SOURCE: “Writing (as) the Lady's Last Stake: Susanna Centlivre,” in Playwrights and Plagiarists in Early Modern England: Gender, Authorship, Literary Property, Cornell University Press, 1996, pp. 204-42.

In the essay below, Rosenthal relates charges of plagiarism leveled at Centlivre to the condition of the female author in the eighteenth century. Noting that Centlivre “experimented with the fluidity of gender identity,” Rosenthal states that the author “avoided obvious appropriation when writing under her own name; in masculine disguise, however, she rewrote more freely.”

Susanna Centlivre achieved neither the fame nor the notoriety of Colley Cibber, although she did become a significant force on the London stage during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Her plays continued to be popular long after her death; David Garrick, in fact, chose the lead in her Wonder as his farewell performance.¹ Measured by stage longevity, Centlivre led the most successful career of all...