Elizabeth Boutell

Elizabeth Boutell, née Davenport (early 1650s?—1715), was a British actress.

She joined, soon after its formation, the company at the Theatre Royal, subsequently known as Drury Lane, and was accordingly one of the first women to appear on the stage. Her earliest recorded appearance took place presumably in 1663 or 1664, as Estifania in Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. She joined the King's Company about 1670 and played many important roles in the 1670s, including Benzayda in John Dryden's The Conquest of Granada (December 1670 and January 1671), and probably Rosalinda in Nathaniel Lee's Sophonisba (3 April 1675).

She "created" among other characters, Melantha in Dryden's Marriage à la mode (c. April 1672), Margery Pinchwife in William Wycherley's The Country Wife (12 January 1675), Cleopatra in Dryden's All for Love (play), and Mrs. Termagant in Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia. Cibber somewhat curiously omits from his Apology all mention of her name.

Her most famous role was the loving and trustful Queen Statira in The Rival Queens (17 March 1677). She formed a notable acting partnership with Rebecca Marshall in a series of fashionable "women in conflict" plays, in which Boutell played the virtuous heroine to Marshall's darker antagonist. Boutell specialized in breeches roles, such as Fidelia in Wycherley's The Plain Dealer (11 December 1676).

Edmund Curll described Boutell in The History of the English Stage (1741), a work supposedly based on the notes of the famous actor Thomas Betterton, who was the King's Company's de facto manager in the 1670s:

A very considerable Actress; she was low of Stature, had very agreeable Features, a good Complexion, but a Childish Look. Her Voice was weak, tho' very mellow; she generally acted the young, innocent Lady whom all the Heroes are mad in Love with; she was a Favourite of the Town.

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