THOMAS GODFREY (1736-1763)

The distinction of having been the first American to write a tragedy that was strong enough to force its way to representation upon the professional stage belongs to Thomas Godfrey, son of Thomas Godfrey, the Philadelphian, famous as the inventor of the mariner's quadrant. More than of any other poet of his period may it be said of Godfrey that he was endowed with a spark of genius. There is, to be sure, little among his "literary remains" that is of permanent value, but it must be remembered that he worked in a dark period so far as poetry was concerned. He was bound by the traditions of the Pope school, then in the fulness of its power; the literary atmosphere about him was thin and unexhilarating ; there were few magazines and few critics and few readers of "polite literature." Moreover, the circumstances of his environment were a handicap: he had been bound as apprentice to a watchmaker who took all his time; then he joined the militia and took part in the expedition against Fort Duquesne; then he embarked upon a business enterprise in North Carolina, and for three years had little time for poetic composition. He died at twenty-seven. Had he lived, he might, perhaps, have outgrown the influence of his early models,-Shakespeare, Pope, Young--and have made himself the leading poet of America before Emerson. : It was in him, undoubtedly. As it was, his Prince of Parthia, lamentably crude though it be, wholly wanting in humor and in verisimilitude, is a remarkable work for a youth of twenty-three who perhaps never had seen a theatrical presentation, at least of a serious play. The tragedy was staged in Philadephia April 24, 1767, four years after the death of its author. It was not played again, so far as I can ascertain, until 1915, when it was revived by the Zelosophic Society of the University of Pennsylvania. If one reads the last act of the drama one need read no more. The act is really complete in itself, needing little explanation to make the plot clear. Moreover, it is complete in another way: it presents all that is necessary to be known of the strength and the weakness of Thomas Godfrey as a dramatist.