List of early-modern British women playwrights

This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

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. (For a chronological list, see the link on the right.) 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

• Ariadne (fl. 1694-95): pseudonym of unknown author of She Ventures and He Wins
• Penelope Aubin (c. 1679 – c. 1731): primarily a novelist; had one play produced
• Joanna Baillie (1762–1851): prolific playwright
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861): primarily a poet; one closet drama and one translation
• Aphra Behn (1640–1689): usually credited with being the first female professional playwright in English
• Frances Boothby (fl. 1669–1670): author of the first original play by a woman to be produced in London
• Rachel Bourchier (Countess of Bath, née Fane; 1613–1680): wrote masques
• Mary Bowes (1749–1800): published one play
• Elizabeth Boyd (c. 1710 – 1745): wrote one play; wrote primarily in other genres
• Barbarina Brand (1768–1854): author of four published plays, one produced
• Hannah Brand (1754–1821): published playwright
• Frances Brooke (1723–1789): primarily a novelist; wrote comic opera
• Frances Burney (1752–1840): primarily a novelist; author of several plays, only one produced in her lifetime
• Frances Burney (1776–1828): published two unproduced tragedies
• Sophia Burrell (1753–1802): author of two tragedies
• 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
• Charlotte Charke (1713–1760): playwright/actress/manager
• Catherine Clive (1711–1785): actress; wrote farces with some success
• Elizabeth Cooper (née Price) (1698? – 1761?): actress, playwright, and poet
• 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
• Mary Davys (1674–1732): novelist; produced one play; had another published
• Elizabeth Egerton (1626–1663): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Jane Cavendish
• Anne Finch (1661–1720): primarily a poet; author of verse dramas
• Catherine Gore (1799–1861): eleven plays produced
• Elizabeth Griffith (c. 1727 – 1793): playwright
• Eliza Haywood (1693–1756): playwright; wrote primarily in other genres
• Felicia Hemans (1793–1835): primarily a poet; some verse drama
• Margaret Holford(1757–1834): one play produced
• Margaret Holford (1778–1852): one play, neither published nor produced
• Elizabeth Inchbald (1753–1821): playwright
• Mary Latter (1725–1777): one tragedy produced
• Harriet Lee (1757–1851): playwright
• Sophia Lee (1750–1824): playwright
• Charlotte Lennox (1720–1804): wrote primarily in other genres; two plays (one an adaptation)
• Charlotte Lennox (c. 1727 – 1804): playwright; primarily a novelist
• Jane Lumley (1537–1578): first translator of Euripides into English
• Delarivier Manley (1663 or c. 1670–1724): playwright
• Jean Marishall (Jane Marshall) (fl. 1765–1788): one play
• Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855): playwright
• Hannah More (1745–1833): playwright; published in many genres
• Katherine Philips (1631–1664): mainly a poet; author of two plays (one unfinished)
• Mary Pix (1666–1709): playwright
• 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 Porter (1776–1850): two plays
• Jael Pye (née Mendez) (c. 1737 – 1782): published four works, each in a different genre
• 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
• Jane Scott (1779–1839): theatre manager, actor, and playwright
• Frances Sheridan (1724–1766): playwright
• Mary Sidney Herbert (1561–1621): translated one play
• Charlotte Smith (1749–1806): novelist and poet; one comedy attributed to her
• Mariana Starke (1761/2–1838): author of four plays, not all produced; mainly a travel writer
• Katherine of Sutton (abbess 1358–1376): rewrote several mystery plays
• Elizabeth Cary (1585–1639): wrote first original play in English by a woman
• Catherine Trotter (1679–1749): playwright
• Eglantine Wallace (née Maxwell; died 1803): comedies and tragedy
• Jane West (1758–1852): wrote primarily in other genres
• Anne Wharton (née Lee; 1659-1685): poet and verse dramatist
• Elizabeth Kemble (1761–1836): known for acting
• Jane Wiseman (fl. c. 1682–1717): author of one produced play
• Mary Wortley Montagu (c. 1689–1762): wrote primarily in other genres
• Mary Wroth (1587–1652): primarily a poet; one drama extant
• Ann Yearsley (c. 1753 – 1806): primarily a poet; produced and published one play

See also

• List of biographical dictionaries of women writers in English
• List of early-modern British women novelists
• List of early-modern British women poets
• List of female poets
• List of feminist poets
• List of playwrights
• List of playwrights by nationality and date of birth
• List of poets
• List of women rhetoricians
• List of women writers
• Lists of writers
• Oxford period poetry anthologies
• Women Writers Project
• Women's writing (literary category)

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)
• 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

• Bibliography of Early Modern Women Writers That Are In Print
• British Women Playwrights around 1800
• The Brown University Women Writers Project
• A Celebration of Women Writers
• Emory Women Writers Resource Project
• Images of Early Modern, 20th and 21st Century British Female Playwrights
• List of biographical dictionaries, with a focus on 17thc women writers
• London Theater People - 1660–1800
• Luminarium
• The Perdita Project
• The Restoration Comedy Project
• Romantic Circles
• Women Romantic-Era Writers
• The Women Writers Archive: Early Modern Women Writers Online