Kitty Clive, or The Fair Songster by Berta Joncus

Abstract

Reviewed by: Kitty Clive, or The Fair Songster by Berta Joncus John Cunningham Berta Joncus, Kitty Clive, or The Fair Songster ( Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2019). Pp. 541. $99.00 cloth. Catherine "Kitty" Clive (née Raftor) (1711–1785) was one of the first female stars of the London stage. Born in London to a disgraced Irish Catholic father, William Raftor, she assumed her married name from the barrister George Clive in 1733. Between her debut in 1728 and retirement in 1769, Clive acted and sang on the London stage in a range of productions (including plays, masques, ballad operas, oratorios, and operas), including the role of Dalila in Handel's Samson (1743). Her career coincided with the rise of the English press media and its increasing construction of celebrity. Her star power brought with it financial rewards, which ultimately contributed to the public turning on her in the 1740s, leaving Clive to throw her lot in with David Garrick and, in the process, abandoning and disparaging the serious song through which she had built her career. In this excellent book, Berta Joncus tells the enthralling story of this remarkable heroine. The name Kitty Clive will, of course, be familiar to anyone with an interest in the eighteenth-century London stage; her modern reputation is largely founded on her acting skills. Over 13 substantial chapters, Joncus paints a detailed picture of Clive not simply as an actress but as a performer highly conscious of her self-image and an active participant in its construction. In addition to her meticulous analyses of the theatrical contexts and the works and roles that Clive inhabited, Joncus explores visual representations of Clive in portrait and porcelain. While Clive is generally considered primarily as an actress today, Joncus demonstrates that, in fact, Clive's singing, musicianship, and musical training were the essential elements in her success. Moreover, the "modern ignorance of Clive as initially a celebrated songster, and then a first comedienne-soprano, stems largely from eighteenth-century writings, including Clive's" (4). The book examines Clive's singing career until around 1750. Joncus explains how in this first half of her singing (rather than acting) career, Clive used song as a means of bonding with her audience through improvisation, direct address, and parodying imitations; after 1750, serious song ceased to be an important aspect of Clive's repertory. Though the book's focus only on this early stage of Clive's career leaves a substantial portion of it unexplored, Kitty Clive, or the Fair Songstress nonetheless represents a major reassessment of this largely neglected star of the eighteenth-century stage. Joncus begins with an evocative exploration of Clive's modern reputation, its construction in the eighteenth century, and the emerging culture of stardom and [End Page 734] public identity. In the chapters that follow, Joncus shows how Clive's representation and reputation changed. In the 1720s, she trained with the ill-fated Henry Carey, who in Clive saw an ideal student, one with the potential to realize his own theatrical ambitions. Clive's emergence coincided with The Beggar's Opera and with Lavinia Fenton's star in rapid ascent as Polly Peacham. At the rival Drury Lane Theatre, Colley Cibber sought to stage a ballad opera based on virtue and innocence, with Clive as the leading lady opposite Cibber himself: Carey's Love in a Riddle. The poor quality of the work and Cibber's own lack of singing ability (and self-awareness) were rescued by Clive's own performance. And so Clive's early image of propriety and seriousness was born, as was her reputation as a singer. The next few years brought continued success in both serious and comic roles, culminating in the 1732–33 season. Sexuality and gender are recurring themes in the book. Joncus suggests that Clive's alleged marriage in 1733 never took place and that their association reflected a kind of mutual protection of both borne of the attraction that both felt to members of their own sexes. As Clive's status grew, she became embroiled in several rows and scandals that eventually broke her reputation in the 1740s. For example, in the so-called "Polly Row" (1736...