John Maddison Morton (3 January 1811 – 19 December 1891) was an English playwright who specialised in one-act

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

s. His most famous farce was '' Box and Cox'' (1847). He also wrote comic dramas, pantomimes and other theatrical pieces.

Biography

Morton was born in

Pangbourne Pangbourne is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has its own shops, schools, Pangbourne railway station, a railway station on the Great Western main line and a vill ...

. His father, Thomas Morton, was also a well-known dramatist. CoxBoxNY

Morton's first farce, ''My First Fit of the Gout'', was produced in London in 1835. He was the author of several other one-act farces, including ''My Husband's Ghost'' (1836), ''Chaos Is Come Again'' (1838), ''A Thumping Legacy'' (1843), ''Lend Me Five Shillings'' (1846), ''The Irish Tiger'' (1846), ''Done on Both Sides'' (1847), ''Who's My Husband?'' (1847), ''Going to the Derby'' (1848), ''Slasher and Crasher!'' (1848), ''Your Life's in Danger'' (1848), ''Where There's a Will There's a Way'' (1849), ''A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion'' (1849) ''My Precious Betsy'' (1850), ''Sent to the Tower'' (1850), ''Grimshaw, Bagshaw, and Bradshaw'' (1851), ''The Woman I Adore!'' (1852), ''A Capital Match!'' (1852), ''Waiting for an Omnibus in the Lowther Arcade on a Rainy Day'' (1854), ''A Game of Romps'' (1855), ''How Stout You're Getting!'' (1855), ''The Rights and Wrongs of Women'' (1856), ''The Little Savage'' (1858), ''Wooing One's Wife'' (1861), ''Drawing Rooms, Second Floor, and Attics'' (1864), ''My Wife's Bonnet'' (1865) and ''A Day's Fishing'' (1869). Morton lived in

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in t ...

for many years. It was there that he wrote '' Box and Cox'' (1847), adapting it from a French play. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 1891 called it "the best farce of the nineteenth century". ''Box and Cox'' was wildly successful, earning him about £7000, and was translated into many European languages. A musical version, ''

Cox and Box ''Cox and Box; or, The Long-Lost Brothers'', is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by F. C. Burnand and music by Arthur Sullivan, based on the 1847 farce '' Box and Cox'' by John Maddison Morton. It was Sullivan's first successful comic ope ...

'' (1867), was created by

F. C. Burnand Sir Francis Cowley Burnand (29 November 1836 – 21 April 1917), usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera '' Cox and Box''. The son of ...

and

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

, but Morton received no royalties from it. However, it brought him a measure of fame as it is often revived by Gilbert and Sullivan fans, helping to make it his best known work. Morton wrote several comic dramas in two acts, including ''Old Honesty'' (1848), ''All That Glitters Is Not Gold'' (1851), ''From Village to Court'' (1854), ''The Muleteer of Toledo, or King, Queen and Knave'' (1855), ''Our Wife, or The Rose of Amiens'' (1856), ''A Husband to Order'' (1859), ''She Would and He Wouldn't'' (1862), ''Woodcock's Little Game'' (1864) and ''Little Mother'' (1870). ''Our Wife'' was made into an 1883

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its ...

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...

called '' Désirée''. Many of Morton's pieces enjoyed great success and contributed to building up the reputations of leading comic actors such as

John Buckstone John Baldwin Buckstone (14 September 1802 – 31 October 1879) was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826. He starred as a comic actor during much of his career for various periods ...

(who was Box in the first representation of ''Box and Cox''), Henry Compton and the Keeleys. In 1873

Marion Terry Marion Bessie Terry (born Mary Ann Bessy Terry; 13 October 1853 – 21 August 1930) was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her older and more famous si ...

made her first West End appearances in his plays, ''A Game of Romps'' and ''All That Glitters Is Not Gold'' at the

Olympic Theatre The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout ...

. Sullivan's later collaborator

W.S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...

made reference to the well-known Morton in his story "My First Brief". In Morton's last decades, the popularity of

Victorian burlesque Victorian burlesque, sometimes known as travesty or extravaganza, is a genre of theatrical entertainment that was popular in Victorian England and in the New York theatre of the mid-19th century. It is a form of parody in which a well-known oper ...

greatly diminished the market for farces. He fell on hard times and in 1881 became a Charterhouse pensioner. His last new play to be produced in his lifetime, at

Toole's Theatre Toole's Theatre, was a 19th-century West End theatre, West End building in William IV Street, near Charing Cross, in the City of Westminster. A succession of auditoria had occupied the site since 1832, serving a variety of functions, including ...

in 1885, was a three-act farcical comedy called ''Going It'', which kept the house in a continual roar of laughter. It was said of Morton that "The unlucky thing about him was that though he could write as well at 80 as at 30, he was left stranded high and dry by the receding wave of fashion." He died at the Charterhouse on 19 December 1891 and was buried on the 23rd at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederick ...

Modern revivals

Despite his prolific play writing career, Morton has not been performed regularly since his death, with the exception of ''Cox and Box''. In 1967 Kenneth Tynan wrote that a "re-discovery is long overdue". In 1967 the National Theatre performed Morton's ''A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion'' as part of a triple bill including a play by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. As a bicentenary celebration of Morton's birth, in June 2011 the

Orange Tree Theatre The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south-west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style. Th ...

presented a triple bill of three of Morton's one act farces, ''Slasher and Crasher!'', ''A Most Unwarrantable Intrusion'' and ''Grimshaw, Bagshaw and Bradshaw'', directed by Henry Bell. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

s reviewer Michael Billington commented that the production "proves the prolific Morton is unjustly neglected", praising Bell's productions.Billington, Michael
"Three Farces – review"
''The Guardian'', 5 June 2011

Notes and references

;Notes

Works

* ''Box and Cox: A Romance of Real Life in One Act.'' (1848) * ''A Desperate Game: A Comic Drama in One Act'' (1853) * ''Woodcock's Little Game: A Comedy Farce, In Two Acts (1864)'' * ''Drawing Rooms, Second Floor, and Attics: A Farce, in One Act'' (1864) ;References

Bibliography

*Tynan, Kenneth (1994). ''The Kenneth Tynan Letters''. London: Minerva. .

External links

* * *
Full scripts of several farces by MortonMuch information about ''Box and Cox''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, John Maddison 1811 births 1891 deaths People from Pangbourne English male dramatists and playwrights 19th-century English dramatists and playwrights Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery 19th-century English male writers