Home, the Revd John

Home, the Revd John (1722–1808), Scottish minister, author of the tragedy Douglas (1756), produced in Edinburgh with Dudley Digges as the hero, Young Norval. It caused a great deal of controversy, as many members of the Church of Scotland were horrified that one of their number should write for the theatre; but it was rapturously received by the audience. In 1757 it was accepted by John Rich for Covent Garden, where Spranger Barry (‘six feet high and in a suit of white puckered satin,’ says Doran) played Young Norval to the Lady Randolph of Peg Woffington. The play was constantly revived, Lady Randolph being a favourite part with Sarah Siddons, while many young actors in England and America, including Master Betty and John Howard Payne, delighted in Young Norval. The speech beginning ‘My name is Norval’ became a regular recitation piece, and the play eventually found its way into the repertory of the toy theatre. It was revived at the Edinburgh Festival in 1950, with Sybil Thorndike as Lady Randolph. Home wrote other tragedies, none of them successful.