Thomas Godfrey
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Thomas Godfrey |
Godfrey, Thomas, 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.
| Works: Works by Thomas Godfrey |
(1736-1763)
| 1762 | "The Court of Fancy: A Poem." The first published poem of the author of the first American tragedy performed on the professional stage, The Prince of Parthia (1767). The poem shows the influence of both Geoffrey Chaucer and Alexander Pope and would be collected in the posthumous collection Juvenile Poems on Various Subjects (1765). |
| 1765 | Juvenile Poems on Various Subjects. Godfrey's posthumous collection of early works also contains his blank-verse romantic tragedy, The Prince of Parthia, a Tragedy, written in 1759, which would become the first American play professionally performed in 1767. |
| 1767 | The Prince of Parthia. Believed to be the first tragedy written (1759) and published (1765) by a native-born American, this work is also the first American play to be professionally performed. Godfrey had intended to finish the play in time for a 1759 performance by an English company. However, he did not meet the deadline, and the five-act play based on Parthian history is performed in this year; Godfrey had died in 1763. |
| Wikipedia: Thomas Godfrey (inventor) |
Thomas Godfrey (December 1704 – December 1749) was an optician and inventor in the American colonies, who around 1730 invented the octant. At approximately the same time an Englishman, John Hadley, also invented the octant independently.
Godfrey was born on his family's farm in Bristol Township, near Germantown, Pennsylvania.
Benjamin Franklin describes Godfrey at length in his Autobiography, referring to him as a "Great Mathematician" who nevertheless was "not a pleasing Companion", demanding in conversations an "universal Precision in every thing said."[1]
Notes
- ^ Franklin, Benjamin (1996). The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Mineola: Dover. ISBN 9780486290737.
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 | Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Works. The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thomas Godfrey (inventor)". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- The Prince of Parthia (American Theater)
- The American Company (American theater)
- Year 1731 (in Science & Technology)
- Thomas Godfrey
