The Female Wits

Taking as its focus the satirical play The Female Wits: or, the Triumvirate of Poets at Rehearsal (1696) this chapter reconstructs the satirical milieu around female dramatists at the turn of the eighteenth century. The leading playwright Susannah Centlivre repeatedly claimed that female dramatists only found success where they obscured their gender, with discriminatory attitudes laying them open to ‘the carping Malice of the Vulgar World’. This chapter explores the extent to which this was true, examining whether we should read The Female Wits as a misogynistic silencing of women playwrights, or rather as a work that speaks to their commercial popularity. By contextualizing this analysis through the writings of Centlivre and her contemporaries Delarivier Manley, Mary Pix, and Catharine Trotter, as well as considering their treatment in the stage reform debates, the chapter argues that scholars may have overestimated the power of satire to curtail the careers of female dramatists.

Protesting the Exclusivity of the Public Sphere: Delarivier Manley’s Examiner

The well-known Delarivier Manley quietly took over editorship of the partisan Tory Examiner (1710-14) from Jonathan Swift in 1711, becoming the first woman known to write and edit a political periodical in England. While she did so via the male eidolon that Swift had developed, Rachel Carnell’s sensitive reading of her contributions against Manley’s other work, including the New Atlantis, reveals important divergences from the male-established model: the Tory public sphere Manley allowed herself to imagine was not an idealized or even especially inclusive or just one. Though she was free, writing in masculine periodical mode, to relish mocking the rival Whiggish periodical Medley and Arthur Maynwaring, Manley also registered that public discourse between men had strictures inimical to feminine voices and female friendships.

Laws Regulating Publication, Preaching, and Performance, 1700–1714

After the lapse of the Licensing Act in 1695, the amount of literary periodicals and propaganda created to influence elections notably increased for both pro- and anti-government sentiment. Richard Steele, John Tutchin, Delarivier Manley, and Daniel Defore, all were charged at different times for seditious libel for their political writings. Because of a proliferation of pirated editions, the desire of authors to control their works through copyright resulted in the Act for the Encouragement of Learning in 1709, while the 1712 Stamp Act targeted newspapers and pamphlet publications in an indirect form of censorship. The trial of Henry Sacheverell for preaching and publishing against the Toleration Act created intense interest and prompted further publications.

Seen on Stage: English Operas, the Female Wits, and the ‘Reformed’ Stage

The final decade of the century saw changes and challenges to the London commercial stage, including Jeremy Collier’s attack on it for profanity and immorality. Dramatists including Dryden, Congreve, and Southerne defended their writings as promoting good morality, while a group of female dramatists comprising Mary Pix, Delarivier Manley, and Catharine Trotter became a target of satire, referred to as the ‘Female Wits’. Audiences were increasingly interested in new forms of plays called ‘operas’ that required more singers, dancers and stage effects.

1685–1686

The transition between the reigns of Charles II and James II brought controversy, with an openly practicing Catholic on the throne, the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion, and the consolidation of the Whig and Tory parties in Parliament. Poets and dramatists responded to these national events. while also dealing with increasing attempts by both court and clergy such as Jeremy Collier to reform the libertine court and stage. A new generation of dramatists appeared, including William Congreve, Thomas Southerne, and the so-called Female Wits, Delarivier Manley, Mary Pix, and CatharineTrotter.

Periodical Publications: Journalism, Politics, and Polite Entertainment

New formats for periodical publications in this decade included the newspaper, which replaced the earlier newsbooks and handwritten subscription newsletters and which created new opportunities for journalism. In addition to news, they were also important to the development of advertising and opinion writing. While some periodicals were associated with political parties, such as the Tory Examiner for which Jonathan Swift and Delarivier Manley wrote, others such as the Athenian Mercury, the Tatler, and the Guardian were more concerned with polite entertainment and literary matters.