"[2] During a long career at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the second woman of the English stage, after Aphra Behn.

The main source of information on Centlivre's early life is Giles Jacob, who claimed he had received an account of it directly from her.

The romanticized version has Centlivre found weeping by the roadside by Anthony Hammond, a student at St John's College, Cambridge.

There she remained hidden for some months studying grammar and acquiring "some of the terms of logic, rhetoric, and ethics" before "attracting too much attention" and deciding to head to London.

The more believable scenario has her joining a company of strolling actors in Stamford (about 25 miles from Holbeach), where she gained popularity acting in breeches roles, for which she was suited due to a "small Wen on her left Eye lid, which gave her a Masculine Air.

[7] Following Fox's death, Centlivre is claimed to have married an army officer named Carroll, who died in a duel a year and a half after their union.

[8] Although much of her early years is speculation, biographers agree that Susanna's knowledge was predominantly self-acquired through reading and conversation.

Eventually, in late 1712 or early 1713, the Centlivres moved into residence at Buckingham Court, Spring Gardens, paying the highest rent second only to the Admiralty Office.

[12][13] After a long, illustrious career in high literary esteem with writings in the form of poems, letters, books, and, most famously, plays, Susanna Centlivre died on 1 December 1723, from lingering effects of a serious illness contracted in 1719.

[17] Centlivre continued in September 1700, when she contributed a poem, "Of Rhetorick," under the name Polumnia, to The Nine Muses, an elegiac poetry collection left on the grave of John Dryden.

This tragicomedy (although considered a tragedy at the time) was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and, according to Centlivre, "went off with a general Applause.

As a result, her next two plays, The Stolen Heiress (December 1702) and Love's Contrivance (June 1703), were performed under attempts to conceal the sex of the author.

[20] It wasn't until Love's Contrivance that the experience and reputation of the cast allowed for a three-night run (in addition to some later productions and an eventual revival, three years after her death).

A similarly renowned playwright, Colley Cibber, was accused of borrowing parts of Love at a Venture to write his own play, The Double Gallant.

[23] Having grown weary with anonymous authorship, Centlivre used the preface to The Platonick Lady to express her distaste for society's outlook on the female writer.

[4] All of Centlivre's later works have a clear anti-Tory, pro-Whig political affiliation, "notable through the characters of tory fathers or guardians, whose party fervour forms another obstacle to the happiness of young lovers – always whiggishly inclined.

Despite the risk of annoying Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Centlivre was not afraid to openly support the Hanoverian succession.

This political move of showing loyalty to the House of Hanover was risky, but, in the end, paid off for Centlivre when the Duke ascended the throne as King George I.

"[4] Not solely a political play, The Wonder was a popular hit and notably was the performance in which famous actor/playwright David Garrick chose "to make his farewell to the stage on 10 June 1776.

After attacks by satirist Alexander Pope on Centlivre and others, she and co-author Nicholas Rowe published her next play, The Cruel Gift (December 1716).

)[32] Continuing her political works, in 1717 Centlivre directed her attention to Charles XII, a Swedish king threatening to attack England.

She published a poem, entitled "An Epistle from a Lady of Great Britain to the King of Sweden, on the intended Invasion," in response to Charles's threats.

Following this, Centlivre published a poem entitled "A Woman's CASE: in an Epistle to CHARLES JOYE, Esq; Deputy-Governor of the South Sea", that traces her political associations and shines some light on her relationship with her husband.

Some of her more controversial epilogues, such as that of The Perplexed Lovers where she identifies the out-of-favour war hero Marlborough as the "ONE", were not spoken in the theatre, just published in the play text.

[citation needed] Due to the widespread prejudice against women playwrights, Centlivre sometimes wrote under a pseudonym, or withheld more controversial messages.

[39] Satirist Alexander Pope found her writings offensive for political and religious reasons, and thought them a threat to greater dramatists by pandering to popular taste.

He assumed that she had helped with Edmund Curll's anti-Catholic pamphlet The Catholic Poet: or, Protestant Barnaby's Sorrowful Lamentation.