This is a chronological list of women playwrights who were active in the United Kingdom before approximately 1800, with a brief indication of productivity. (NB. Drama is the focus of this list, though many of these writers worked in more than one genre.)

Aphra Behn, Restoration playwright, by Mary Beale

Playwrights

• Jane Lumley (1537–1578): first translator of Euripides into English
• Mary Sidney Herbert (1561–1621): translated one play
• Elizabeth Cary (1585-1639): wrote the first original play in English by a woman
• Mary Wroth (1587–1652): primarily a poet; one drama extant
• Jane Cavendish (1620/21–1669): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Elizabeth Egerton
• Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673): author of closet dramas
• Elizabeth Egerton (1626–1663): co-authored a pastoral masque with her sister, Jane Cavendish
• Katherine Philips (1631-1664): mainly a poet; author of two plays (one unfinished)
• Aphra Behn (1640-1689): highly successful playwright
• Elizabeth Polwheele (ca. 1651-ca. 1691): two plays extant
• Anne Finch (1661–1720): primarily a poet; author of verse dramas
• Frances Boothby (fl. 1669–1670): author of the first original play by a woman to be produced in London
• Delarivier Manley (1663 or ca. 1670-1724): successful playwright
• Mary Pix (1666-1709): successful playwright
• Susannah Centlivre (ca. 1667-1723): highly successful playwright
• Mary Davys (1674-1732): novelist; produced one play; had another published
• Penelope Aubin (ca. 1679–ca. 1731): primarily a novelist; had one play produced
• Catherine Trotter (1679-1749): successful playwright
• Jane Wiseman (fl. ca. 1682–1717): author of one successfully produced play
• Mary Wortley Montagu (ca. 1689-1762): wrote primarily in other genres
• Eliza Haywood (1693-1756): successful as a playwright; wrote primarily in other genres
• Catherine Clive (1711–1785): highly successful actress; wrote farces with some success
• Charlotte Charke (1713-1760): playwright/actress/manager
• Charlotte Lennox (1720-1804): wrote primarily in other genres; two plays (one an adaptation)
• Frances Brooke (1723-1789): primarily a novelist; successful with comic opera
• Frances Sheridan (1724-1766): successful playwright
• Elizabeth Griffith (ca. 1727-1793): successful playwright
• Charlotte Lennox (ca. 1727-1804): limited success as playwright; primarily a novelist
• Dorothea Celesia (bap. 1738, d. 1790): translated Voltaire's Tancrède
• Hannah Cowley (1743-1809): successful playwright and poet
• Hannah More (1745-1833): successful as a playwright; published in many genres
• Mary Bowes (1749–1800): published one play
• Charlotte Smith (1749-1806): novelist and poet; one comedy attributed to her
• Elizabeth Craven (1750-1828): limited success as a writer of light plays
• Sophia Lee (1750–1824): successful playwright.
• Frances Burney (1752-1840): primarily a novelist; author of several plays, only one of which was produced in her lifetime
• Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821): successful playwright
• Ann Yearsley (ca. 1753-1806): primarily a poet; produced and published one play
• Hannah Brand (1754–1821): productions largely unsuccessful; published her plays
• Harriet Lee (1757-1851): successful playwright
• Mary Robinson (1757-1800): wrote primarily in other genres; one play produced
• Jane West (1758-1852): wrote primarily in other genres; her plays enjoyed limited success
• Anne Plumptre (1760-1818): wrote primarily in other genres; translated dramas
• Elizabeth Kemble (1761-1836): mainly known for acting
• Mariana Starke (1761/2–1838): author of four plays, not all produced; mainly a travel writer
• Joanna Baillie (1762-1851): prolific playwright
• Barbarina Brand (1768–1854): author of four published plays, one produced
• Frances Burney (1776–1828): published two tragedies, never produced
• Jane Porter (1776-1850): two plays; limited success
• Jane Scott (ca. 1779-1839): prolific author of stage pieces; theatrical manager; performer
• Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855): some success as a playwright
• Felicia Hemans (1793-1835): primarily a poet; wrote some verse drama
• Catherine Gore (1799-1861): eleven plays produced
• Catherine Crowe (1800-1876): primarily a writer of fiction; wrote two plays, one of which was produced
• Elizabeth Polack (active 1830-1838): author of five plays, three of which survive

References

• Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990.
• Buck, Claire, ed.The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Prentice Hall, 1992.
• Chadwyck-Healey Database of English Prose Drama (through 1750) and (1750-1939)
• Greer, Germaine, ed. Kissing the Rod: an anthology of seventeenth-century women's verse. Farrar Staus Giroux, 1988.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. London: Routledge, 1989.

See also

• List of early-modern women poets (UK)
• Category:Women dramatists and playwrights
• List of playwrights
• List of playwrights by nationality and date of birth
• List of women novelists before Jane Austen
• List of women writers
• Lists of writers
• Women's writing in English

External links

• Bibliography of Early Modern Women Writers That Are In Print
• British Women Playwrights around 1800
• The Brown University Women Writers Project
• A Celebration of Women Writers
• Early Modern Women Database provides links to Web resources useful for the study of women in early modern Europe and the Americas. Materials range from bibliographic databases to full-text resources, images, and sound recordings.
• Emory Women Writers Resource Project
• List of biographical dictionaries, with a focus on 17thc women writers
• London Theater People - 1660-1800
• Luminarium
• The Perdita Project
• The Restoration Comedy Project
• Romantic Circles
• Women Romantic-Era Writers
• The Women Writers Archive: Early Modern Women Writers Online