Enlightenment

Susanna Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718)

Regarded as the most successful female playwright of the 18th century, Susanna Centlivre (c.1667-1723), is remembered mainly for her comedies. Her comedy, A Bold Stroke for a Wife embodies a key development in 18th-century theatre: the shift to middle class concerns as opposed to those of nobility. The play’s heroine, Anne Lovely, seeks the consent of her four guardians to her marriage to Colonel Fainwell, whose impersonation of a preposterous Quaker preacher is exposed by the arrival of the ‘real Simon Pure’.

Centlivre (Susanna), A Bold Stroke for a Wife. In Miscellaneous Comedies Vol. VIII. 12mo. London, 1735.
[F.26.11]
Former owner: David Hughes (1727-77)