Brand, Hannah

Hannah Brand (1754–1821) lived a relatively long life, but her public literary career was short, commencing with the premiere of her tragedy Huniades, or, The Siege of Belgrade at the Theatre Royal, Norwich, on 7 April 1791, and concluding with the publication of her Plays and Poems in spring 1798. In the interim, her most remarkable achievement was getting Huniades staged at the Haymarket theater, London, in January 1792, with Brand herself taking the role of the heroine, Agmunda. Plays and Poems includes all Brand’s known literary writing and largely consists of three plays: Huniades, the original work which had made her famous, and two loose translations, Pierre Corneille’s Don Sanche d’Aragon (1650) appearing as The Conflict; or Love, Honour, and Pride, and Philippe Néricault Destouches’ La force du naturel (1750) as Adelinda. Although the translations make some intriguing changes to the French plays, Huniades is her main claim to attention here.