Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/69

Rh of his Tatlers, ſpeaking of the Buſy Body, thus recommends it. ‘The plot, and incidents of the play, are laid with that ſubtilty, and ſpirit, which is peculiar to females of wit, and is very ſeldom well performed by thoſe of the other ſex, in whom craft in love is an act of invention, and not as with women, the effect of nature, and inſtinct.’

She died December 1, 1723; the author of the Political State thus characterizes her. ‘Mrs. Centlivre, from a mean parentage and education, after ſeveral gay adventures (over which we ſhall draw a veil) ſhe had, at laſt, ſo well improved her natural genius by reading, and good converſation, as to attempt to write for the ſtage, in which ſhe had as good ſucceſs as any of her ſex before her. Her firſt dramatic performance was a Tragi-Comedy, called The Perjured Huſband, but the plays which gained her moſt reputation were, two Comedies, the Gameſter, and the Buſy Body. She wrote alſo ſeveral copies of verſes on divers ſubjects, and occaſions, and many ingenious letters, entitled Letters of Wit, Politics, and Morality, which I collected, and publiſhed about 21 years ago.’

Her dramatic works are,

1. The Perjured Huſband, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre-Royal 1702, dedicated to the late Duke of Bedford. Scene Venice.

2. The Beau’s Duel, or a Soldier for the Ladies, a Comedy; acted at the Theatre in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, 1703; a Criticiſm was written upon this play in the Poſt-Angel for Auguſt. 3. The