Jane Wiseman

Who was Jane Wiseman?

Jane Holt [née Wiseman] was an actress, poet, and playwright. She seems to have been from a modest labouring-class background and self-taught, but very little is known about her. Her one known play, Antiochus the Great, or, The Fatal Relapse, was successfully produced at the New Theatre, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1701. She is thought to have been the "Mrs Holt" whose collection of verse, A Fairy Tale Inscrib'd, to the Honourable Mrs. W—, with other Poems, was published in 1717.