GRIFFITH, ELIZABETH (1720?-1793), author;
b. in Glamorgan. Little is known of her before her marriage to Richard Griffith, an Irishman, c. 1752. Thereafter she acted on the Dublin and London stage and in 1757 published A Series of Genuine Letters between Henry and Frances, which was at once a novel and a selection in two volumes of correspondence between Richard Griffith and herself before marriage. She wrote many plays after 1765, of which The School for Rakes (1769) was, and is, the most rewarding. She essayed poetry, did much translation from the French, and wrote other novels; and in 1775 she published The Morality of Shakespeare's Drama Illustrated. She d. in Ireland 5 Jan. 1793. Her children were Richard (1752-1820) and Catherine.
Bibliography:
- Baker, Biog. Dram., i, 301;
- Cambridge Hist. of Eng. Lit.;
- D.N.B.
Author:
Professor Gwyn Jones, M.A., (1907-99), Aberystwyth / Cardiff
