Editing Elizabeth Barry

{{Short description|English actress (1658–1713)}}
{{other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
[[File:Elizabeth Barry after Sir Godfrey Kneller.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Elizabeth Barry (after Sir Godfrey Kneller) changed "like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force and with easy Grace".]]

'''Elizabeth Barry''' (1658 – 7 November 1713) was an [[England|English]] actress of the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] period.

Elizabeth Barry's biggest influence on Restoration drama was her presentation of performing as the tragic actress. She worked in large, prestigious [[London]] theatre companies throughout her successful career: from 1675 in the [[Duke's Company]], 1682 &ndash; 1695 in the monopoly [[United Company]], and from 1695 onwards as a member of the actors' cooperative usually known as [[Thomas Betterton|Betterton]]'s Company, of which she was one of the original shareholders. Her stage career began 15 years after the first-ever professional actresses had replaced [[Shakespeare]]'s boy heroines on the London stage.

The actor [[Thomas Betterton]] said that her acting gave "success to plays that would disgust the most patient reader", and the critic and playwright [[John Dennis (dramatist)|John Dennis]] described her as "that incomparable Actress changing like Nature which she represents, from Passion to Passion, from Extream to Extream, with piercing Force and with easy Grace".

==Early career==
Barry's first performance was at the age of 17 in [[Thomas Otway]]'s ''[[Alcibiades (play)|Alcibiades]]''. Her performance was so poor that she was fired from the Duke's Company. She then met [[John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester]]. Their relationship grew from professional colleagues to lovers. They had one child named Elizabeth, who was born in 1677 and died in 1689.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}

Barry drew on her relationship with Rochester for many of her sexual performances. While multiple sources confirm that Rochester was Barry's lover, the only source for the coaching story is a ''Life'' of Barry published in 1741 &ndash; 65 years after the events &ndash; by [[Edmund Curll]], well known for his fanciful and inaccurate biographies.

Barry was a successful comedian who created a variety of [[Restoration comedy]] heroines throughout her career, but her greatest impact on [[Restoration drama]] was as a [[Tragedy|tragic]] actress. Her capacity for projecting pathos was an inspiration to playwrights [[Thomas Otway]] and [[Thomas Southerne]] in the three famous tragic roles they wrote for her: Monimia in Otway's ''[[The Orphan (play)|The Orphan]]'' (1680), Belvidera in Otway's ''[[Venice Preserved]]'' (1682), and Isabella in Southerne's ''[[The Fatal Marriage]]'' (1694). These three roles, wrote the [[Prompter (theatre)|prompter]] [[John Downes (prompter)|John Downes]], "gain'd her the Name of Famous Mrs. Barry, both at Court and City, for whenever She Acted any of these three Parts, she forc'd Tears from the Eyes of her Auditory, especially those who have any Sense of Pity for the Distress't." [[File:Dorset Gardens riverfront.jpg|thumb|left|250px|During the first part of her career, Barry worked at the Duke's Theatre at Dorset Gardens, on the riverfront, London's most luxurious playhouse.]]

In his autobiography, many years later, [[Colley Cibber]] recalled the power of her voice: "When distress of Tenderness possess'd her, she subsided into the most affecting Melody and Softness. In the Art of exciting Pity, she had a Power beyond all the Actresses I have yet seen, or what your Imagination can conceive."  Elizabeth Howe has argued that it was Barry's success in the role of Monimia that "clinched the movement away from [[heroic drama]] and started the establishment of '[[she-tragedy]]' as a popular genre." Also known as pathetic tragedy, innocent women were represented as sexual objects and as victims of male lust.

Barry was always described as being a plain woman. Portraits suggest intelligence but heavy features and the playwright Thomas Shadwell writes in a letter in 1692 that it would have been better to have staged Nicholas Brady's ''The Rape'' in Roman dress, "and then w'th a Mantle to have covered her hips Mrs Barry would have acted ye part." Apparently, none of this mattered to contemporaries. Even though Barry was "the ugliest Woman" in the world off stage, wrote an anonymous author in ''A Comparison Between the Two Stages'' (1702), she was "the finest Woman in the World upon the Stage."

