Elizabeth Knepp

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}

{{no footnotes|date=January 2013}}

Elizabeth Knepp or Knipp (died 1681) was a British actress, singer, and dancer.{{Cite journal |last=Payne |first=Deborah C. |date=2015 |title=Theatrical Spectatorship in Pepys's Diary |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24541203 |journal=The Review of English Studies |volume=66 |issue=273 |pages=87–105 |doi=10.1093/res/hgu031 |jstor=24541203 |issn=0034-6551}}{{Cite book |last1=Gainor |first1=J. Ellen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Y4LAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Elizabeth+knepp%22+1681 |title=The Norton Anthology of Drama: Antiquity through the eighteenth century |last2=Garner |first2=Stanton B. |last3=Puchner |first3=Martin |date=2009 |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-93281-2 |language=en}} The earliest theatrical reference to Knepp is from 1664, as being intended by Thomas Killigrew to play the part of Lusetta in his play Thomaso.{{Citation |last=Roberts |first=David |title=Thomas Killigrew, Theatre Manager |date=2013 |pages=63–91 |editor-last=Major |editor-first=Philip |url=https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/475/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |language=en |isbn=978-1-4094-6668-0}} This means that she was probably in his troupe, the King's Company, by that time. From 1666 onwards she is recorded as playing many parts, both tragic and comic, including Lady Fidget in William Wycherley's The Country Wife.{{Cite book |last=Vance |first=John A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RVIrIGT24HUC&dq=%22Elizabeth+knepp%22+fidget&pg=PA105 |title=William Wycherley and the Comedy of Fear |date=2000 |publisher=University of Delaware Press |isbn=978-0-87413-708-8 |language=en}} In 1664, she became the first woman to perform the title role in Jonson's Epicoene.{{Cite journal |last=Murray |first=Barbara A. |date=May 2003 |title='Transgressing Nature's Law': Representations of Women and the Adapted Version of the Tempest , 1667 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.7227/LH.12.1.2 |journal=Literature & History |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=19–40 |doi=10.7227/LH.12.1.2 |issn=0306-1973|url-access=subscription }} She also occasionally spoke prologues and epilogues, and often danced and sang in or between acts.

Knepp's husband, Christopher Knepp, was a horse dealer who did not travel with her to London very often; he was reputedly "ill-natured" and may have treated her badly.{{Cite book |last=Swift |first=Deborah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMPcDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Elizabeth+knepp%22&pg=PT394 |title=Entertaining Mr Pepys: A thrilling, sweeping historical page-turner |date=2019-10-22 |publisher=Headline |isbn=978-1-78615-414-9 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Merritt |first=J. F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LJpakTzjxP8C&dq=%22Elizabeth+knepp%22+husband&pg=PA153 |title=Imagining Early Modern London: Perceptions and Portrayals of the City from Stow to Strype, 1598-1720 |date=2001-08-30 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-77346-1 |language=en}} Samuel Pepys was fascinated by Knepp, and his diary for 1666—68 is full of references to her, including mentions of amorous encounters, and descriptions of how much he enjoyed her flirtatiousness and especially her singing.{{Cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=Stephen C. |date=2013 |title=Asparagus, Urinary Odor, and 1,2-Dithiolane-4-Carboxylic Acid |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/533914/summary |journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=341–351 |doi=10.1353/pbm.2013.0031 |issn=1529-8795|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Keating |first=Erin M. |date=2017 |title=The Role of Manuscript Newsletters in Charles II's Performance of Power |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26860536 |journal=Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=33–52 |jstor=26860536 |issn=0162-9905}}{{Cite book |last=Chico |first=Tita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqJImjFzzKkC&dq=Elizabeth+knepp&pg=PA291 |title=Designing Women: The Dressing Room in Eighteenth-century English Literature and Culture |date=2005 |publisher=Bucknell University Press |isbn=978-0-8387-5605-8 |language=en}} In the late 1670s she became mistress to the actor Joseph Haines, and died in 1681 giving birth to his stillborn child.