Background
Hannah Cowley was the daughter of Philip Parkhouse, a bookseller at Tiverton, Devonshire, was born in 1743.
Hannah Cowley was the daughter of Philip Parkhouse, a bookseller at Tiverton, Devonshire, was born in 1743.
Hannah Cowley sent it to Garrick, who produced it at Drury Lane in 1776. Between then and 1795 she wrote twelve more plays, all of which (with one exception) were produced at Drury Lane or Covent Garden; and The Belle's Stratagem (1782), with one or two others, still survives in the list of acting plays. Among other, piecesi were Albina, Countess Raimond, A Bold Stroke for a Husband, More Ways than One, and A School for Greybeards, or The Mourning Bride. Mrs Cowley was the author of a number of indifferent poems, mainly historical, and under the name of " Anna Matilda, " which has since become proverbial, she carried on a sentimental correspondence in the World with Robert Merry.
When about twenty-five years old Hannah Cowley married Mr Cowley, of the East India Company's service, who died in 1797.