Kitty Clive

Kitty Clive (Catherine Raftor), 1711-85, English singer and actress. She made her debut (c.1728) at Drury Lane under the management of Colley Cibber and worked for many years with David Garrick, with whom she never got along. Her charm, wit, and vivacity, linked with a fine singing voice, brought her great success in light comedy and farce. She was a friend of Samuel Johnson; of Fielding, in whose plays and adaptations she appeared; and of Horace Walpole, who gave her a cottage, Clive's-Den, upon her retirement. There she held an informal salon and wrote several farces. She was painted by Hogarth.

Clive, Kitty [née Catherine Raftor] (1711–85), English actress, who at the age of 17 was playing minor parts at Drury Lane under Colley Cibber. She made her first success as Phillida in his Love in a Riddle (1729). Most of her career was spent at Drury Lane where she and Garrick were constantly at loggerheads, mainly because he endeavoured to prevent her appearing in unsuitable parts. She was excellent in low comedy, farce, and burlesque, but quite unfitted for tragedy or even genteel comedy; though she made a success of Portia in The Merchant of Venice, mimicking famous lawyers of the day in the trial scene. Passionate and vulgar, she was always generous and quite without pride or ostentation. One of her greatest admirers was Horace Walpole, who on her retirement in 1769 presented her with a small house where her company and conversation were much relished by his friends, particularly Dr Johnson. She was frequently painted, notably by Hogarth, and was the author of several short farces.

Clive, Kitty (Catherine) (1711–85), the celebrated comic actress, was a close friend of Horace Walpole, and his neighbour at Strawberry Hill, where he gave her for life a small house called Little Strawberry Hill, later known as Cliveden.