Elizabeth Craven

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Elizabeth Craven, Portrait of Ozias Humphry (circa 1780–1783)

Lady Elizabeth Craven (born December 17, 1750 in Westminster , † January 13, 1828 in Naples ) was a British writer. She was particularly known for her travelogues .

biography

She was the daughter of Augustus Berkeley, 4th Earl of Berkeley , and his wife Elizabeth. The father died when the daughter was five years old. At the age of 16, Elizabeth was married to William Craven, 6th Baron Craven . The couple had seven children together, but separated after only 13 years of marriage, but never divorced.

Three years before the arranged wedding with Baron Craven, Elizabeth met Margrave Karl Alexander von Ansbach and Bayreuth, Prince zu Sayn , on a trip to Paris on the occasion of the wedding of her sister Georgina in 1764 .

In 1782 Elizabeth Craven stayed in Paris again, where she came closer to the German Margrave Karl Alexander, who was also forcibly married. She received her first invitation to Ansbach. From 1787 to 1791 she lived at the court of the margrave in Ansbach.

After the death of her husband and the wife of Margrave Karl Alexander, both died in 1791, the Margrave and Elizabeth Craven married and went to England together. The margrave died there in 1806. Craven then moved to Naples with her son Kepel, where she wrote her memoirs. She died in 1828 and was buried on the Cimitero degli Inglesi .

Literary work

Elizabeth Craven has been writing plays since she was 26, mostly based on classic designs from France or Germany and reworked them. Through a friendship with Horace Walpole , who promoted them, these plays became known in English society and in some cases even performed in the Theater Royal Haymarket by Samuel Foot as so-called "afterpieces".

After separating from Baron Craven at the age of 30, she was involved in the English theater scene for two more years, but then went to Paris in 1782. Three years later she took a trip to Italy, Austria, Russia and Constantinople. In 1786 she published a travel report on her journey in letters, which partly followed the example of Lady Montagu's travel letters from 1716, partly critically questioning their idealization. Between 1787 and 1791 she organized “Nouveau Théathre de Societée d'Anspac et de Triesdorf” at the court of Karl Alexander in Ansbach, in which her pieces were also performed. In Triesdorf near Ansbach, she also tried to set up a summer residence in the English garden style, but was rejected by part of the margravial court due to her extravagance and was ultimately boycotted.

After the move, Craven tried to build on her first successes in England and wrote a number of pieces that were well received by the critics (for example: The Princess of Georgia). Craven wrote or adapted over 20 dramas, mostly based on classical models, about half of which were published. The unpublished ones are in her estate, which is kept in the British Museum. Their success was changeable, but their pieces were performed in prominent locations.

Horace Walpole both encouraged and criticized her because he found a woman who wrote dramas fascinating. The pieces appeared partly in German translation in Leipzig and Frankfurt and were eagerly subscribed to, i. H. not self-financed.

In addition to her travel description in letters, she wrote an extensive autobiography that appeared in 1828. This is also translated into German and appears under the title Memorabilia . “This German edition is important because it contains many deviations from the English one. Compare this with the translator's foreword: 'Before the English edition of the following memorabilia was published, the translator received the same from London in a handwriting, from which the German translation was made. When he saw the printed English edition afterwards, he noticed that it differed in many ways from the manuscript sent to him, but also contained some interesting additions to the advantage of the latter, which was more carefully worked, while those at Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, published edition appeared to have been reprinted after the first sketchy draft. '"

Works

  • The Sleep-Walker - Essentially a translation of the French drama by Pont de Ville (1778) which she performed in Strawberry Hill, Walpole's stage.
  • Modern Anecdote of the Ancient Family of the Kink-vervankotsdarsprakengotchderns. (A German adaptation with bizarre additions that target the absurdities of German aristocratic life) 1779.
  • The Miniature Picture. (1780).
  • The Silver Tankard. (1781) which is played at the Royal Haymarked Theater.
  • The Arcadian Pastoral. Performed in 1782. 6. And in the same year:
  • The Statue Feast (a Voltaire adaptation of the stone guest, as we know it from Mozart's Don Jovanni).
  • Anecdote from an old family. A Christmas fairy tale. Schwickert, Leipzig 1781, reprint Eulenspiegel-Verlag, Berlin 1982 (original edition: Modern Anecdote of the Ancient Family of the Kinkvervankotsdarsprakengotchderm , anonym 1779).
  • 'Nourjad (French), which was performed as early as 1787.
  • Nurjad e Fatme. (Adaptation)
  • Repentir des Voeux.
  • Le Disguisement.
  • Abdoul.
  • Le Prince Lutin
  • La Folie du Jour.
  • Le Philosophe Moderne (adaptation) 1790.

During the second English period:

  • The princess of Georgia.
  • The Soldier of Dierenstein. Or, Love and Mercy. To Austrian Story.

London, White. 1802. Microfiche edition Belser Wissenschaftlicher Dienst, Wildberg 1989/90. ISBN 978-3-628-51134-9 .

Partly unpublished. Visible: Lady Craven's estate (including her compositions) in the British Museum.

  • Letters from Lady Elisabeth Craven about a trip through the Crimea to Constantinople. Kummer, Leipzig 1789 (Original edition: A Journey through the Crimea to Constantinople. In a Series of Letters. Chamberlain, Dublin 1789 in the Internet Archive ). Her own fate is reflected in the pieces, girls who were married or raped early, mostly in interspersed songs; as well as passages that indicate an emotional disorder.
  • Memories of the Margravine von Anspach, in two volumes. Cotta, Stuttgart 1826 (Original edition: Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, Written by Herself. London 1826)

literature

  • Hermann Varnhagen (ed.): The literary activity of the Lady Craven. Erlangen's contributions to English philology and comparative literature history . Verlag Fr. Junge, Erlangen 1904.
  • Günter Tiggesbäumker 2010 in: L.Cr. Letters from a trip to Turkey 1785/86 Reprint of the German first edition Leipzig 1789 with an introduction. Alte Post publishing house. Under the editing of Horst v. Zerboni, Gerhard Schulz Rothemund and Carl Alexander Mavridis in Weidenbach.
  • Günter Tiggesbäumker: Lady Elizabeth Craven, Ansbach's last margravine (1750-1828) . Triesdorf 1994 (special edition by the Association of Friends of Triesdorf and Surroundings eV 6).
  • Günter Tiggesbäumker: Lady Elizabeth Craven, Ansbach's last margravine (1750-1828). Triesdorf 1994 (Reprint of the Friends of Triesdorf Association, 6.)
  • Günter Tiggesbäumker: Elizabeth Craven (1750-1828) , in: Corvey-Journal 8, 1997, pp. 21-38. ISSN  0936-1189 .
  • Annegret Pelz: Traveling through one's own foreign land. Travel literature by women as autogeographical writings, Literature-Culture-Gender 2, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau 1993.
  • Tobias Smollett, 1763, Critical Review No. 15.
  • Susanne Franke: Lady Craven's travels through Europe and Turkey 1785-1786 : text, context and ideologies. Trier: WVT, 1995.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lady Elizabeth Berkeley on thepeerage.com , accessed September 10, 2016.
  2. ^ Hans Ley: The literary activity of Lady Craven, last Margravine of Ansbach-Bayreuth. K. b. Junge & Sohn's court and university book printing company, Erlangen 1904
personal data
SURNAME Craven, Elizabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Westminster
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1828
Place of death Naples