Anne Oldfield


Anne Oldfield was an English actress. She became the theatrical idol of her day. Her exquisite acting and ladylike carriage were the delight of her contemporaries, and her beauty and generosity found innumerable eulogists, as well as sneering detractors.

Early life and discovery

She was born in London, to Anne Gourlaw and William Oldfield, a soldier. Despite her rough economic background, Oldfield must have had a basic education because her biographers recount that she read plays voraciously throughout her youth. 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 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.

Career

It took nearly a year before she landed her first small role as Candiope in John Dryden's Secret Love; or, The Maiden Queen. After her success in a minor role, she was given the lead in John Fletcher's The Pilgrim. However, Oldfield wasn't truly noticed until the summer of 1703 when Susanna Verbruggen's contract was terminated before the company traveled to Bath to perform for Queen Anne and her court.
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, in which she created the part of Lady Modish. Of her portrayal of Lady Townly in his The Provok'd Husband, 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. In tragedy, too, she won laurels, and the list of her parts, many of them original, is a long and varied one.
London gossip believed there to be rivalries between Oldfield, Anne Bracegirdle, Jane Rogers and Susannah Centlivre, all of whom were supposedly vying for the best roles. In 1706 Oldfield entered a conflict with the Drury Lane's management over benefits and salary she believed she had been promised, but which the theater refused to provide. 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 Theater. 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 - ensuring Oldfield was the highest paid actress of her time.

Personal life

Anne Oldfield began a decade-long relationship with Whig politician Arthur Maynwaring sometime around 1700. Despite the fact that previous generations of actresses relied heavily on the patronage of their lovers, Oldfield remained financially independent from Maynwaring. 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. When she became pregnant with their son, Arthur, Oldfield kept acting until she was physically unable, an unusual decision in a time when most actresses were pressured to take a leave of absence throughout the duration of their pregnancy. She went back to work just three months after the birth. In her turn Oldfield arranged for her lifelong friend Margaret Saunders to join the acting profession.
When Maynwaring died in 1712, Oldfield was tortured with rumors that he had died from a venereal disease that she had given to him. In order to clear both their names, she ordered an official autopsy to be performed on her former lover's body, which revealed that he had, in fact, died of tuberculosis. Oldfield was three months pregnant at the time, but her child is not believed to have survived the birth.
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 had many negative side effects and was forced to leave the theater for several months. She never fully recovered her health.
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.

Memorial

Anne Oldfield was the theatrical idol of her day. Her exquisite acting and ladylike carriage were the delight of her contemporaries, and her beauty and generosity found innumerable eulogists, as well as sneering detractors. 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." It was to her that he alluded as the lady who detested being buried in woollen, who 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."
Oldfield was forty-seven when she died on 23 October 1730 at 60 Grosvenor Street, London. She divided her property, for that time a large one, 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.

Significant roles