SOURCE: Anonymous. “To the World.” In The Dramatic Works of the Celebrated Mrs. Centlivre, Vol. 1, 1872. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1968.

In the following essay, an introduction to the 1760-61 edition of Centlivre's collected works, the author emphasizes the difficulties the playwright faced because of her gender and uses Centlivre's career as the basis for a denunciation of women's oppression worldwide.

Be it known that the Person with Pen in Hand is no other than a Woman, not a little piqued to find that neither the Nobility nor Commonalty of the Year 1722, had Spirit enough to erect in Westminster-Abbey, a Monument justly due to the Manes of the never to be forgotten Mrs. Centlivre, whose works are full of lively Incidents, genteel Language, and humourous Descriptions of real Life, and deserved to have been recorded by a Pen equal to that which celebrated the¹ Life of Pythagoras. Some Authors...