INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back o f the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS DURING THE STRUGGLE FOR CONTROL OF THE LONDON THEATRE, 1695-1710 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Jay Edw ard Oney, B.A., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 1996 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Alan Woods E. Beth Sullivan A dviser A. E. W allace M aurer Department of Theatre UMI Number: 9639322 Copyright 1996 by Oney, Jay Edward All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9639322 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Jay Edward Oney 1996 For Carol ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere appreciation to Dr. Alan Woods for his scrupulous and skillful attention to all facets of this project. Thanks go to the other members of my advisory committee, Professor A. E. Wallace Maurer and Dr. E. Beth Sullivan for their guidance, insight, and commentary. Gratitude is expressed to the Drama Department of Furman University and to Professor Rhctt Bryson, who lent his personal support and computer expertise. To my family, I offer heartfelt thanks for their assistance and understanding which enabled me to complete my work. VITA 16 Decem ber 1956 Bom - Chillicothie, Ohio 1978 . B. A., Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina 1980 . M. A., The Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania 1981 Actors Equity Internship, Virginia Stage Company, Norfolk, Virginia 1982-1986 Member of Actors Equity Association 1986-1990 Ph.D. course work, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1991 Instructor, Playful Space Language School, Sanuma, Japan 1992-1995 Adjunct Professor, Drama Department, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina 1996 . Assistant Professor, Drama Department, Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina Major Field: Theatre TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ........ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii VITA .......... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ....... v CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ....... 1 Misfortune Becomes Opportunity .... 1 Adverse Criticism Stimulates Reevaluation . 6 Placing The Playwrights In Their Historical Context 10 Organizing Principles . 11 Playwrights' Rehearsal Duties Circa 1700 . 14 Limitations On The Market For New Plays . 16 How To Succeed In Business ..... 20 II. INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE FOR THE FEMALE WITS . 28 Mary Pix ....... 28 Catharine Trotter ...... 31 Delarivier Manley ...... 35 The Female Wits ...... 43 III. PIX, MANLEY, AND TROTTER MOVE TO LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS . 56 The Female Wits' Brief Stay At Drury Lane . 60 Ibrahim Enters The Repertory ..... 64 The Struggle Between The Two Companies Lengthens 76 Trotter And Pix At Lincoln's Inn Fields .... 79 Fatal Friendship ...... 80 The Innocent Mistress. The Deceiver Deceived. 87 And Queen Catharine Summaiy ....... 100 v IV. THE RESURGENCE OF DRURY LANE AND THE ARRIVAL . 103 OF CENTLIVRE The Rebels Falter: Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 1698-1702 106 Pix Strives To Have A Play Enter The New Theatre Repertory . 108 The False Friend. Or. The Fate Of Disobedience 110 The Beau Defeated, Or. The Lucky Younger Brother 112 The Double Distress ...... 118 The Czar of Museow ...... 126 Trotter Returns To Drury Lane ..... 130 Love At A Loss. Or. Most Votes Carry It. 132 The Unhappy Penitent ..... 136 Slow Beginnings For Centlivre ..... 145 The Perjured Husband: Or. The Adventures of Venice 151 The Beau's Duel: Or A Soldier For The Ladies . 157 Summary ...... 163 V. THE FOUR WOMEN IN A SLOW MARKET .... 165 FOR NEW PLAYS A Brief Truce And Managerial Profits .... 165 Manley And Trotter At Odds 169 Pix's Career Begins To Wind Down 176 The Different Widows ..... 177 The End Of Centlivre's Apprenticeship. 183 The Stolen Heiress ...... 184 Love's Contrivance ...... 188 The Gamester ...... 192 Summary ....... 194 VI. PATRONAGE AND PUBLICATION . 196 The Failure Of Royal Patronage .... 196 Party And Club Patronage ..... 200 The Women And Political Patronage .... 201 Trotter's Search For Patronage ..... 202 Manley As Tory Partisan ..... 205 Centlivre Picks The Winning Side .... 210 Dedications . 217 Clubs And Sinecures ...... 220 Changes In The Publishing World .... 