Dramatist; born in New York City, June 9, 1792; was very precocious, editing
The Thespian mirror when only thirteen years of age. He became a poet, a dramatist, and an actor of renown.
At the age of fifteen and sixteen he published twenty-five numbers of a periodical called
The pastime, and in 1809, at the age of seventeen, he made a successful entrance upon the theatrical profession at the
Park Theatre, New York, as
Young Norval.
In 1810 he played
Hamlet and other leading parts with great success, and, at the age of twenty and twenty-one, he played with equal success at Drury Lane,
London.
While there he produced many dramas, chiefly adaptations from the
French.
In one of these occurs the song
Home, sweet home, by which he is chiefly known.
Payne became a correspondent of
Coleridge and
Lamb; and, in 1818, when he was twenty-six years of age, his tragedy of
Brutus was successfully brought out at Drury Lane.
He returned to the
United States in 1832.
He was appointed consul at
Tunis, and died in office there, April 10, 1852.
His remains were brought to
Washington late
[
96]
in March, 1883, and interred at
Georgetown.
