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Pregnancy and Performance on the British Stage in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1689-1807

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Pregnancy and Performance on the British Stage in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1689-1807 “Carrying All Before Her:” Pregnancy and Performance on the British Stage in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1689-1807 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Chelsea Phillips, MFA Graduate Program in Theatre The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Lesley Ferris, Advisor; Dr. Jennifer Schlueter; Dr. Stratos Constantinidis; Dr. David Brewer Copyright by Chelsea Lenn Phillips 2015 ABSTRACT Though bracketed by centuries of greater social restrictions, the long eighteenth century stands as a moment in time when women enjoyed a considerable measure of agency and social acceptance during pregnancy. In part, this social acceptance rose along with birth rates: the average woman living in the eighteenth century gave birth to between four and eight children in her lifetime. As women spent more of their adult lives pregnant, and as childbearing came to be considered less in the light of ritual and more in the light of natural phenomenon, social acceptance of pregnant women and their bodies increased. In this same century, an important shift was occurring in the professional British theatre. The eighteenth century saw a rise in the respectability of acting as a profession generally, and of the celebrity stage actress in particular. Respectability does not mean passivity, however—theatre historian Robert Hume describes the history of commercial theatre in eighteenth century London as a “vivid story of ongoing competition, sometimes fierce, even destructive competition.”1 Theatrical managers deployed their most popular performers and entertainments strategically, altering the company’s repertory to take advantage of popular trends, illness or scandal in their competition, or to capitalize on rivalries. When celebrity actresses became pregnant, actresses and managers faced both challenges and opportunities. My dissertation seeks to recover seven eighteenth-century celebrity actresses’ 1 Hume “Theatre History,” 16. ii professional experiences while pregnant. I examine the repertoires and reputations of Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen (1666-1703); Anne Oldfield (1683-1730); Susannah Cibber (1714-1766); Hannah Pritchard (1711-1768); George Anne Bellamy (c.1727- 1788); Sarah Siddons (1755-1831); and Dorothy Jordan (1761-1816). Using archival material and more recent scholarship, it investigates how the pregnant body influenced public perception of these women, the onstage roles they performed, and the economics of the commercial theatre. Unlike earlier studies, which, if aware of these pregnancies, argue that they were hidden and/or detrimental to actresses’ stage careers, I argue that pregnancy enhanced the demand for these women, and their economic viability, by placing their private lives on public display and winning them popular sympathy and support. Actresses, adept at managing their public personas, used motherhood and pregnancy to distance themselves from Restoration-era associations of acting with prostitution, and to justify their lucrative stage careers at a time when domesticity was still considered the feminine ideal. iii DEDICATION This document is dedicated to my family for their love and support, and especially to Andrew, who understands. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the guidance and expertise of my advisor, Lesley Ferris, without whose faith in this project and endless professional and personal encouragement it would not have been possible. Thank you for the many years of unwavering support. To my committee: Jennifer Schlueter, thank you for always providing clear and grounded perspective, thoughtful provocation, and constant support for this project and my professional development; to Stratos Constantinidis, for many years of advising and insightful questions; to David Brewer, for the reading, questioning, brainstorming, and contextualizing that helped to shape this project. I also wish to extend my thanks to the many archivists and administrators who enabled my research and the completion of this document. My thanks to Gayle Richardson and Molly Gipson (Huntington Library, California); Marcus Risdell (Garrick Club Library, London); Anne Buchanan (Bath Central Library); Heather Romaine (Kathleen Barker Collection, University of Bristol); innumerable members of the staff of the British Library (London) and the Folger Shakespeare Library, especially Georgianna Ziegler (Washington, D.C.); the incredible Maggie Reilly (Hunterian Museum, Glasgow); the reading room staff at the National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh); and Julie Crocker and Thomas Gray (Royal Archives, Windsor, UK). To the last, I add my thanks to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for permission to use material from the Royal Archives in this document. v I also wish to acknowledge the generous research support offered by The Ohio State University Graduate School and the Department of Theatre, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Finally, to Dan Gray, Damian Bowerman, Savenda Fulton, Eric Mayer, and Beth Simon for help with paperwork and reimbursements. vi VITA 2001................................................................Greenwood Laboratory School 2005................................................................B.A. English, Bryn Mawr College 2009................................................................M.F.A. Dramaturgy, Mary Baldwin College 2009-present ...................................................Graduate Teaching Associate and Presidential Fellow, Department of Theatre, The Ohio State University Publications “‘Unsex me Here:’ Bodies and Femininity in the Performance History of Lady Macbeth.” Testi e Linguaggi. Volume 7. Salerno, Italy: University of Salerno, 2014. “‘I Have Given Suck:’ The Maternal Body in Sarah Siddons’ Lady Macbeth.” Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Edited by Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kathryn R. McPherson, and Sarah Enloe. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013. “Sport and Spectacle: The Olympics as a Theatrical Event”; “A Dramaturg’s Point of View.” Contributor to “Theatrical Spaces Throughout History.” The Art of the Now. Columbus, OH: Digital First for The Ohio State University Department of Theatre, 2012. Fields of Study Major Field: Theatre. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... II DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... V VITA .............................................................................................................................. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ VIII LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................ XII LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... XIII PROLOGUE: PREGNANCY AND THE RESTORATION STAGE ......................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 7 Problem ...................................................................................................................... 9 Argument .................................................................................................................. 11 Scope ........................................................................................................................ 13 Methodology and Sources ........................................................................................ 16 1.1.1 THE ACTRESS IN SOCIETY ............................................................................ 20 Marriage and Virtue ................................................................................................ 21 Motherhood and Childbearing ................................................................................ 24 Royalty and the Aristocracy ..................................................................................... 29 1.1.2 THE ACTRESS ON STAGE: THEATRICAL CELEBRITIES ......................... 34 1.1.3 VERISIMILITUDE, ACTING STYLES, AND THE BODY ON STAGE ........ 40 The Body in Repertoire ............................................................................................ 42 1.1.4 CHANGING FASHIONS AND THE VISIBLE BODY .................................... 45 1.2.1 LONDON THEATRE HISTORY, 1689-1800 ................................................... 48 1.2.2 THE LICENSING ACT, SENSIBILITY, AND CHANGING REPERTOIRES AT MID-CENTURY .................................................................................................... 50 1.2.3 UPHEAVAL AND REVOLUTION AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY ..... 57 1.3 CHAPTER BREAKDOWNS ................................................................................. 59 Chapter Two: Susanna Percival Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield .......... 59 Chapter Three: Susannah Cibber, Hannah Pritchard, George Anne Bellamy ....... 60 Chapters Four and Five: Sarah Siddons and Dorothy Jordan ................................ 62 CHAPTER TWO: SUSANNA PERCIVAL MOUNTFORT VERBRUGGEN AND ANNE OLDFIELD ........................................................................................................
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