City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library
Susanna Centlivre (1667-1723)
Susanna Centlivre (c. 1667 to 1670 – 1 December 1723), born Susanna Freeman and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and "the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century". Centlivre’s “pieces continued to be acted after the theatre managers had forgotten most of her contemporaries.” During a long career at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the second woman of the English stage, after Aphra Behn.