Thomas Godfrey

Thomas Godfrey 1736-63, American poet and playwright, b. Philadelphia. The son of Thomas Godfrey, who invented the quadrant, he became apprenticed to a watchmaker after his father's early death. Godfrey is remembered as the author of The Prince of Parthia (1767), a blank verse tragedy reminiscent of Shakespeare and Marlowe. It was the first professionally produced drama written by an American. The Court of Fancy (1762) is his most notable volume of poetry.

Godfrey, Thomas (1736–63), Philadelphia poet, whose poems contributed to the American Magazine were imitative of the Cavalier poets. The Court of Fancy (1762), as he acknowledged, was strongly indebted to Chaucer and Pope. He is best known for his romantic tragedy, The Prince of Parthia, which he wrote in 1759. Juvenile Poems on Various Subjects. With the Prince of Parthia, a Tragedy was a posthumous collection (1765).

Godfrey, Thomas (1736–63), American dramatist, who became the first playwright of the United States when in 1759 he wrote a tragedy entitled The Prince of Parthia which he sent to Douglass, manager of the American Company. It was received too late for production during the current season in Philadelphia, and Godfrey died before it was produced by Douglass for one night only at the Southwark Theatre in 1767. It was then not acted again until its revival at the University of Pennsylvania in 1915. It was published in 1765, and shows the influence of the plays which were in the repertory of the elder Hallam in about 1754.