Hannah Brand (1754–1821) was an English actress, poet and playwright. After her brief theatrical career, she became a governess.

Life and career

Hannah Brand was born in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

, where she ran a "young Ladies Boarding School, No. 18, St. Giles's Broad-street" with her sister, Mary, until she turned to the stage.Chandler
/ref> At the Miss Brands' Academy for Young Ladies, day and boarding students were taught English Language, needlework, writing, arithmetic, drawing, music, dancing and French. Her historical tragedy ''Huniades, or, The siege of Belgrave,'' was first produced in John Brunton's Theatre-Royal, Norwich in April 1791 and performed on at least three nights and was, according to the '' Norwich Mercury'', "well received" by "a genteel audience." Brand was due to appear at the Haymarket on 14 January but did not on account of a sudden indisposition. A subsequent performance by the Drury-Lane company at the Haymarket on 19 January 1792, however, in which she herself appeared (despite having to combat a cold) as the heroine, was not successful. The play was performed again the next evening. She shortened the play, retitled it ''Agmunda'' after the character she herself played, and remounted it the following month; it enjoyed a small success. After this measured reception she left London to pursue a middling acting career in the provinces. It was reported On 28 May for her benefit night in Norwich, she was Euphrasia to Brunton's Evander in ''

The Grecian Daughter ''The Grecian Daughter'' is a 1772 tragedy by the Irish writer Arthur Murphy. The original Drury Lane cast included Spranger Barry as Evander, Ann Street Barry as Euphrasia, John Palmer as Dionysius, Samuel Reddish as Philotus, Joseph Inchbal ...

'' On 31 July she appeared as Alicia in ''Jane Shore'' in Norwich. She performed in Agimunda in Yorkshire on 21 May 1794. An invitation for subscribers was published . This volume of ''Plays, and Poems'' (Norwich: Beatniffe and Payne) was not published until 1798, she included ''Huniades'' the two other plays, adaptations of works by

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patrona ...

and Destouches, respectively: ''The conflict, or, Love, honour, and pride a heroic comedy'' and ''Adelinda, a comedy''. Neither would seem to have been performed. She subsequently gave up the stage and became a governess to a family in Woodbridge, though after her arrival there was apparently "much unpleasantness between husband and wife."Knight
/ref> ODE TO YOUTH. From Poems by Miss Hannah Brand. Sweet Morn of Life ! all hail, ye hours ease! When blooms the cheek with roseate, varying dyes; When modest grace exerts each power to please, And Streaming lustre radiates in the eyes. Thy past hours innocent, thy present gay, Thy future, halcyon Hope depicts without allay. Day spring of life! oh, stay thy fleeting hours! Thou fairy reign of ev'ry pleasant thought! Fancy, to cheer thy path, strews all her flowers, And in her loom thy plan of years is wrought. By thee for goodness each heart caress'd. The world, untried, judg'd by that within thy breast. Sweet state of Youth ! O harmony of foul! Now chearful dawns the day, noon brightly beams, And evening comes serene, nor cares controul, And night approaches with soft infant dreams Circling, the morn beholds th' accustom'd round, Life's smiling charities awake and joys abound. published in The Scots Magazine – Sunday 1 September 1799.

Death

When she died, she left small bequests to family members and the bulk of her estate, £200, to Mary Ware, a widow.

References

Bibliography

*Chandler, David.

" Romanticism On the Net 12 (November 1998) 2 December 2006 *Knight, Joseph.
Brand, Hannah (1754–1821)
" Rev. K. A. Crouch. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 21 November 2006.

External links

Hannah Brand
at th
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brand, Hannah 1754 births 1821 deaths 18th-century English women writers 18th-century English writers 18th-century English poets 18th-century English actresses 19th-century English actresses 18th-century English dramatists and playwrights Writers from Norwich English women dramatists and playwrights English women poets English stage actresses English governesses Actors from Norwich