CENTLIVRE, SUSANNA (c. 1667-1723), English dra matic writer and actress, married at 16 the nephew of Sir Stephen Fox, and on his death within a year she married an officer named Carroll, who was killed in a duel. Left in poverty, she began to support herself by writing for the stage. Some of her early plays are signed S. Carroll. In 1706 she married Joseph Centlivre, chief cook to Queen Anne, who survived her. Her first play was a tragedy, The Perjured Husband (1700), and she herself ap peared for the first time at Bath in her comedy Love at a Ven ture (17o6). Among her most successful comedies are: The Gamester (17o5); The Busy Body (1709) ; A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718); The Basset-table (1706); and The Wonder! a Woman keeps a Secret (1714), in which as the jealous husband, Garrick found one of his best parts. Her plots, verging on the farcical, were always ingenious and amusing, and the dialogue fluent. She never seems to have acted in London, but she was a friend of Rowe, Farquhar and Steele. Mrs. Centlivre died on Dec. 1, 1723. Her dramatic works were published, with a biog raphy, in 1761 (reprinted 1872).