Elizabeth Cooper or Elizabeth Price (1698? – 1761?) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

actress, playwright, and editor. She is known for creating an early collection of poetry.

Life

Elizabeth Price is thought to have been born in the year 1698 or before. She was brought up in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buck ...

after her father died and her mother was left a pauper. On 25 February 1722 she married John Cooper, a

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

auctioneer specialising in Art and books. After her husband died in 1729, she became an actress and later a playwright. When the theatrical business took a downturn, she turned her hand to other writing. Cooper created an anthology of poetry ''The Muses' Library'' (1737), which gathered together English verse from the 11th to the 16th century, covering Edward the Confessor to

Samuel Daniel Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late-Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epi ...

. She achieved this by contacting the family of artists and due to the goodwill of

William Oldys William Oldys (14 July 1696 – 15 April 1761) was an English antiquarian and bibliographer. Life He was probably born in London, the illegitimate son of Dr William Oldys (1636–1708), chancellor of Lincoln diocese. His father had held th ...

. Despite its readability and the inclusion of relevant biographies, the book was not a commercial success, and it failed to pay for a second volume by Cooper on poetic theory. The book however did make a mark, as the frauds created by

Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Althou ...

are thought to have drawn on Cooper's book and

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

is said to have used Cooper's book as a model for his ''

Lives of the Poets ''Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets'' (1779–81), alternatively known by the shorter title ''Lives of the Poets'', is a work by Samuel Johnson comprising short biographies and critical appraisals of 52 poets, most of whom lived during th ...

''. Price was reported to have died in 1761, but another source says she was alive at a later date.

Works

* '' The Rival Widows: or, Fair Libertine'' (1735, Covent Garden) * ''

The Nobleman ''The Nobleman'' is a 1736 comedy play by Elizabeth Cooper.Nicoll p.316 It premiered at the Haymarket Theatre The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City ...

'' (1736, Haymarket) * The Muses' library dited Cooper 1737.Elizabeth Cooper
spenserians.cath.vt.edu, retrieved 11 November 2014

References

External links

The muses library, or, A series of English poetry
from the Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Elizabeth 1690s births 1760s deaths 18th-century British actresses British stage actresses English women dramatists and playwrights 18th-century British writers British book editors 18th-century British women writers 18th-century English women 18th-century English people