By Paul M S Hopkins

[Copyright Paul M S Hopkins. This article may not reprinted or distributed either electronically or on hard copy without permission.]

ON AUGUST 16th 1782, the Little Theatre in the Haymarket , London, staged 'The Female Dramatist', a farce.

So female writers were figures of fun? Nothing strange in that idea. A hundred years later, W S Gilbert listed among those 'who never would be missed…that singular anomaly the lady novelist'.

But before you can turn something into a figure of fun it must first exist. One hopes that Gilbert was condemning the many Victorian writers of tearjerkers like 'East Lynne' rather than the Brontes or Jane Austen. The farceur of 1782 had to have an equally recognisable target for the audience to laugh at.

So who were the female dramatists of the 18th century? It is certainly much more difficult to list them than it is to list Victorian women novelists. But this is because Victorian fiction is a popular subject for study and many of the books are still read. Among eighteenth century plays 'The School for Scandal', 'The Rivals' and 'She Stoops to Conquer' alone get regularly acted today - and they were written by two men.

Details of the Haymarket performance in1782 are given in 'A History of English Drama' by Allardyce Nicoll, which lists every known play from1660 to 1900 with details of first publication and (in the earlier years) first performance.

Nicoll's handlist for the period 1660-1800 lists 57 women among 900-plus playwrights. A few wrote in provincial towns like Bath or Norwich. One or two wrote closet dramas, never staged or even, perhaps, intended for the theatre.

But most wrote in London and their plays were performed at Covent Garden or Drury Lane, the two 'patent theatres' which had the right to stage 'legitimate drama' - straight plays - throughout the period. (The Little Theatre in the Haymarket was allowed to stage plays in the summer, when the two bigger theatres were closed, which explains why 'The Female Dramatist' was acted in August.)

Four women stand out from the 50-plus names for quantity and staying power as playwrights. The best-known is Aphra Behn, who had 21 plays staged between 1670 and 1696, including 'The Rover' (revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986) and 'The Lucky Chance' (given at the Royal Court Theatre by the Women's Playhouse Trust in 1984).

Susannah Centlivre had 19 plays produced in the years 1700-1722, with titles like 'The Wonder: A Woman Keeps A Secret', 'The Busybody' and 'The Man's Bewitched: or, The Devil To Do About Her', which suggests she tailored her work to meet popular prejudice. The plays remained in the repertoire for at least a century. David Garrick chose 'The Wonder' for his farewell performance in 1776.

Hannah Cowley's 14 titles staged between 1776 and 1794 include 'The Belles' Strategem', a title which deliberately invites comparison with Farquhar's 'The Beaux' Strategem'. Her play was almost as successful in its day, which lasted at least until it was given at the Memorial Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon in 1909 - but is now forgotten, while Farquhar's play is regularly revived.

Elizabeth Inchbald, actress turned playwright, had 19 plays staged between 1784 and 1805 before settling down to write witty and informed introductions to over 100 plays and farces in the 'British Theatre' collection.

One name which catches the eye in reading Nicoll's list is Fanny Burney, remembered as a novelist and diarist. A modern editor of her novel 'Cecilia' finds that Miss Burney took her main plot from Susannah Centlivre and other ideas from three more women dramatists, Hannah Cowley, Elizabeth Griffith (who had six plays staged at Drury Lane) and Sarah Scott. Despite studying these models, Fanny Burney failed with her own play 'Edwy and Elgiva', which was given only one performance at Drury Lane in 1795. She tried again, with a comedy called 'A Busy Day', commissioned by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, manager of Drury Lane. But the play was not staged until the 1980s and waited until 2000 before having a successful run in London. A memorial to Fanny Burney, recently erected in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey, rightly, if belatedly, adds 'playwright' to her list of qualifications for the honour.

Another name which rings a bell is Hannah More, remembered as an eminent member of the Bluestocking Circle. She had six plays produced, including the tragedy 'Percy' at Covent Garden in 1777. The play, the Oxford Companion to English Literature assures us, 'established her as a social as well as a literary success'.

Here was an obvious target for the author of 'The Female Dramatist' - a woman getting above herself as a writer of tragedies!

But who was the author of 'The Female Dramatist'? Allardyce Nicoll lists the play as by Mrs Gardner (Miss Cheney), but reports that a copy now in the university library at Harvard has a handwritten note that 'this was young Colman's first attempt'.

'Young Colman' was George Colman the Younger. The son of a successful playwright, Young Colman was himself a successful playwright and theatre manager. Later in life he became censor of plays for the Lord Chamberlain. In a supplementary list, Nicoll gives the play as by Colman, without explanation.

So, another woman dramatist making fun of her own sex? Or a man using a female pen-name? Or a female writer of no influence whose work got taken over by the manager? Did other female writers suffer the same fate?

Perhaps there were even more than 57 varieties of female dramatist to make fun of.

Paul M.S.Hopkins has written about the Restoration playwright Sir Samuel Tuke and his surprise smash hit. The Adventures of Sir Samuel Tuke - published by Ituri

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