Thomas Southerne

Thomas Southerne Irish dramatist, was born at Oxmantown, near Dublin, in 1660, and entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1676. Two years later he was entered at the Middle Temple, London.

Unsourced

• Ambition is an idol on whose wings
  Great minds are carry'd only to extreme;
  To be sublimely great, or to be nothing.
  • The Loyal Brother.

• Pity's akin to love.
  • Oroonoka, Act ii, scene 1. Compare: "Of all the paths [that] lead to a woman's love / Pity's the straightest", Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of Malta, Act i, scene 1.

• Of the king's creation you may be; but he who makes a count ne'er made a man. 2
  • Sir Anthony Love, Act ii, scene 1. Compare: "I weigh the man, not his title; 't is not the king's stamp can make the metal better", William Wycherley, The Plaindealer, Act i. scene 1.