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Frances Boothby (
Boothby, Frances
''Marcelia: or the Treacherous Friend. A Tragicomedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, by His Majesties Servants. Written by Mrs. F. Boothby. Licenc'd, October 9, 1669. Roger L'Estrange''. The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 15727. Accessed 2022-09-08.Etext
British Library
Frances Boothby
" Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Ed. Susan Brown, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge UP, n.d. 22 Mar. 2013. Accessed 9 Sept. 2022. *Corporaal, Marguérite
''Early Modern Literary Studies'' 12.1 (May, 2006) 3.1-24 *Hughes, Derek
Boothby, Frances (fl. 1669–1670)
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 16 November 2006 * London Stage Database.
London Stage Event: August 1669 at The (first) Drury Lane Theatre
" Accessed 9 September 2022. * Todd, Janet M. "Boothby, Frances (fl. 1669)." ''A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800''. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985, p. 52.
Etexte
Internet Archive]). *Wynne-Davies, Marion
Boothby, Frances (1669) English Restoration dramatist
''Dictionary of English Literature''. Bloomsbury, 1997
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1669–1670) was an English playwright and the first woman to have a play professionally produced in London.
Life
Little is known of Boothby's life but the dedications of her two extant works have led to speculation that she may have been the daughter of Walter Boothby, a "prosperous merchant" with aristocratic connections. Boothby is mainly remembered for her tragicomedy ''Marcelia, or, The Treacherous Friend'' (licensed 1669; published 1670). It was performed by theKing's Company
The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 1660 to 1682, when it merged wit ...
at the Theatre Royal, probably in August 1669. The published play is dedicated to Lady Mary Yate, of Harvington Hall
Harvington Hall is a moated medieval and Elizabethan manor house in the hamlet of Harvington in the civil parish of Chaddesley Corbett, south-east of Kidderminster in the English county of Worcestershire.
It is open to the public.
History
Har ...
in Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
, whom she addresses as her kinswoman.
''Marcelia'' is "a conservative work." The plot involves romantic difficulties and deceit in love precipitated by a king who abandons his lover to pursue the heroine. As order is reestablished by the end, full-blown tragedy is avoided. Audiences likely perceived implicit criticism of King Charles II in the character of the lustful king; such criticism of the monarch was "widespread, but as yet tactful."
Boothby's only other known work is a poem, addressed to her cousin Anne Somerset (née Aston
Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre.
History
Aston wa ...
), which laments the failure of her play,Hughes, ''ODNB'' though one scholar writes that the play went off "with some success." She also left a collection of recipes.
Works
*''Marcelia: or the Treacherous Friend. A Tragicomedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, by His Majesties Servants. Written by Mrs. F. Boothby. Licenc'd, October 9, 1669. Roger L'Estrange''. London: Printed for Will. Cademan at the Popes-Head in the lower Walk of the New-Exchange, and Giles Widdowes at the Maiden-head in Aldersgate-street, 1670:''Marcelia: or the Treacherous Friend. A Tragicomedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, by His Majesties Servants. Written by Mrs. F. Boothby. Licenc'd, October 9, 1669. Roger L'Estrange''. The Women's Print History Project, 2019, title ID 15727. Accessed 2022-09-08.Etext
British Library
Notes
References
*Brown, Susan, et al.Frances Boothby
" Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Ed. Susan Brown, Patricia Clements, and Isobel Grundy. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge UP, n.d. 22 Mar. 2013. Accessed 9 Sept. 2022. *Corporaal, Marguérite
''Early Modern Literary Studies'' 12.1 (May, 2006) 3.1-24 *Hughes, Derek
Boothby, Frances (fl. 1669–1670)
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 16 November 2006 * London Stage Database.
London Stage Event: August 1669 at The (first) Drury Lane Theatre
" Accessed 9 September 2022. * Todd, Janet M. "Boothby, Frances (fl. 1669)." ''A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660-1800''. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985, p. 52.
Etexte
Internet Archive]). *Wynne-Davies, Marion
Boothby, Frances (1669) English Restoration dramatist
''Dictionary of English Literature''. Bloomsbury, 1997
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boothby, Frances 17th-century English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English women writers 17th-century English writers English women dramatists and playwrights Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown