SOURCE: Inchbald, Elizabeth. “Remarks.” In Remarks for the British Theatre (1806-1809), n.p. Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1990.

In the following essay, first published in an 1808 edition of A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Inchbald commends Centlivre's skill as a dramatist but censures her for depicting licentiousness.

Susannah Centlivre, the writer of this play [A Bold Stroke for a Wife], says of it, in her dedication to the duke of Wharton,—

All that I have to assert in favour of this piece is, that the plot is entirely new, and the incidents wholly owing to my own invention; not borrowed from our own, or translated from the works of any foreign poet; so that they have at least the charm of novelty to recommend them.

It would at present be more honourable to the authoress, that a reader should believe she had inconsiderately adopted the scenes of...