THE FEMALE WITS: CATHERINE TROTTER, DELARIVIERE MANLEY, AND MARY PIX--THREE WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS WHO MADE THEIR DEBUTS IN THE LONDON SEASON OF 1695-96 (ENGLAND).
Item
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Title
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THE FEMALE WITS: CATHERINE TROTTER, DELARIVIERE MANLEY, AND MARY PIX--THREE WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS WHO MADE THEIR DEBUTS IN THE LONDON SEASON OF 1695-96 (ENGLAND).
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Identifier
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AAI8409389
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identifier
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8409389
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Creator
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CLARK, CONSTANCE.
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Contributor
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Albert C. Bermel
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Date
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1984
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater | Biography
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Abstract
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This study explores the phenomenon of the entrance of three women playwrights onto the theatrical scene in the London season of 1695-96. The impact of the arrival of Catherine Trotter, Delariviere Manley, and Mary Pix provoked a satire lampooning them called The Female Wits; or, The Triumvirate of Poets at Rehearsal.;Catherine Trotter was the first to make her debut with Agnes de Castro, a tragedy based on a novel by Aphra Behn, which was produced at Drury Lane. Delariviere Manley's first play, The Lost Lover; or, The Jealous Husband, was also produced at Drury Lane. However, a month later The Royal Mischief, intended for that theatre, was withdrawn owing to altercations between the author and the players, and soon after was mounted by Thomas Betterton's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Mary Pix's two offerings in the season were Ibrahim, The Thirteenth Emperor of The Turks and The Spanish Wives.;The flurry of productions of plays by women that season, including a comedy by a pseudonymous "Ariadne," and a posthumous production of a play by Aphra Behn, excited derogatory criticism. It was apparently Manley's defection to the rival house and the success of The Royal Mischief that comprised the particular instigation for the Drury Lane satire, however.;The three women with whom this study deals were prolific professional writers. Trotter had five plays produced and published, Manley had four, and to Pix are attributed a dozen. Each published in other genres as well. Herein their biographies are presented, their plays analyzed, and other works discussed. Sources and influences, including that of their predecessor Aphra Behn, are considered. An evaluation is made of each of these writers' place in the theatre of their times and their influence upon the English drama of the eighteenth century.;Finally, the satire, The Female Wits, which imitates the form and tenor of Buckingham's The Rehearsal, which spoofed John Dryden twenty years earlier, is explicated.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Theatre
