Southerne, THOMAS

Southerne, THOMAS, dramatist, known as 'honest Tom Southerne' in the world of his day, was born at Oxmantown in County Dublin in 1660 or 1661, studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and entered at the Middle Temple, London, but in 1682 began his career as playwright with a compliment to the Duke of York in The Loyal Brother, or the Persian Prince. Dryden wrote the prologue and epilogue, raising his fee on the occasion, and Southerne had the honour of finishing Dryden's Cleomenes, or the Spartan Hero (1692). Southerne served a short time under the Duke of Berwick, and at his request wrote the Spartan Dame, receiving £120 for the copyright. His best plays, both tragedies, were produced in the reign of William III.—The Fatal Marriage (1694), and Oroonoko, (1696) based on Afra Behn's novel. His comedies are thin, and hardly more decent than the rest in that day. Southerne contrived to thrive in his vocation, and is pleasantly described as a venerable old gentleman, regular in attendance on evening prayers, always neat and decently dressed, commonly in black with his silver sword and silver locks. Pope describes his friend as him whom Heaven sent down to raise the price of prologues and of plays. He died May 26, 1746.