Author: Thompson, Benjamin
Biography:
THOMPSON, Benjamin (1775-1816: findmypast.com)
The memoir of Thompson attached to his posthumously-published melodrama Oberon's Oath (1816) is the primary source of information about his life. He was the son of a merchant, Benjamin Blaydes Thompson, and his wife Deborah Walter. His baptism was registered in Hull, where his father was a magistrate, in 1775. His parents intended him for the law but Thompson chose instead to go to Hamburg on business for his father. He stayed two years, learnt German, and started translating German plays, especially those of Kotzebue (q.v.). One of his translations, The Stranger, adapted for the stage by Sheridan and starring J. P. Kemble (qq.v.), was a surprise success in 1798 but turned out to be the only Kotzebue translation by Thompson staged in his lifetime. The published set of translations, however, under the general title The German Theatre (6 vols. 1801), was successful and influential. In 1799 Thompson married Jane Bourne, with whom he had six children. They settled at first in Nottingham and then, from 1810, in London, where Thompson had some freelance work as a reviewer and editor; he also wrote a novel (1808) and a little original work for the stage. His final effort was Oberon's Oath, which was damned at its first performance--supporters said, by an organized claque. Thompson's death from "an apoplectic fit" a few days later was generally attributed to this humiliating failure. His widow applied to the RLF and received £25; profits from the subscription edition of the play also went to the family. He was buried at Christ Church, Southwark. (ODNB 25 Nov. 2020; findmypast.com 25 Nov. 2020; ancestry.com 25 Nov. 2020; RLF File 350; "Some Account," Oberon's Oath [1816])