Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/286

 mainly of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Two more volumes of the same character were published in 1853–4. When [q. v.] founded the ‘Westminster Review’ in 1824, Southern was for a time co-editor with [q. v.], and in 1825 he became proprietor and editor of the second series of the later ‘London Magazine.’ He was also a contributor to the ‘Atlas’ at its first starting, and to the ‘Spectator’ and ‘Examiner.’ In 1833 he accompanied the English ambassador, George William Frederick Villiers (afterwards fourth Earl of Clarendon) [q. v.], to Spain as his private secretary. He was presently placed on the diplomatic staff, and, after remaining some years at Madrid, was appointed secretary to the legation at Lisbon. In 1848 he became minister to the Argentine Confederation, and in 1851 was promoted to the court of Brazil, and received the insignia of a companion of the Bath. He died at Rio de Janeiro on 28 Jan. 1853.



SOUTHERN or SOOWTHERN, JOHN (fl. 1584), poetaster, seems to have been born in England, and was doubtless connected with the Shropshire family. He seems to have been educated in France, whence he returned to his native country to follow the profession of a musician. In 1584 he published an eccentric volume of verse under the title of ‘The Musyque of the Beautie of his Mistresse Diana. Composed by John Soowthern, Gentleman, and dedicated to the right Honorable Edward Dever, Earle of Oxenford, &c., 1584, June 20. Non careo patria, me caret illa magis. London, for Thomas Hackette,’ 1584, 4to. (His patron was, seventeenth earl of Oxford [q. v.]). The volume consists of sonnets by the author, who anticipated Henry Constable in addressing them to a mistress named Diana, of elegies, odes, odellets, and a ‘stansse’ and two ‘quadrans’ in French; as well as four epitaphs which are said to have been written by the Countess of Oxford ‘after the death of her young sonne the Lord Bulbecke;’ (the countess was Anne Cecil, eldest daughter of Lord Burghley). The work is a clumsy performance, and is only remarkable for its reckless plagiarism of Ronsard.

Southern's lack of literary power, his impudent thefts from Ronsard, and his gallicised vocabulary exposed him to much ridicule. Puttenham wrote of him in his ‘Arte of English Poesie,’ 1589 (lib. iii. cap. xxii., ed. Arber, pp. 259–60): ‘Another of reasonable good facilitie in translation finding certaine of the hymnes of Pyndarus and of Anacreons odes, and other lirickes among the Greekes very well translated by Rounsard the French poet, and applied to the honour of a great prince in France, comes our minion and translates the same out of French into English, and applieth them to the honour of [the Earl of Oxford] a great nobleman in England (wherein I commend his reuerent minde and duetie), but doth so impudently robbe the French poet both of his prayse and also of his French termes that I cannot so much pitie him as be angrie with him for his injurious dealing. … And in the end (which is worst of all) makes his vaunt that neuer English finger but his hath toucht Pindar's string, which was neuerthelesse word by word as Rounsard has said before by like braggery.’ Puttenham gives examples of Southern's grotesque employment of French words. Drayton, in his ‘Poemes Lyrick and Pastorall’ (1603?), bestowed on ‘Southerne an English lyrick’ the mysterious commendation:

One copy of Southern's volume alone seems known. Somewhat imperfect, it belonged to Steevens, who amply annotated it, and is now in the British Museum. A second copy belonged to Heber. It is often stated erroneously that another copy, wanting the title-page, is in the Capel collection at Trinity College, Cambridge.



SOUTHERNE, THOMAS (1660–1746), dramatist, son of Francis Southerne, was born in the autumn of 1660 at Oxmantown, near Dublin, and educated at Trinity College, being admitted as a pensioner on 30 March 1676, and graduating M.A. in 1696 (Cat. Dubl. Graduates). In 1678 he was entered of the Middle Temple, London. His earliest play, ‘The Loyal Brother,’ produced in 1682, was intended to compliment the Duke of York, and his tory sympathies manifested themselves in others of his plays, both before and after the revolution. In the course of the reign of James II, Southerne was recommended by (afterwards Earl of Lucan) [q. v.] to the notice of the young Duke of Berwick, and, after entering