Thomas Southerne 1660-1746

From Book Owners Online

Thomas SOUTHERNE 1660-1746

Biographical Note

Born in Oxmantown near Dublin to Francis Southerne (d.16788), a brewer. MA Trinity College Dublin 1696. He traveled to London in 1680 where he was admitted to the Middle Temple, but would become better known as a playwright. He wrote and staged numerous plays, including The Loyal Brother, The Disappointment, or, The Mother in Fashion, The Wives' Excuse, or, Cuckolds Make Themselves and Oroonoko, or, The Royal Slave. He was friends with John Dryden, and finished the last act of Cleomenes for him when Dryden fell ill.

Books

A number of Southerne's books were sold during his lifetime, in a 1724 retail sale in London, alongside those of the oculist Roger Grant.

Sources

  • Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
  • Salmon, Eric. "Southerne, Thomas (1660–1746), playwright." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  • A catalogue of the libraries of Thomas Southerne ... Dr. Roger Grant, ... and an eminent merchant of the city [London, 1724] ESTC T56193.