Author: Dutton, Thomas
Biography:
DUTTON, Thomas (fl 1794-1815)
No biographical information has come to light that can be assigned to Dutton with any confidence and his name is too common for a positive identification. Although his name on title pages is sometimes followed by “A.M.” no university records have been found. About his working life there is more certainty. His first known work is a translation of a Spanish tale, The Art of Cuckoldom. Exemplified in the History of Don Fernando (1794) and his A Vindication of the Age of Reason by Thomas Paine was published in London in 1795. Dutton’s Ariel; or, A Picture of the Human Heart appeared in 1796 and two translations from German soon followed: The Life and Opinions of Sebaldus Nothanker (1798), from a novel by Friedrich Nicolai, and Pizarro in Peru; or, The Death of Rolla (1799) from a play by Kotzebue. The latter led to Dutton’s quarrel with Richard Brinsley Sheridan (q.v.) whose own Pizarro, acted at Drury Lane in May 1799, was criticised by Dutton who claimed that his translation was the original. Dutton also contributed to John Gretton’s Britannia, A New Grand Commemorative Oratorio in 1800. He edited the Dramatic Censor; or, Weekly Theatrical Report which appeared in 1800-1. He published A Brief Sketch of the Principal Features Which Distinguish the Character of his Present Majesty George the Third in 1802 at about the time he moved to Paris—possibly because, as claimed in the Advertisement to The Captive Muse (1806), “Reports, highly prejudicial to his Character” had been circulated or perhaps because he saw an opportunity after the Treaty of Amiens. There he began publishing an English periodical, The Argus, initially under the patronage of Napoleon. Subsequently he seems to have been subjected to internment at Bitche: The Captive Muse refers to a “rigorous Exile” and the poem includes commentary on the treatment of British prisoners of war. In 1814 when a new edition of The Captive Muse was issued in London, Dutton was back in England where he began editing the Monthly Theatrical Reporter (Oct. 1814-July 1815). Unfortunately, the trail then goes cold and nothing more is known. (ancestry.co.uk 16 Aug. 2024; BBTI; EN1; Lisa Zunshine, Acting Theory and the English Stage 1700-1830 [2017]; The Scourge 1 Aug. 1811) SR
Other Names:
- T. Dutton