Clive, Catherine "Kitty"

1711

1785

Kitty Clive was born Catherine Raftor on 15 November 1711, the daughter of William Raftor, a lawyer of Kilkenny. It seems likely that the actor manager Theophilus Cibber and his father Colley had a hand in her teenage career. Her initial stage appearance may have been as early as April 1728, though her first role of record is Bianca in “Othello” at Drury Lane on 12 October, and during the rest of the 1728-29 season she was also seen as Minerva in “Perseus and Andromeda”, Dorinda in the altered “Tempest”, Honoria in “Love Makes a Man” and the title part in “Phebe”, among other characters – a large number of appearances for a beginner and a display of her talent as both a singer and an actress. She excelled in comedy and song and consequently appeared in dozens of light comic afterpieces, now long forgotten, that on the printed page give little inkling of her genius. What she did with what she had made her the most popular comedienne of her time. Contemporary commentary suggests that she was born with exquisite timing, a malleable face and body and a perfect sense of how to handle her material. Our heroine’s personal life was as interesting and colourful as her stage career. She was famous for her chastity, like Anne Bracegirdle before her, and when she married in 1733, it was not within her profession but to George Clive, a nonpracticing barrister (not to be confused with the famous Clive of India, George’s relative). She took his name and appeared as Mrs Clive for the rest of her life; though the marriage virtually ended by 1735, they were never divorced. Then, as her career continued successfully at Drury Lane, she developed a friendship with Horace Walpole, the eminent man of letters and son of Sir Robert Walpole. He lived in his quaint Gothic castle, Strawberry Hill, near Twickenham, and she, rent free, in a pleasant cottage on his property which was variously called Clive-den and Little Strawberry Hill. The couple evidently had a sexless but very affectionate relationship, and Kitty moved comfortably in Walpole’s elegant social circle whenever she was not busy earning a livelihood as the town’s premiere farceur, songstress and would-be tragedienne. Mrs Clive was not the first comic performer to attempt serious drama – the most absurd example of the period was Colley Cibber, who never gave up trying to establish himself in “Richard III”, to the howls of critics, who thought he should have known better. Kitty’s most constant attempts were Ophelia in “Hamlet” and Portia in “The Merchant of Venice”, neither of which found favour with either playgoers or critics. But through the ages performers have felt that only success in serious characters can give them lasting fame. Her stage career came to an appropriate close on 24 April 1769, when she acted Flora in “The Wonder”, with David Garrick playing Don Felix and, to conclude the evening, Garrick’s popular “Lethe”, featuring Mrs Clive as the Fine Lady (G0121). Her career consisted of many such slight comic pieces, but she was also seen over the years in some famous characters, among them Polly and Lucy in “The Beggar’s Opera”, Prue and Mrs Frail in “Love for Love”, Margery Pinchwife in “The Country Wife”, Lady Wou’dbe in “Volpone”, Hoyden in “The Relapse”, Dol Common in “The Alchemist”, Laetitia in “The Old Bachelor”, Millamant, Mrs Marwood and Lady Wishfort (a perfect part for her to play with) in “The Way of the World”, Caelia in “As You Like it”, Widow Blackacre in “The Plain Dealer” and Mrs Heidelberg in “The Clandestine Marriage”. But these important roles in memorable plays were not her bread and butter; more typical was Nell in “The Devil to Pay”, which she acted as early as 1730-31 to great applause and continued playing for the rest of her career – a vehicle for her comic talent and her singing ability and just what the critics and audiences liked. Kitty also had a modest writing career, her first attempt being “The Rehearsal; or, Bayes in Petticoats”, a burlesque she created in 1749-50 with herself as Bayes in breeches. She wrote three farces in the 1760's with little success. Garrick at Drury Lane stages all her trifles to little avail. Yet she was an entertaining writer - her letters to the actress Jane Pope and to Harrick are full of fun - and she delighted in conversation. Dr Johnson said, 'Clive, sir , is a good thing to sit by; she always understands what you say...' and, 'In the sprightliness of humour, I have never seen [her] equalled...she was a better romp than any i ever saw in nature.' That quality of playfulness in Mrs Clive must have been something she brought to her stage performances that made her so universally enjoyed. She died on 6 December 1785, years after leaving the stage. She had been feisty in the management of her career, but she enjoyed her retirement; in a 1777 letter to Garrick, with whom she had battled over the years and who was now thinking of his own retirement, she wrote 'we will talk and dance and sing and send our hearers laughing to their beds;.(BDA) [EAL] 'Brief Lives, sitters and Artists in the Garrick Club collection.'