Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821). Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830). Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Elizabeth Inchbald (15 October 1753 - 1st of August 1821) was an English novelist, playwright and actress.
Life[]
Inchbald was born on 15 October 1753 at Standingfield, Suffolk, the daughter of John Simpson, a farmer.[1]
Her father died when she was 8 years old. She and her sisters never enjoyed the advantages of school or of any regular supervision in their studies, but they seem to have acquired refined and literary tastes at an early age.[1]
Ambitious to become an actress, a career for which an impediment in her speech hardly seemed to qualify her, she applied in vain for an engagement; and finally, in 1772, she abruptly left home to seek her fortune in London.[1]
In London she married Joseph Inchbald (d. 1779), an actor. On 4th September 1772 she made her début in Bristol as Cordelia, to his Lear. For several years she continued to act with him in the provinces. Her rôles included Anne Boleyn, Jane Shore, Calista, Calpurnia,[1] Lady Anne in Richard III., Lady Percy, Lady Elizabeth Grey, Fanny in The Clandestine Marriage, Desdemona, Aspasia in Tamerlane, Juliet, and Imogen; but notwithstanding her great beauty and her natural aptitude for acting, her inability to acquire rapid and easy utterance prevented her from attaining to more than very moderate success.[2]
After the death of her husband she continued for some time on the stage; making her debut London appearance at Covent Garden as Bellario in Philaster on 3 October 1780. Her success, however, as an author led her to retire in 1789.[2]
She also edited a collection of the British Theatre, with biographical and critical remarks (25 volumes, 1806-1809); a Collection of Farces (7 volumes, 1809); and The Modern Theatre (10 vols., 1809).[2]
She died at Kensington House on 1 August 1821.[2]
Writing=[]
Inchbald wrote or adapted 19 plays, and some of them, especially Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are (1797), were for a time very successful. Among the others may be mentioned I’ll tell you What (translated into German, Leipzig, 1798); Such Things Are (1788); The Married Man; The Wedding Day; The Midnight Hour; Everyone has his Fault; and Lover’s Vows.[2]
Her fame, however, rests chiefly on her 2 novels: A Simple Story (1791), and Nature and Art (1796). These works possess many minor faults and inaccuracies, but on the whole their style is easy, natural and graceful; and if they are tainted in some degree by a morbid and exaggerated sentiment, and display none of that faculty of creation possessed by the best writers of fiction, the pathetic situations, and the deep and pure feeling pervading them, secured for them a wide popularity.[2]
Inchbald destroyed an autobiography for which she had been offered £1000 by Phillips the publisher; but her Memoirs, compiled by J. Boaden, chiefly from her private journal, appeared in 1833 in 2 volumes.[2] An interesting account of Mrs Inchbald is contained in Records of a Girlhood, by Frances Ann Kemble (1878).[2]
Recognition[]
Her portrait was painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence.[2]
Publications[]
Plays[]
- The Widow's Vow: A farce, in four acts. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1786.
- I'll Tell You What: A comedy. London: 1787.
- Such Things Are: A play, in five acts. London: 1788.
- Every One Has His Fault: A comedy, in five acts. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1793.
- The Wedding Day: A comedy, in two acts. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1794.
- Wives as They Were and Maids as They Are. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1797.
- Plays (edited by Paula R. Backsheider). New York: Garland, 1980.
Novels[]
- A Simple Story. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1791.
- Nature and Art. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1796; London: Routledge / Thoemmes, 1995.
Translated[]
- Antoine Jean Bourlin Dumaniant, The Midnight Hour: A comedy, in three acts. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1787.
- Néricault Destouches, The Married Man: A comedy, in three acts. London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, 1789.
Edited[]
- The British Theatre; or, A collection of plays. (25 volumes), London Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1806-1809.
- A Collection of Farces and other afterpieces. London: Longman, 1809.
Journals[]
- Diaries (edited by Ben P. Robertson). London & Brookfield, VT: Pickering & Chatto, 2007.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
See also[]
References[]
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- Elizabeth Inchbald in the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive ("In the Dead of the Night")
- Books
- Elizabeth Inchbald at Amazon.com
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.. Original article is at Inchbald, Mrs. Elizabeth