Thomas Southerne
Overview
Oxmantown
Oxmantown or Oxmanstown is an area of Dublin, Ireland, situated on the Northside of the city between the River Liffey, the North Circular Road, and Smithfield Market...
, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
in 1676. Two years later he was entered at the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
His first play, The Persian Prince, or the Loyal Brother (1682), was based on a contemporary novel. The real interest of the play lay not in the plot, but in the political significance of the personages.
Quotations
Ambition is an idol on whose wings Great minds are carry'd only to extreme; To be sublimely great, or to be nothing.
The Loyal Brother.
Pity's akin to love.
Oroonoka, Act ii, scene 1. Compare: "Of all the paths [that] lead to a woman's love / Pity's the straightest", Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of Malta, Act i, scene 1.
Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man. 2
Sir Anthony Love, Act ii, scene 1. Compare: "I weigh the man, not his title; 't is not the king's stamp can make the metal better", William Wycherley, The Plaindealer, Act i. scene 1.