Elizabeth Inchbald

Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821)

by Mary A. Waters

One of the most successful among Romantic-era women authors, Elizabeth Inchbald did only moderately well in her early career as an actress but went on to produce numerous theatrical adaptations and original plays, two novels (A Simple Story, 1791, and Nature and Art, 1796), and a substantial body of literary criticism, most of which appeared as prefaces to the plays included in The British Theatre (1806-1808).

Born in 1753 and raised near Bury St. Edwards, Elizabeth Simpson’s interest in the theater began when her family attended touring productions of the Norwich Theater Company, a troupe which she later unsuccessfully tried to join. In 1772 she moved to London against her family’s wishes, hoping to become an actor there. After some unsuccessful attempts that also brought her unwanted sexual harassment, she married Joseph Inchbald, also an actor. Despite Elizabeth’s persistent stammer, the couple toured as provincial players. Joseph Inchbald died suddenly in 1779, and Elizabeth returned to London in 1780, where she first appeared on the London stage in 1780 as Bellario in the Covent Garden production of Beaumont and Fletcher’s Philaster.

In 1784, Inchbald’s first play, A Mogul Tale, debuted with Inchbald playing the leading role. Thereafter, her plays included I'll Tell You What! (1785); Appearance is Against Them (1785); The Widow's Vow (1786); Such Things Are (1787), a highly-successful piece exposing social ills and celebrating reformer John Howard; The Midnight Hour (1787), the first of her reworkings of French dramas; All on a Summer's Day (1787), which received only one performance; Animal Magnetism (1788); The Child of Nature (1788); The Married Man (1789); The Hue and Cry (1791); Next Door Neighbors (1791); Young Men and Old Women (1792); Every One Has His Fault (1793); The Wedding Day (1794); Wives as They Were, and Maids as They Are (1797); Lovers' Vows (1798), the play that threw the Bertram family into turmoil in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which was Inchbald's adaptation of Das Kind der Liebe by August Friedrich von Kotzebue; Wise Men of the East (1799), also an adaptation from Kotzebue; and To Marry, or Not to Marry (1805). In 1792, she arranged herself for the printing of The Massacre, her drama of the St. Bartholomew's day massacre of 1572, but then complied with friends' advice to suppress it for its potentially inflammatory parallels to the French revolution.

As a critic, Inchbald is best known for her “Remarks” to the plays issued in The British Theatre; Or, a Collection of Plays: Which Are Acted at the Theatres Royal, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Haymarket, published by Longman, Hurst, Reese, and Orme and collecting 125 recently performed plays. She was also credited in Longman’s subsequent collections, A Collection of Farces and Other Afterpieces Which are Acted at the Theatres Royal, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Hay-Market ... Selected by Mrs. Inchbald (7 vols., 1809) and The Modern Theatre; A Collection of Successful Modern Plays, As Acted at the Theatres Royal, London, selected by Mrs. Inchbald (10 vols., 1811), though in her own account, her role in both these productions consisted of little more than lending her name. Under the title “To The Artist,” Inchbald published the satirical essay usually referred to as "On Novel Writing" (1807) in Prince Hoare’s journal The Artist.

Inchbald died in 1821, after burning the manuscript of her memoirs some two years earlier.

Works in the Criticism Archive

Articles on JSTOR About Inchbald

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Mary A. Waters, Laura Mandell, "Elizabeth Inchbald." The Criticism Archive, published by Romantic Circles, 2026
https://cha.artsci.tamu.edu/CriticismArchive/authors/Inchbald.html