Farren, Elizabeth

1762

1829

Elizabeth Farren was born on 6 July 1762 (we know not where), the daughter of George and Margaret Farren, both performers. Eliza’s first stage appearance was apparently as a child, and perhaps it was in Salisbury, perhaps at Bath. Her father died about 1770, leaving his wife with four daughters; by late 1773 they were with James Whitley’s company in the Midlands. Whitley tried to convince Mrs Farren not to pursue a career in acting, and he said Eliza (he called her Betsy) ‘seems to possess every natural requisite’ but would be better off in the service of a respectable family. The Farrens did not follow his advice but joined Joseph Younger’s troupe at Liverpool, where, at the age of 13, Eliza appeared as Rosetta in “Love in a Village”. She was recommended by Younger to Colman, the summer manager of the Haymarket Theatre in London, where on 9 June 1777 she acted Miss Hardcastle in “She Stoops to Conquer”. The critics found her somewhat lacking in grace, energy and force and they thought her voice a bit sharp, but she was ‘more perfect’ than most actresses from the provinces. Her genteel, expressive face was to turn her into one of the most popular impersonators of modish ladies on the London stage. Miss Farren also acted that summer Maria in “The Citizen”, Rosetta, Miss Tittup in “Bon Ton” and Rosina in “The Spanish Barber”. David Garrick, then retired, came to see her and wrote a note to Colman on 2 September 1777, saying he found her a ‘most promising Piece.’ He hoped she would stay in London, for he ‘could teach her a capital part in Comedy, ay & tragedy too, that should drive half our actresses mad – she is much too fine Stuff to be worn & soil’d at Manchester & Liverpool.’ But Eliza spent the winter of 1777-78 in those provincial towns and the summer of 1778 at the Haymarket again; in September she acted at Covent Garden and beginning in October she was at Drury Lane, playing such important roles as Charlotte Rusport in “The West Indian”, Constantia in “The Chances”, Nell in “The Devil to Pay”, Millamant in “The Way of the World”, Clarinda in “The Suspicious Husband” (G0206) and Ann Lovely in “A Bold Stroke for a Wife”. Also acting at Drury Lane at the time were William and Mary Farren, evidently not related to Elizabeth. Miss Farren found Drury Lane her home base for the following 17 years, until her retirement in 1797, but she kept acting during the summers at the Haymarket through 1788, and occasionally she toured to Dublin, York and other provincial venues. It was during the 1780s that she reached her peak of popularity in her favourite line: fine ladies. Though she was seen in a great variety of plays and musicals, she succeeded Mrs Abington in the kind of elegant, aristocratic, fashionable female characters that Anne Oldfield had made the talk of the town earlier in the century. Eliza’s salary by 1789-90 was £17 weekly, near the top of the scale but several pounds less than Mrs Billington. Thomas Lawrence’s full-length portrait dating about 1790 captures that charm and beauty that made her the model for ladies of quality. Among her many roles were Juliet, Statira in “Alexander the Great”, Lady Betty Modish in “The Careless Husband”, Indiana in “The Conscious Lovers”, Lady Teazle in “The School for Scandal”, Mrs Ford in “The Merry Wives of Windsor”, Lady Brute in “The Provok’d Wife”, Beatrice in “Much Ado about Nothing” and Julia in “The Rivals”. Notices of Miss Farren often congratulated her liveliness, her polish and her ‘exquisite representations,’ but critics also found her affected and vain – typical qualities of the characters she so often played. Did life imitate art? She is reported to have been at times temperamental and obstinate, and John Philip Kemble reported his problems with her when he managed Drury Lane. She seems, in short, to have behaved like a stage queen. But Elizabeth Farren dazzled audiences, especially men, with her beauty and bewitching ways, and no one was more taken with her than Edward,