Barry's acting style was embedded in the influences from her own personality and life. Elizabeth as a person was seen to be beautiful and virtuous. Although many of the characters she played were virgins, it was known about her relationship with Rochester. It has also been known that she channeled her sexual relationship with Rochester through many of her performances. Also during this time, it was seen that Barry's body had metaphorical meaning to the description of her character. When Barry starred in ''The Orphan'', it was implied that "the trope of the female breast to represent innocence or ruin (consider the many references to Monimia’s "swelling breasts" or "white breasts"). Thus Otway uses the dismemberment of the female body, expressed through the "mangled breasts besmeared with blood", to signify the ruin of the state".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hamilton|first1=Kate|title=The 'Famous Mrs. Barry': Elizabeth Barry and Restoration Celebrity|journal=Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture|date=2013|volume=42|pages=291–320|url=http://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/501489|doi=10.1353/sec.2013.0008|s2cid=144094409}}</ref>

==Later career==
Later into Barry’s career, she was given more roles of a motherhood figure than a sexual object. Barry worked for the [[Duke's Company]] from 1675 to 1682, taking the role of Cordelia opposite [[Thomas Betterton]]'s Lear in [[Nahum Tate]]'s 1681 [[The History of King Lear|adaptation of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'']]. After the Duke's and the King's companies were amalgamated in 1682, she continued as one of the star performers of the new [[United Company]], which remained for 12 years the only theatrical company in London. The absence of rival companies left the actors in a weak bargaining position in relation to management.

One year after her performance in ''The Fatal Marriage'', Barry decided to leave the United Company due to a salary dispute in 1695. She then proceeded to work for a new company with actor [[Thomas Betterton]] and actress [[Anne Bracegirdle]]. Barry was one of the original patent-holders of the actors' company, which opened at Lincoln's Inn Fields with the smash hit of [[William Congreve (playwright)|William Congreve's]] ''Love For Love'' in 1695 and continued to successfully challenge Rich's United Company.There was a huge wage gap between men and woman performers as Betterton was paid £4 and 20s per week and Barry received only £2 and 10s shillings.

Barry officially retired from the stage in 1710 at 52 years old; her acting career lasted a total of 35 years. Her retirement fell short as she died three years later at the age of 55 due to a fever.

