Susanna Mountfort (1690-1720) was a British

stage actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. She was the daughter of the actors

William Mountfort William Mountfort (c. 1664 – 10 December 1692), English actor and dramatic writer, was the son of a Staffordshire gentleman. He met his death at the hand of notorious brawler Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun of Okehampton, who had just take ...

and his wife Susanna Mountfort. In 1692 her father was killed in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...

and her mother remarried and became known as Susanna Verbruggen. Her daughter took to the stage as a

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in film, movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associa ...

in 1703, the year of her mother's death, and acted for many years at the

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dru ...

appearing frequently in comedies as an

ingénue The ''ingénue'' (, , ) is a stock character in literature, film and a role type in the theater, generally a girl or a young woman, who is endearingly innocent. ''Ingénue'' may also refer to a new young actress or one typecast in such role ...

. She also played Ophelia in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

''.Goff p.52

Selected roles

* Berynthia in '' An Act at Oxford'' by Thomas Baker (1704) * Angelica in '' The Biter'' by Nicholas Rowe (1704) * Valeria '' The Basset Table'' by

Susanna Centlivre Susanna Centlivre (c. 1669 (baptised) – 1 December 1723), born Susanna Freeman, and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and "the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century". Centlivre's ...

(1705) * Rose in ''

The Recruiting Officer ''The Recruiting Officer'' is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two English Army officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury (the town where ...

'' by

George Farquhar George Farquhar (1677The explanation for the dual birth year appears in Louis A. Strauss, ed., A Discourse Upon Comedy, The Recruiting Officer, and The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar' (Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1914), p. v. Strauss notes t ...

(1706) *Florinda in '' The Wife of Bath'' by

John Gay John Gay (30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732) was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for ''The Beggar's Opera'' (1728), a ballad opera. The characters, including Captain Macheath and Polly Peach ...

(1713) * Charlotte in ''

The Female Advocates ''The Female Advocates'' is a 1713 comedy play by the British writer William Taverner. The longer title is ''The Female Advocates: or, the Frantic Stock-jobber''. The original Drury Lane cast featured William Bullock as Sir Charles Transfer, ...

'' by William Taverner (1713) * Aurelia in '' The Apparition'' by

Anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

(1713) * Flora in '' The Country Lasses'' by Charles Johnson (1715) * Fidelia in '' The Play is the Plot'' by John Durant Breval (1718)

References

Bibliography

* Goff, Moira. ''The Incomparable Hester Santlow: A Dancer-actress on the Georgian Stage''. Ashgate, 2007. * Milling, Jane (ed.). ''The Basset Table''. Broadview Press, 2009. 18th-century British actors English stage actresses British stage actresses 18th-century British actresses 1690 births 1720 deaths {{England-bio-stub