Scissors and Needles: Inchbald's Wives as They Were, Maids as They are and the Governance of Sexual Exchange

Abstract

Elizabeth Inchbald's Wives as They Were, Maids as They Are opened on March 4,1797 at Covent Garden to strong reviews and even stronger receipts, but I want to open this reading of Inchbald's play the other patent theatre.1 Drury Lane audiences had a steady diet of suffering women whose ideological function had changed little since the Restoration and throughout Drury Lane's 1796-97 season Sarah Siddons re-prised her famous performances Jane Shore, Isabella, The Grecian Daughter, The Fair Penitent, and The Distressed Mother.2 According to James L. Boaden, in gentle domestic woe she had