SOURCE: “Plot and Politics in Susanna Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife,” in Curtain Calls: British and American Women and the Theatre, 1660-1820, edited by Mary Anne Schofield and Cecilia Macheski, Ohio University Press, 1991, pp. 357-70.

In this essay, Butler argues that, despite current critical evaluations of her work, Centlivre's plays do possess social and political ideas, which reflect Centlivre's Whiggish philosophy.

Although she is generally recognized as England's most popular woman playwright, Susanna Centlivre has inspired relatively little critical attention and even less acclaim. The standard critical observation is that she writes highly theatrical plays, full of action, that are quite innocent of thought. Perhaps Centlivre does not have a serious vision, but she does seem to share certain assumptions with the Whiggish writers of her time, with those who believed that society should guarantee (in Locke's terms) a citizen's life, liberty, and property.

Centlivre's plays...