Also 8 actrice. [f. ACTOR + -ESS; probably formed independently of Fr. actrice, which is occasionally found instead.] At first used only in the general sense, not in the dramatic; now only in the dramatic, not in the general.
† 1. A female actor or doer. Obs. repl. by ACTOR.
1589. Warner, Albion’s Eng. (1612), 335. Opportunitie, the chiefe Actresse in all attempts, gaue the Plaudite in Loue.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 25. Tasking your pens to pen a womans praise, And she the actresse of your owne disease.
1626. Cockeram, Actresse, a woman doer.
1670. Lond. Gaz., cccclxviii. 1. A principal Lady of the Island who was proved to be an Actress or Accomplice in the assassinate.
1712. Addison, Spectator, No. 273, ¶ 8. Vergil has, indeed, admitted Fame as an actress in the Æneid, but the part she acts is short.
[Mod. The female prisoner appears to have been the chief actor in the tragic scene.]
2. A female player on the stage. (ACTOR was at first used for both sexes.)
1666. Pepys, Diary, 27 Dec. Doll Common doing Abigail most excellently, & Knipp the widow very well, & will be an excellent actor, I think.
1700. Dryden, Epil. to Pilgrim, 40. To stop the trade of love behind the scene, Where actresses make bold with married men.
1711. Shaftesbury, Charact. (1737), III. 368. Study’d action and artificial gesture may be allow’d to the actors and actrices of the stage.
1741. Walpole, Lett. to H. Mann, 6 (1834), I. 15. A bad actress, but she has Life.
1790. Boswell, Johnson, xxiv. (Routl.), 214. This elegant and fashionable actress.
1834. Campbell, Life Mrs. Siddons, I. i. 52. His recollections of Mrs. Siddons, and her future history, gave him [the younger Mr. Greatheed] an interest in our great actress that lasted for life.
1882. Academy, 8 July, 39/2. As long as such an actress treads the boards, it is possible to take a worthy view of the functions of the theatre.
