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 Thomas Morton was probably the most prolific playwright of his day. He is credited with no fewer than 33 plays but 7 of them were not successful and he denied writing them so his official count is 26. He was born in the village of Whickham, Co Durham, the son of John and Grace Morton. His parents died when he was just four years old and he was sent to London to live with his uncle, John Maddison, a stockbroker, who brought him up as his own son. He attended the Soho Square School where amateur acting was very much in vogue and it was here that he acquired his love of the theatre. One of his closest school friends was Joseph George Holman who later became a well-known actor.
He entered Lincoln's Inn on 2nd July 1784 to study law but there is no evidence that he ever qualified, although he did occupy chambers in the city. It would seem that he abandoned his studies in favour of playwriting. His first play, Columbus, opened at Covent Garden on 1st December 1792 and this was the beginning of a very successful career. It is known that he was paid £1,000 for one of his plays performed at Covent Garden - no mean sum in those days.
Morton was responsible for the introduction of a word into the English language. One of the characters in his play Speed the Plough, Mrs Grundy, has become a synonym for a prudish, narrow-minded and over-conventional attitude. Mrs Grundy was also the forerunner of a dramatic trick which has since been used by many playwrights - she does not appear in the play! Her name is mentioned often and her moralistic attitude is frequently alluded to, but she never actually appears.
Morton was the subject of much abuse and criticism when he accepted the position of 'Reader of Plays' at Covent Garden in 1828. His duties were to read all plays submitted and choose those most suitable for production. In 1831 he transferred to a similar position at the Drury Lane Theatre. He was, nevertheless, a very likeable man according to other reports and was one of the very few people to be invited to join the MCC without having to go through the usual procedure of being elected.
Morton wrote the first play to be performed at the Kenton (or the New Theatre as it was then known). It was School of Reform or How to Rule a Husband. He wrote the play in 1805 and it was first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on January 15th of that year. It opened at the Kenton on 7th November and it is very likely that Morton, who lived nearby in Pangbourne, would have come to Henley to see his play opening this new and elegant theatre. School of Reform or How to Rule a Husband, had a repeat performance on November 7th 2005 in celebration of the theatre's bicentenary.
Bill Port
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