226 Earnings From Play Publication .... 230 Tonson And Lintot ...... 231 Other Publishers ...... 236 Summary ....... 241 v i VII. THE DEPARTURE OF PIX, TROTTER, AND MANLEY . 243 FROM THE THEATRE AND THE SURVIVAL OF CENTLIVRE'S CAREER BEYOND THE END OF THE COMPETITION IN 1710 The Events That Led To The Triumvirate 244 The End Of Pix's Career ..... 250 The Conquest of Spain ..... 242 The Adventures In Madrid ..... 254 Pix Quietly Departs ..... 258 Trotter's Retirement From The Theatre 259 The Revolution Of Sweden ..... 260 Trotter Chooses An Active Early Retirement 266 Manley Returns Briefly To The Theatre 271 Centlivre's Career Enters Its Second Decade 276 The Basset-Table ...... 276 Love At A Venture ...... 280 The Platonick Lady ...... 282 The Busy Body ...... 287 The Man's Bewitch'd ...... 291 Summary ....... 298 VIII. CONCLUSION ....... 301 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ 309 v ii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Misfortune Becomes Opportunity In England at the close of the last decade of the seventeenth century, a second generation of women dramatists began to have their plays produced on the London stage. Following the lead of Aphra Bchn's successful playwriting career during the 1670s and 1680s, Dclarivicr Manley, Catharine Trotter, Mary Pix, and Susanna Centlivre made their way into a traditionally male-dominated profession. The season of 1695-1696, featuring the premieres of works by Manley, Pix, and Trotter as well as Aphra Behn's posthumously staged The Younger Brother and She Ventures and He Wins by the as yet unidentified 'Ariadne,' proved to be a particular high point in the early history of English women's playwriting. Though women's ability to earn a living as professional dramatists was proven by Behn, other factors, some of them unlikely, also prompted these women to write for the theatre. In a sense, Pix, Trotter, Manley, and Centlivre had the opportunity to see their works acted because of the dishonesty of Alexander Davenant, one of the heirs to the two hereditary Patents created by Charles II in 1660 for the legal operation of London's theatres. In 1687 Alexander bought his older brother Charles Davenant's controlling interest in the United Company that had held both Patents since the collapse of the King's Company in 1682. Alexander hired his inexperienced younger brother Thomas Davenant to share management duties with veteran actors Thomas Betterton and William Smith who had run 1 the business for the Davenant interests since 1677;' Betterton along with Smith, who would retire to join the army in 1688, had turned a modest and reasonably steady profit with a policy that emphasized established repertory over the financial risk and extra work of new plays. During their tenure, due to Betterton’s life-long interest in operatic spectaculars, the United Company was unlikely to experiment with new plays by untried authors and much more prone to invest time and capital in musical productions that took advantage of the Dorset Garden theatre's capacity for elaborate staging.2 Unfortunately for the United Company, but fortunately for fledgling playwrights, Alexander Davenant handled his business affairs with a deplorable combination of bad management and illegality. In the first place, only £400 of the £2400 Alexander used to buy the Patents was his own money. Sir Thomas Skipwith and Christopher Rich, two lawyers who, though they possessed no theatrical experience, had a sure understanding of the money­ making possibilities of a theatrical monopoly, had lent Alexander the remaining £2000. Alexander's yearly earnings from his shares turned out to be about £30 less than the amount he needed each year to repay Rich and Skipwith. To make up the difference, Alexander employed a number of crooked techniques. Three of his scams were: collecting money as an "agent" for people who owned shares in the theatre without turning the cash over to the shareholders; pocketing salaries supposedly paid to personnel who were no longer employed at the theatre; and paying himself extra funds illegally as "governour" of the company.3 Alexander's business enterprises continued to deteriorate, however, and by 1690, he had been obliged to sell Rich the remaining one-sixth interest in the company represented by his original £400. At the same time as he was skimming money from the 1 Judith Milhous, Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1978) 55-58.