Thomas Southerne
Who was Thomas Southerne?
Irish dramatist (1660–1746)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Thomas Southerne (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Thomas Southerne was born on 12 February 1660 in Oxmantown, on the north side of Dublin, Ireland. He started his education at Trinity College, Dublin, before moving to London to study law, enrolling at the Middle Temple in 1678. However, he soon became more interested in the theatre and went on to become a leading playwright in London during the late 1600s and early 1700s.
Southerne began writing for London's main theatres in the early 1680s. He became friends with John Dryden, the well-known poet laureate, who wrote prologues and epilogues for some of Southerne's plays. This friendship helped Southerne make a name for himself in the world of Restoration drama and connected him with the top literary circles of the time.
His most famous plays, The Fatal Marriage (1694) and Oroonoko (1695), made him one of the top playwrights of his generation. Oroonoko, adapted from Aphra Behn's 1688 novel, tells the story of an enslaved African prince and became an important work that was redone many times during the 1700s and inspired later writings against slavery. The Fatal Marriage also used prose fiction, showing Southerne's talent for turning narrative stories into plays that mixed serious tragedy with comic elements, a style typical of his time.
Southerne was careful with his money and lived a long life, remaining a respected member of London literary society into the 1700s. He earned significant amounts from his plays through benefit performances, where playwrights received earnings from select performance nights. He met with younger writers like Alexander Pope and John Gay, connecting the world of Restoration theatre with the literary culture that followed.
Thomas Southerne died in London on 26 May 1746, at the age of eighty-six. He outlived nearly all writers of his time and saw major changes in literary and theatrical styles. He was buried at St. Andrew's Church in Holborn. His career lasted over sixty years, with his works, especially Oroonoko, remaining popular long after his death.
Before Fame
Thomas Southerne grew up in Oxmantown, Dublin, when Ireland was recovering from the mid-seventeenth-century conflicts and dealing with its relationship with the English crown. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, the main college in Ireland, where he received a classical education that shaped his later literary work. After completing his studies, Southerne followed a common path for young ambitious Irishmen of his class, moving to London and joining the Middle Temple as a law student in 1678.
London in the late 1670s was bustling with theatrical activity. The Restoration of Charles II in 1660 had reopened the theatres after the Puritan ban, and drama flourished under royal support. Southerne arrived during this lively period and was drawn into theatrical life, leaving his legal studies to write for the stage. While his early comedies gained some attention, his skill for writing tragedies and his strategic friendships with established figures like Dryden helped him achieve lasting recognition.
Key Achievements
- Wrote Oroonoko (1695), one of the earliest English plays to engage seriously with themes of slavery and the humanity of enslaved people
- Wrote The Fatal Marriage (1694), a pathetic tragedy that held the stage throughout the eighteenth century
- Maintained a prominent literary career spanning over six decades, from the Restoration period through the reign of George II
- Cultivated influential friendships with John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and John Gay, connecting successive generations of English literary culture
- Achieved financial independence through strategic use of theatrical benefit nights, becoming a model of professional authorship for later writers
Did You Know?
- 01.Southerne reportedly earned more money from his plays than almost any dramatist of his era, using the benefit night system shrewdly to accumulate significant personal wealth.
- 02.His play Oroonoko (1695) was adapted from Aphra Behn's novel and remained in active theatrical repertoire for nearly a century after its first performance.
- 03.John Dryden, then the most prominent literary figure in England, wrote the prologue to Southerne's play The Wives' Excuse (1691), reflecting the strength of their personal friendship.
- 04.Southerne lived to the age of eighty-six, outliving Dryden by forty-six years and witnessing the careers of three distinct literary generations in London.
- 05.Alexander Pope, writing in the early eighteenth century, praised Southerne as one of the few surviving links to the great writers of the Restoration age.