Elizabeth Griffith (1727–1793)

Elizabeth Griffith was born in Glamorgan, Wales, but raised in Dublin, Ireland, where her father Thomas Griffith was a theater manager. In addition to giving her access to the theater world, her father educated Elizabeth in French and English literature. He died in 1744, leaving her mother Jane Foxcroft and the family in financial hardship. Elizabeth went on the stage, making her acting debut at age 22 in 1749, playing Juliet opposite the much older Thomas Sheridan (father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan) as Romeo. She specialized in tragic roles, such as Jane Shore in Nicholas Rowe's The Tragedy of Jane Shore and Cordelia in King Lear.

In 1751, she secretly married Richard Griffith -- no relation -- a gentleman from an aristocratic family. Their five-year courtship provided the basis for her first publication, A Series of Genuine Letters Between Henry and Frances, published in six volumes between 1757 and 1770. The book was an immediate success that generated fame but not money for its author. While her husband was avoiding debtor's court, Elizabeth left her two children in Dublin and went to London to find more work. She acted at Covent Garden from 1753 to 1755 but did not win any major roles. She translated many French works and plays into English, including memoirs and collections of letters by people such as Ninon de l'Enclos, the marquise de Caylus, and Voltaire, and some novels, such as The Princess of Cleves. She also wrote five plays of her own between 1764 and 1769. She worked with actor-theater manager David Garrick to produce her most successful comedy, The School for Rakes (an adaption of Beaumarchais's Eugénie, 1769). Richard Brinsley Sheridan produced her play The Times at Drury Lane Theatre in 1779.

She also published novels, novelettes, essays, and literary criticism, including The Morality of Shakespeare's Drama Illustrated (1775), one of the first major commentaries on the importance of the Bard's work.