[f. SPECTATOR: see -ESS1 and cf. next.] A female spectator.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 101. The Princesse that stood all this while an amazed spectatresse [etc.].
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., V. i. See where she stands! Spectatress of the Mischief which she made.
1759. Johnson, Idler, No. 42, ¶ 5. To be a daily spectatress of his vices.
1799. Campbell, Pleas. Hope, I. 179. She, sad spectatress,… Watch’d the rude surge his shroudless corse that bore.
1844. For. Q. Rev., XXXIII. 440. As soon as she appeared the other spectatresses were eclipsed.
1861. Sat. Rev., 21 Dec., 648. Was the Grand Duchess a spectatress of the atrocity?
fig. 1789. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. 149. So should young Sympathy, in female form, Climb the tall rock, spectatress of the storm.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XI. 89. Discord, spectatress terrible.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, III. xix. 92. Sparta, as she had been a quiet spectatress of the fall of Samos.
