Anne Oldfield

Anne Oldfield (1683 – 23 October 1730) was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time.[1]

Anne Oldfield
Portrait of Oldfield, National Portrait Gallery (artist unknown)
Born1683
London, England
Died23 October 1730(1730-10-23) (aged 47)
Grosvenor Street, London, England
OccupationActress

Early life and discovery

She was born in London in 1683. Her father was a soldier, James Oldfield. Her mother was either Anne[2] or Elizabeth Blanchard.[3] Her grandfather owned a tavern and left her father several properties, he however mortgaged these which resulted in Anne and her mother being placed in financial difficulty when he died young.[2] It appears that Oldfield received some education because her biographers state that she read widely in her youth. Oldfield and her mother went to live with her aunt, Mrs Voss, in the Mitre tavern, St James.[4] In 1699, she attracted George Farquhar's attention when he overheard her reciting lines from Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's play The Scornful Lady (1616) in a back room of her tavern. Soon after, she was hired by Christopher Rich to join the cast of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.[5]

Career

A year later she was cast in her first small role as Candiope in John Dryden's Secret Love; or, The Maiden Queen (1699). After her success in a minor role, she was given the lead in John Fletcher's The Pilgrim (1647).[6] In the summer of 1703, Oldfield replaced Susanna Verbruggen when her contract was terminated before the company travelled to Bath to perform for Queen Anne and her court.[7]

Oldfield became one of Drury Lane's leading actresses. Colley Cibber acknowledged that she had as much as he to do with the success of his The Careless Husband (1704), in which she created the part of Lady Modish. Speaking of her portrayal of Lady Townly in his The Provoked Husband (1728), Cibber was to say, "that here she outdid her usual Outdoing". She also played the title role in Ben Jonson's Epicoene, and Celia in his Volpone.[8]

Contemporary gossip is recorded that there were rivalries between Oldfield, Anne Bracegirdle, Jane Rogers and Susannah Centlivre, all of whom were supposedly vying for the best roles.[9] In 1706 Oldfield came into conflict with the Drury Lane's management over benefits and salary she believed she had been promised, but which the theatre refused to pay. Oldfield left and joined the competing acting company at Haymarket Theatre before returning to Drury Lane shortly after with a fresh contract and a new position as joint-sharer of the Drury Lane Theatre.[10] On a separate occasion, Oldfield was offered to become manager of the Theatre, "but her sex was thought to be an objection to that measure" thus being asked to name her own terms to stay in her old position, Oldfield received 200 guineas salary, which was ultimately raised to 500 guineas resulting in Oldfield becoming the highest paid actress of her time.[1]

Anne Oldfield at the Covent Gardens.Edward Fisher, after Jonathan Richardson mezzotint, circa 1760–1785,

Personal life

Oldfield began a decade-long relationship with Whig politician Arthur Maynwaring around 1700. Owing to her success, Oldfield remained financially independent from Maynwaring.[11] He supported her career by helping her work through new roles and by writing more than a dozen prologues and epilogues for her to perform.[12] When she became pregnant with their son, Arthur, Oldfield kept acting until she was physically unable, which was unusual for the time. She went back to work just three months after the birth.[13] Oldfield arranged for her lifelong friend, Margaret Saunders, to join the acting profession.[14]

When Maynwaring died in 1712, rumours circulated that he had died from a venereal disease that Oldfield had given to him. In order to clear both their names, she ordered an official autopsy to be performed on his body, which revealed that he had died of tuberculosis.[15] Oldfield was three months pregnant at the time, but her child is not believed to have survived the birth.[12]

Several years after Maynwaring's death, Oldfield began a relationship with Charles Churchill. The two lived together for many years and had a son, Charles. However, during this pregnancy, Oldfield was unable to continue acting due to her health, and was forced to leave the theatre for several months. She never fully recovered her health.[16]

Throughout her last theatrical season she suffered from chronic pain in her abdomen. She retired from the stage in April 1730 and died from cancer of the uterus a few months later.[17]

Memorial

Alexander Pope, in his Sober Advice from Horace, wrote of her "Engaging Oldfield, who, with grace and ease, Could join the arts to ruin and to please." Oldfield had said to her maid "No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face; One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead, And Betty give this cheek a little red."[8][3]

Oldfield died on 23 October 1730 at age 47, at 60 Grosvenor Street, London.[18] She divided her property between her two sons. Oldfield was buried in Westminster Abbey, beneath the monument to Congreve. Her partner, Churchill, applied for permission to erect a monument there to her memory, but the dean of Westminster refused it.[8][19]

