Jane Wiseman

Jane Holt (née Wiseman; March 1673 – after 1717)[1] was a British poet and playwright, notable for being the first self-educated labouring-class woman to have a play professionally produced in London.

Her one play, Antiochus the Great, or, The Fatal Relapse, was successfully produced at the New Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1701, and revived as late as 1721.

[3] It was one of forty or so plays by women produced in London between 1695 and 1723, and is notable for its emphasis on female friendship.

[4] She was part of a literary group with Susannah Centlivre, with whom she was friends, as well as George Farquhar, Abel Boyer, Ned Ward, and Tom Brown.

[6] Wiseman took the proceeds from her success with Antiochus the Great and bought a tavern in Westminster for herself and her husband.