A Wife to be Lett | |
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Written by | Eliza Haywood |
Date premiered | 12 August 1723 [1] |
Place premiered | Theatre Royal, Drury Lane |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
A Wife to be Lett is a 1723 comedy play by the British writer Eliza Haywood. Better known for her novels, it was Haywood's first theatrical play.
Staged at the Drury Lane Theatre the cast included Theophilus Cibber as Toywell, William Wilks as Sir Harry Beaumont, Roger Bridgewater as Captain Gaylove, James Oates as Courtly and John Harper as Shamble. Haywood herself played the part of the wife Mrs. Graspall, due to an illness of the original actress.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1715.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1723.
Eliza Haywood, born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. An increase in interest and recognition of Haywood's literary works began in the 1980s. Described as "prolific even by the standards of a prolific age", Haywood wrote and published over 70 works in her lifetime, including fiction, drama, translations, poetry, conduct literature and periodicals. Haywood today is studied primarily as one of the 18th-century founders of the novel in English.
William Rufus Chetwood was an English or Anglo-Irish publisher and bookseller, and a prolific writer of plays and adventure novels. He also penned a valuable General History of the Stage.
The Dark Lady is a woman described in Shakespeare's sonnets, and so called because the poems make it clear that she has black wiry hair, and dark, "dun"-coloured skin. The description of the Dark Lady distinguishes itself from the Fair Youth sequence by being overtly sexual. Among these, Sonnet 151 has been characterised as "bawdy" and is used to illustrate the difference between the spiritual love for the Fair Youth and the sexual love for the Dark Lady. The distinction is commonly made in the introduction to modern editions of the sonnets. As with the Fair Youth sequence, there have been many attempts to identify her with a real historical individual. A widely held scholarly opinion, however, is that the "dark lady" is nothing more than a construct of Shakespeare's imagination and art, and any attempt to identify her with a real person is "pointless".
The Ambitious Stepmother is a 1700 tragedy by the British writer Nicholas Rowe. It was his debut play. Rowe set his play in Biblical times, but it had strong subtexts of the contemporary questions about the British succession that led to the Act of Settlement in 1701. At the court of Persia, Artemisa schemes against her stepson Artaxerses.
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The Captives is a 1724 tragedy by the British writer John Gay. The action takes place in the ancient Median Empire, following the fashion in many tragedies of the era to have oriental settings. It concerns a plot against the King, which involves his wife and two royal Persian captives.
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The Devil to Pay is a 1731 ballad opera by the Irish writer Charles Coffey and British writer John Mottley. Also known by the longer title The Devil to Pay: Or, The Wives Metamorphos'd, it was part of a group of ballad operas produced in the wake of the success of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. The work is adapted from Thomas Jevon's 1686 play The Devil of a Wife.
The City Ramble is a 1711 comedy play by the British writer Elkanah Settle. It should not be confused with the 1715 play A City Ramble.