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Southerne, Thomas 1660-1746
Irish dramatist

He was born in Oxmantown, County Dublin. From Trinity College, Dublin, he passed to the Middle Temple, London, and in 1682 began his career with a compliment to the Duke of York (later James VII and II) in The Loyal Brother. Dryden wrote the prologue and epilogue, and Southerne finished Dryden's Cleomenes (1692). He served a short time under the Duke of Berwick and, at his request, wrote the Spartan Dame. His best-known plays are The Fatal Marriage (1694) and Oroonoko (before 1696), based on Aphra Behn.

Bibliography: J W Dodds, Thomas Southerne, Dramatist (1933)