==Selected list of plays and roles==
{| class="wikitable"
! Play !! Playwright !! Role
|-
| ''[[Alcibiades (play)|Alcibiades]]'' (1675)  || [[Thomas Otway]] || Draxilla
|-
| ''[[Mustapha (1665 play)|Mustapha]]'' (1676)  || [[Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery|Earl of Orrery]] || Queen Isabelle
|-
| ''[[The Man of Mode]]'' (1676)  || [[George Etherege]] || Mrs. Loveit
|-
| ''[[The Wrangling Lovers]]'' (1676) || [[Edward Ravenscroft]] || Elvira
|-
| ''[[Titus and Berenice]]'' (1676) || [[Thomas Otway]] || Phaenice 
|-
| ''[[Tom Essence]]'' (1676) || [[Thomas Rawlins]]  || Theodocia 
|-
| ''[[Madam Fickle]]'' (1676) || [[Thomas D'Urfey]] || Constantia
|-
| ''[[The Cheats of Scapin]]'' (1676) || [[Thomas Otway]]  || Lucia
|-
| ''[[The Rover (play)|The Rover]]'' (1677) || [[Aphra Behn]] || Hellena
|-
|  ''[[The French Conjuror]]'' (1677) ||  [[Thomas Porter (dramatist)|Thomas Porter]] || Clorinia
|-
| ''[[A Fond Husband]]'' (1677) || [[Thomas D'Urfey]] || Emillia
|-
| ''[[The Destruction of Troy]]'' (1678) || [[John Banks (playwright)|John Banks]] || Polyxena
|-
| ''[[Friendship in Fashion]]'' (1678) ||  [[Thomas Otway]] || Mrs Goodvile
|-
|  ''[[The Virtuous Wife (play)|The Virtuous Wife]]'' (1679) ||  [[Thomas D'Urfey]] ||Olivia
|-
| ''[[The Woman Captain]]'' (1679) || [[Thomas Shadwell]] || Mrs Gripe
|-
| ''[[The History and Fall of Caius Marius|Caius Marius]]'' (1679)|| [[Thomas Otway]] || Lavinia 
|-
| ''[[Theodosius (play)|Theodosius]]'' (1680) || [[Nathaniel Lee]] || Athenais 
|-
| ''[[The Orphan (play)|The Orphan]]'' (1680)  || [[Thomas Otway]] || Monimia
|-
| ''[[The Princess of Cleve]]'' (1680)|| [[Nathaniel Lee]] || Princess of Cleve
|-
| ''[[The Revenge (1680 play)|The Revenge]]'' (1680) || [[Aphra Behn]] || Corina
|-
|  ''[[The Loving Enemies]]'' (1680) ||  [[Lewis Maidwell]] || Camilla
|-
| ''[[Lucius Junius Brutus (play)|Lucius Junius Brutus]]'' (1680) || [[Nathaniel Lee]] || Teraminta
|-
| ''[[The London Cuckolds]]'' (1681)|| [[Edward Ravenscroft]] ||Arabella 
|-
| ''[[Venice Preserv’d]]'' (1682)  || [[Thomas Otway]] || Belvidera
|-
| ''[[The City Heiress]]'' (1682) ||  [[Aphra Behn]] || Lady Galliard
|-
| ''[[Constantine the Great (play)|Constantine the Great]]'' (1683) || [[Nathaniel Lee]] || Fausta 
|-
| ''[[Sir Courtly Nice]]'' (1685) || [[John Crowne]] || Leonora
|-
| ''[[Darius, King of Persia]]'' (1688) || [[John Crowne]]|| Barzana 
|-
| ''[[The Injured Lovers]]'' (1688) || [[William Mountfort]] || Princess Oryala 
|-
| ''[[Don Sebastian (play)|Don Sebastian]]'' (1689) || [[John Dryden]] || Almedya
|-
| ''[[The Massacre of Paris]]'' (1689) || [[Nathaniel Lee]] || Marguerite 
|-
| ''[[Amphitryon (Dryden play)|Amphitryon]]'' (1690) || [[John Dryden]] || Alcema
|-
| ''[[Distressed Innocence]]'' (1690) || [[Elkanah Settle]] || Orundana
|-
| ''[[Edward III (1690 play)|Edward III]]'' (1690) || [[William Mountfort]] || Isabella
|-
| ''[[The Wives Excuse]]'' (1691) || [[Thomas Southerne]] || Mrs Friendall
|-
| ''[[Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero]]'' (1692)  || [[John Dryden]] || Cassandra
|-
| ''[[The Marriage-Hater Matched]]'' (1692) ||  [[Thomas D'Urfey]] || Lady Sutble
|-
| ''[[Henry II (play)|Henry II]]'' (1692) ||  [[William Mountfort]] || Queen Eleanor 
|-
| ''[[Regulus (1692 play)|Regulus]]'' (1692) || [[John Crowne]] || Fulvia
|-
| ''[[The Maid's Last Prayer]]'' (1693) || [[Thomas Southerne]] || Lady Malepert 
|-
| ''[[The Old Bachelor]]'' (1693) || [[William Congreve]] || Laetitia
|-
| ''[[The Fatal Marriage]]'' (1694)  || [[Thomas Southerne]] || Isabella
|-
| ''[[The Married Beau]]'' (1694) || [[John Crowne]] || Mrs Loveley
|-
| ''[[The Ambitious Slave]]'' (1694) || [[Elkanah Settle]] || Celestina
|-
|''[[Love Triumphant]]'' (1694) ||  [[John Dryden]] || Victoria
|-
| ''[[The She-Gallants]]'' (1695) || [[George Granville]] || Lady Dorimen
|-
| ''[[Cyrus the Great (play)|Cyrus the Great]]'' (1695) ||  [[John Banks (playwright)|John Banks]] || Panthea
|-
|  ''[[Love for Love]]'' (1695) || [[William Congreve]] ||Mrs Frail
|-
| ''The Royal Mischief'' (1696) || [[Delariviere Manley]] ||  Homais
|-
| ''[[The City Lady]]'' (1696) || [[Thomas Dilke]]  || Lady Grumble
|-
| ''[[Boadicea, Queen of Britain]]'' (1697) || [[Charles Hopkins (poet)|Charles Hopkins]] || Boadicea
|-
| ''[[The Mourning Bride]]'' (1697) || [[William Congreve]] ||  Zara
|-
|  ''[[The Innocent Mistress]]'' (1697) || [[Mary Pix]] || Bellinda
|-
| ''[[Rinaldo and Armida (play)|Rinaldo and Armida]]''  (1698) || [[John Dennis (dramatist)|John Dennis]] || Armida
|-
| ''[[The False Friend; or, the Fate of Disobedience|The False Friend]]'' (1699) || [[Mary Pix]] || Adellaida
|-
|  ''[[Tamerlane (play)|Tamerlane]]'' (1701) || [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]] || Arpasia
|-
|  ''[[Antiochus the Great (play)|Antiochus the Great]]'' (1701) || [[Jane Wiseman]] || Leodice
|-
| ''[[The Fair Penitent]]'' (1702) || [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]] || Calista
|-
| ''[[The Biter]]'' (1704) || [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]] || Mrs Clever
|-
| ''[[All for Love (play)|All For Love]]'' (1704)  || [[John Dryden]] || Cleopatra
|-
| ''[[Ulysses (play)|Ulysses]]'' (1705) || [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]] || Penelope 
|-
| ''[[Adventures in Madrid]]'' (1706) || [[Mary Pix]] || Clarinda
|-
| ''[[The Royal Convert]]'' (1707) || [[Nicholas Rowe (writer)|Nicholas Rowe]] || Rodogune 
|}

