Author Description

Mary Pix (1666-1709) was an English novelist and playwright. While living in London and when she was 30, she became a professional writer, with her tragedy Ibrahim (1695-6). She was quite successful in her professional life, and most of her plays had a good reputation amongst the audience. Her tragedies were quite popular because she managed to mix extreme action with melting love scenes. But her best pieces are her comedies, with their lively action, double plots, intrigues, confusion, songs, dances and disguises. Pix produced one novel and seven plays. There are four other plays that were published anonymously that are generally attributed to her. Amongst her works are The Inhumane Cardinal; or, Innocence Betrayed (1696), The Spanish Wives (1696), The Beau Defeated; or, The Lucky Younger Brother (1700) and The Double Distress (1701).