ABSTRACT
Giles Jacob describes Wiseman as once a servant in the family of William Wright, Recorder of Oxford, where, 'having a pretty deal of leisure Time' and access to a library, she began writing a tragedy. Antiocbus the Great: or, the Fatal Relapse was performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 11 November 1701; the play ran for three consecutive nights, and was published two weeks later. In the dedication, Wiseman refers to Antiocbus as 'the first Fruits of a Muse, not yet debas'd to the Low Imployment of Scandal or Private Reflection', though she remains coy about her status as a self-taught servant. Sometime after her success with Antiocbus, Wiseman married a vintner named Holt and together they opened a tavern in Westminster using the profits from her play. The dominant mode of Holt's volume is panegyric, but her poetry is also notable for its wit, intellectual rigour, and affectionate didacticism.
