From Rags To Riches 1975

Arts and Culture

Leading actress of the Georgian era Peg Woffington started as a child street singer in Dublin and went on to become the darling of the London stage.

Peg (Margaret) Woffington was born in Dublin in 1714. Her father died when she was a child, and she helped support her mother and sister by selling watercress and singing on the streets of Dublin.

Discovered by the French performer and acrobat Madame Volente Peg made her stage debut at the age of ten in a juvenile production of 'The Beggar's Opera' by John Gay.

From this time onwards she worked her way up, playing small parts at first and dancing between the acts in a theatre on Aungier Street. Her big break came in the spring of 1737 when the actress who was in the role of Ophelia in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet’ did not turn up. Peg persuaded the theatre’s management that she knew the part, and could play it. That night she was very favourably received, and her reputation as an actress in her native city grew, but

She had her eye on wider horizons.

Making her way to London, she was taken under the wing of actor and dramatist Charles Macklin (born in 1690 on the Inishowen Peninsula, County Donegal), who was based in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

It was rare for a play to have a lengthy run in Georgian London, as the public's demand for fresh entertainment meant new plays were performed much more regularly than they are today.

And while there is no complete record of plays in which Peg performed, she did act in at least one of Macklin’s plays during her career, ‘Henry VII’, and it is highly likely that she starred in another of his works, 'A True Born Irishman', as she became renowned for her ability as a comedic actress,

That's the kind of part Peg loved to play, something with a bit of humour in it.

Peg was also much in demand for what were called 'breeches parts', where women played men on stage.

During her successful career, Peg divided her time between the Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres in London and her native Dublin, where she was

Greeted with tremendous enthusiasm.

Held in high esteem by the London elite, she was elected a member of the Beefsteak Club, an exclusive and all-male dining and debating club.

Her high public profile meant she was frequently the subject of much society gossip, and her status as an independent woman was a rarity, as in Georgian times