Mrs Clive

Catherine "Kitty" Clive (née Raftor) (5 November 1711 – 6 December 1785) was a reputed English actress on the stages of London.

Kitty Raftor was probably born in London, but her father, William Raftor, was an Irishman and a former officer in the French army under Louis XIV. According to her biographers, she worked as a girl as a servant in the homes of wealthy London families. At the age of 17, she was discovered by the theatre community, when she was overheard singing while cleaning the front steps of a home near a tavern that actors and playwrights regularly patronized. She was recommended to Colley Cibber, manager of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, who hired her.

Her first role at Drury Lane was as the page boy Immenea in Nathaniel Lee's tragedy Mithridates, King of Pontus. Throughout the 1730s she played many further roles with much success, becoming Drury Lane's leading comedy actress. In 1747 she became one of the founding members of David Garrick's acting company. A soprano, she would occasionally sing on the stage, notably when portraying Emma and Venus in the world première of Thomas Arne's masque Alfred in 1740. She also created the role of Dalila in Handel's 1743 oratorio Samson.

Around 1732, Kitty Raftor married George Clive, a barrister brother of Baron Clive. The marriage was not a success and the two separated, though never officially divorced, and Kitty Clive remained economically independent. Because she never openly took on lovers, Clive was able to keep her marriage vows and preserve her public reputation. Her good standing with the public helped to strengthen the reputations of actresses in general, who were often looked down upon as morally lax.

Clive rose to become one of the highest paid actresses of her time and may have even earned more than many male performers, who were traditionally paid more their female counterparts. Her career on stage spanned over forty years, and according to K. A. Crouch, "[h]er pay places her among the very best actresses of her generation." Kitty Clive became a household name along with other theatre greats of the time such as Lavinia Fenton and Susannah Cibber, and brought her earning power and fame to play as an open supporter of actors' rights. In particular, she published a pamphlet in 1744, The Case of Mrs. Clive, in which she publicly shamed the managers Christopher Rich and Charles Fleetwood for conspiring to pay actors less than their due. She also challenged the public's habit of associating actors with beggars and prostitutes.

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