Susanna Centlivre, an English dramatic writer, born in 1667, died in London, Dec. 1, 1723. She was daughter of a Lincolnshire gentleman named Freeman. Left an orphan at the age of 13, and ill-used by those who had charge of her, she fled to London. At the age of 16 she was married to a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox. A year afterward she was a widow; but her wit and beauty soon brought her another husband, an officer in the army, named Carrol. A year and a half after this second marriage her husband was killed in a duel, and she was obliged to depend upon her pen for support. Under the name of Carrol she published some poetry and a tragedy, "The Perjured Husband." She attempted but one more serious drama, but wrote several successful comedies, some of them before she was 19 years old. She also performed on the stage for a brief period, and in 1706, while she was playing in Lee's " Rival Queens" before the court at Windsor, she won the heart of Joseph Centlivre, principal cook to Queen Anne, and married him. She was intimate with Steele, Sew ell, Rowe, Farquhar, and other men of note, and incurred the enmity of Pope, who exhibited his malice toward her in the earlier editions of the "Dunciad." She wrote 19 plays, all of them noted for the ingenuity of the plots and the vivacity of the dialogue; but only three of them have kept the stage, "The Busy-Body," "A Bold Stroke for a Husband," and " The "Wonder, a Woman Keeps a Secret." Her works, with a biography, were published in 1761 (3 vols. 12mo, London), and a facsimile edition was published in 1872.