author
Thomas Morton
1764–1838
Known for lively stage comedies and melodramas, this English dramatist helped shape London theater in the late 1700s and early 1800s. His best-known play, Speed the Plough, even gave English the phrase “What’s your name?” character "Mrs. Grundy."
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About the author
Born in Durham around 1764, Thomas Morton first tried studying law but drifted toward the stage instead. His debut play, Columbus; or, A World Discovered, was produced in 1792, and he went on to write around two dozen plays, many for Covent Garden.
Morton became known for a mix of comedies, farces, and melodramas that were popular with theater audiences of his day. Among his best-known works are Speed the Plough (1798), The School of Reform (1805), and A Roland for an Oliver (1819). His writing is often remembered for its brisk theatrical energy and for creating Mrs. Grundy, a character whose name entered the language as shorthand for priggish social judgment.
He died on March 28, 1838. Though not as widely read now as some of his contemporaries, he was an important and successful man of the theater in his lifetime, and his plays helped define the mood of popular British drama between the Georgian and early Victorian eras.