author
John Maddison Morton
1811–1891
Best remembered for the hit farce Box and Cox, this prolific Victorian dramatist helped shape the quick, comic style that delighted 19th-century theatre audiences. He wrote scores of stage pieces, especially one-act farces, and his work remained a touchstone of English light comedy.
7 Audiobooks
Comediettas and Farces
by John Maddison Morton
Drawing Rooms, Second Floor, and Attics: A Farce, in One Act
by John Maddison Morton
A Desperate Game: A Comic Drama in One Act
by John Maddison Morton
Box and Cox: A Romance of Real Life in One Act.
by John Maddison Morton
Waiting for an Omnibus in the Lowther Arcade on a Rainy Day: A Farce, in One Act
by John Maddison Morton
Betsy Baker! or, Too Attentive by Half; A Farce, in One Act
by John Maddison Morton
Woodcock's Little Game: A Comedy-Farce, In Two Acts
by John Maddison Morton
About the author
Born at Pangbourne in Berkshire on January 3, 1811, John Maddison Morton came from a theatrical family: his father, Thomas Morton, was also a well-known dramatist. Educated partly in France and Germany, he grew up with strong continental influences that later showed in his skill for adapting French comic material for the English stage.
Morton became one of the most successful writers of Victorian farce. He produced a large number of plays, but Box and Cox (1847) became his signature work and long outlived most of the rest, earning a lasting place in the history of English comedy. His specialty was the tightly built, fast-moving one-act farce, full of mistaken identities, comic timing, and theatrical energy.
Although his reputation was considerable in his prime, his later years were much less secure, and he eventually became a pensioner at the Charterhouse in London. He died on December 19, 1891. Today he is remembered chiefly as a master of stage farce and as the author of one of the 19th century's best-known comic plays.