English poet, playwright, and actress, born Susanna Freeman and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll. Centlivre was considered among the most influential female playwrights of her time, alongside Aphra Behn, with some of her plays being performed for over two centuries. Centlivre was married thrice—her first husband, supposedly Sir Stephen Fox, died less than a year after the couple wed. Centlivre's early biographers claim that she then married an army officer by the name of Carroll who died in a duel a year and a half into their marriage. Centlivre kept and wrote under his name for seven years, until her third marriage to Joseph Centlivre, a cook to Queen Anne. Historians are divided as to how Centlivre came to the London writing scene. One account states that Anthony Hammond, a student of St. John's College at Cambridge, found her weeping at the side of the road, became taken by her charms, and smuggled her into the university. This account claims she studied grammar, logic, rhetoric, and ethics for months before she aroused suspicion and set out for London. A more likely account states that Centlivre joined a troupe of strolling actors in Stamford, a town 25 miles from her hometown of Holbeach, at which point she became popular for the breeches roles she assumed. The breeches roles, coupled with her outspoken political writings as an ardent Whig, led many to regard Centlivre as a masculine figure. By the end of her life, Centlivre was held in high literary esteem for her poems, letters, books, and plays, particularly her comedies. Her most notable works include The Wonder! A Woman Keeps a Secret (1714), A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718), The Gamester (1705), The Perjur'd Husband: or, The Adventures of Venice (1700), The Busie Body (1709), and Love's Contrivance (1703).