizabeth Polack (fl. 1830–1838): author of five plays, three surviving
Elizabeth Polwheele (c. 1651 – c. 1691): two plays extant
Jane Pope (1744–1818): English actor who had one comedy produced in 1767
Anna Maria Porter (1778–1832): poet and novelist who se The Fair Fugitives was produced in 1803
Jane Porter (1776–1850): two plays
Jael Pye (née Mendez) (c. 1737 – 1782): published four works, each in a different genre
R Elizabeth Richardson (d. 1779): author of The double deception; or, lovers perplex'd [ 16]
Sarah Watts Richardson (d. 1824): poet, novelist, playwright[ 17]
Jane Robe (fl. 1723): author of The Fatal Legacy (1723)
Rose Roberts (1730–1788): translator, poet, and writer of sermons who wrote at least one drama
Fanny Robertson (1765–1855): actor-manager, author of at least two plays
Mary Robinson (1757–1800): wrote primarily in other genres; one play produced
Anna Ross (b. 1773): performer; wrote comic opera
Susanna Rowson (née Haswell) (1762–1824): British-American novelist, poet, playwright
Elizabeth Ryves (1750–1797): Irish poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and translator
S
T Elizabeth Tollet (1694–1754): Susanna; or innocence preserved , in Poems on several occasions (1755; not produced)
Sarah Trimmer : prolific educational writer; author of The little hermit; or, the rural adventure (1788; not produced)
Catherine Trotter (1679–1749): playwright
Margaret Turner (fl. 1790–1810): pastoral[ 20]
W
Y
See also
Notes and references
Notes
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Mann.
^ "Boaden, Caroline ". The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 4472. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ "Booth, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2276. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ "Burgess, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2304. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ "Burke, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2250. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ "Cullum, Mrs ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2296. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ "de Humboldt, Charlotte ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 3974. Accessed 2023-08-23.
^ "Goldsmith, Mary ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2937. Accessed 2023-08-23.
^ Harrison, Elizabeth. Miscellanies on moral and religious subjects, in prose and verse. By Elizabeth Harrison . The Women's Print History Project , 2019, title ID 3333. Accessed 2023-08-23.
^ "Hill, Philippina Patience ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 3785. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ London Stage Database
^ Hook, Harriet Horncastle. The double disguise, a comic opera in two acts: as performed at the Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane. The songs set to music by Mr. Hook . The Women's Print History Project , 2019, title ID 6760. Accessed 2023-08-20.
^ "Hughes, Anne ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2553. Accessed 2023-08-20.
^ "Lawrence, Rose D'Aguilar ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 3430. Accessed 2023-08-22.
^ "Plowden, Francis ." The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2271. Accessed 2023-08-25.
^ Eighteenth-Century Drama Ref. LA478
^ "Richardson, Sarah ". The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2851. Accessed 2023-08-26.
^ OL17011834M
^ "Stratford [later Corneille], Agnes ". The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2911. Accessed 2023-08-27.
^ "Turner, Margaret ". The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 2786. Accessed 2023-08-27.
^ "Wilson, Ann ". The Women's Print History Project , 2019, Person ID 1022. Accessed 2023-08-27.
References Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English . New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990. (Internet Archive )
Buck, Claire, ed.The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature . Prentice Hall, 1992. (Internet Archive )
Chadwyck-Healey Database of English Prose Drama (through 1750 ) and (1750–1939 )
Mann, David (1996). Women Playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1660-1823 . Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33087-4 .
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford: OUP, 2004.
Robertson, Fiona, ed. Women's Writing, 1778–1838 . Oxford: OUP, 2001. (Internet Archive )
Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter. An encyclopedia of British women writers . Rutgers University Press, 1998. (Internet Archive )
Todd, Janet , ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide . London: Routledge, 1989. (Internet Archive )
External links