Significant roles

References
  • "Oldfield, Anne" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Notes
  1. "The Thespian dictionary; or, Dramatic biography of the eighteenth century; containing sketches of the lives, productions, &c., of all the principal managers, ..." HathiTrust. hdl:2027/hvd.hxjncz. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  2. "Oldfield, Anne (1683–1730), actress". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20677. Retrieved 25 November 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. "Oldfield, Anne" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  4. Robert Gore-Browne, Gay was the Pit: the Life and Times of Anne Oldfield, Actress (1683–1730) (London: Max Reinhardt, 1957), p.16.
  5. Robert Gore-Browne, Gay was the Pit: the Life and Times of Anne Oldfield, Actress (1683–1730) (London: Max Reinhardt, 1957), 18–9.
  6. Joanne Lafler, The Celebrated Mrs. Oldfield: the Life and Art of an Augustan Actress (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), 16–7.
  7. Joanne Lafler, The Celebrated Mrs. Oldfield: the Life and Art of an Augustan Actress (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), 25.
  8.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Oldfield, Anne". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 73.
  9. Lewis Melville, Stage Favourites of the Eighteenth Century (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc., 1929), 19–21
  10. Felicity Nussbaum, Rival Queens: Actresses, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century British Theater (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 51.
  11. Joanne Lafler, The Celebrated Mrs. Oldfield: the Life and Art of an Augustan Actress (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), 27–31.
  12. Nicola Parsons, "Mrs. Oldfield," Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part III. Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013, vol. 10, vol. 10, 30–3, editorial notes, 548-51, on 550.
  13. Laura Engel and Elaine M. McGirr, eds, Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater, 1660–1830 (Lenham, Maryland: Bucknell University Press, 2014), p. 45-6.
  14. "Saunders, Margaret" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  15. Laura Engel and Elaine M. McGirr, eds, Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater, 1660–1830 (Lenham, Maryland: Bucknell University Press, 2014), p. 48.
  16. Laura Engel and Elaine M. McGirr, eds, Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater, 1660–1830 (Lenham, Maryland: Bucknell University Press, 2014), p. 53-4.
  17. Joanne Lafler, The Celebrated Mrs. Oldfield: the Life and Art of an Augustan Actress (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989), p. 162.
  18. English Heritage plaque for Oldfield at plaquesoflondon.co.uk
  19. Nicola Parsons, "Mrs. Oldfield," Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part III. Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013, vol. 10, vol. 10, 30–3, editorial notes, 548-51, on 551.
  20. Lafler, Joanne (1989). The Celebrated Mrs. Oldfield: the Life and Art of an Augustan Actress. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 17.
  21. Chishol, Hugh, ed. (1911) "Oldfield, Anne". Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 (11th ed). Cambridge University Press. p.73.
  22. "The London stage, 1660–1800; a calendar of plays, entertainments & afterpieces, together with casts, box-receipts and contemporary comment. Compiled ... pt.2 v.1". HathiTrust. hdl:2027/mdp.39015038922269. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  23. "Eighteenth Century Collections Online". find.galegroup.com. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
  24. "The London stage, 1660–1800; a calendar of plays, entertainments & afterpieces, together with casts, box-receipts and contemporary comment. Compiled ... pt.2 v.1". HathiTrust. hdl:2027/mdp.39015038922269. Retrieved 23 October 2018.

Further reading
  • Anonymous. Authentick Memoirs of the Life of that Celebrated Actress, Mrs. Ann Oldfield, Containing a Genuine Account of Her Transactions from Her Infancy to the Time of Her Decease, 4th edition. London: no publisher, 1730.
  • Egerton, William. Faithful Memoirs of the Life, Amours and Performances of that justly Celebrated, and most Eminent Actress of her Time, Mrs. Anne Oldfield. Interspersed with Several Other Dramatic Memoirs. London: no publisher, 1731.
  • Engel, Laura and Elaine M. McGirr, eds. Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater, 1660–1830. Lenham, Maryland: Bucknell University Press, 2014.
  • Gore-Browne, Robert. Gay was the Pit: the Life and Times of Anne Oldfield, Actress (1683–1730). London: Max Reinhardt, 1957.
  • Hays, Mary. "Mrs. Oldfield". Female Biography; or Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women of all Ages and Countries (6 volumes). London: R. Phillips, 1803, vol. 6, 28–31.
  • Lafler, Joanne. The Celebrated Mrs. Oldfield: the Life and Art of an Augustan Actress. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989.
  • Melville, Lewis. Stage Favourites of the Eighteenth Century. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Doran & Company, Inc., 1929.
  • McGirr, Elaine. Eighteenth Century Characters : a Guide to the Literature of The Age. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
  • Nussbaum, Felicity. Rival Queens: Actresses, Performance, and the Eighteenth-Century British Theater. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.
  • Parsons, Nicola. "Mrs. Oldfield." Mary Hays, Female Biography; or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries (1803). Chawton House Library Series: Women’s Memoirs, ed. Gina Luria Walker, Memoirs of Women Writers Part III. Pickering & Chatto: London, 2013, vol. 10, 30–3, editorial notes, 548–51.
  • Project Continua – at ProjectContinua.org
  • Ritchie, Fiona. Women and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
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