author
Thomas Morton
1764–1838
Best known for lively stage comedies that delighted Georgian audiences, this English playwright helped give the language one of its lasting names for public opinion: "Mrs Grundy." His most successful works mixed sharp social observation with an easy feel for the theater.
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About the author
Born in Durham in 1764, Thomas Morton first tried to build a legal career, but his real success came on the stage. His debut play, Columbus; or, A World Discovered, was produced in 1792, and he went on to become a popular writer for London theaters, especially Covent Garden.
Morton wrote around two dozen plays, most of them comedies and comic dramas. Among the best remembered are Speed the Plough (1798), The School of Reform (1805), and A Roland for an Oliver (1819). Speed the Plough gave English a memorable character name, Mrs Grundy, which came to stand for the pressure of respectable public opinion.
He was admired as a dependable man of the theater as well as a successful dramatist, and late in life he was elected an honorary member of the Garrick Club. Morton died in London on March 28, 1838. His family also remained connected to the stage: his son John Maddison Morton became a well-known farce writer in his own right.