==Fictional portrayals==
Barry is a supporting character in ''The Libertine'', [[Stephen Jeffreys|Stephen Jeffreys']] play about John Wilmot's life, as well as its [[The Libertine (2004 film)|2004 film adaptation]], in which she is portrayed by [[Samantha Morton]]. Barry also appears as a character in the 2015 play ''[exit Mrs Behn] or, The Leo Play'' by Christopher vanDer Ark.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==

*Cibber, Colley (first published 1740, Everyman's Library ed. 1976). ''[[An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber]]''. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
*Drougge, Helga. "Love, Death, and Mrs. Barry in Thomas Southerne’s Plays". Comparative Drama, vol. 27, no. 4, 1994, pp.&nbsp;408–425. 
*Hamilton, Kate. "The 'Famous Mrs. Barry': Elizabeth Barry and Restoration Celebrity". Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, vol. 42, 2013, pp. 291-320.
*Highfill, Philip Jr, Burnim, Kalman A., and Langhans, Edward (1973&ndash;93). ''Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660&ndash;1800''. 16 volumes. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
*Howe, Elizabeth (1992). ''The First English Actresses: Women and Drama 1660&ndash;1700''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Hume, Robert. "Elizabeth Barry’s First Roles and the Cast of "The Man of Mode". Theatre History Studies, vol. 5, 1 Jan. 1985.
*Milhous, Judith (1979). ''Thomas Betterton and the Management of Lincoln's Inn Fields 1695&ndash;1708''. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
*Hartley, Jimmy(2014), ''The Dramatic Life of Elizabeth Barry''. London: Amazon.
*Milling, J. et al. (eds) The Cambridge History of British Theatre 1660 to 1895, Vol. 2, Cambridge, Short Run Press, p.&nbsp;78.
* Joseph Donohue (ed.) (2004), ''The Cambridge History of British Theatre'', Vol. 2: 1660 to 1895

==External links==

{{Wikisource1911Enc|Barry, Elizabeth}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Elizabeth}}
[[Category:1658 births]]
[[Category:1713 deaths]]
[[Category:English stage actresses]]
[[Category:17th-century English actresses]]
[[Category:18th-century English actresses]]