Background
Godfrey was born on December 4, 1736, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Godfrey, inventor of the quadrant.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
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Godfrey was born on December 4, 1736, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Thomas Godfrey, inventor of the quadrant.
Owing to the older Godfrey’s death in 1749, the son became apprenticed to a watchmaker, but his natural talent for verse brought him to the attention of William Smith, the first provost of the College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia.
According to John Galt, Smith introduced West to Godfrey, who was “a pupil of his own, ” and, while the lists of students of the Academy and the Charitable School are incomplete, it is probable that Godfrey attended one or both of them, making up the deficiencies of his earlier education.
Under the inspiring influence of the first provost of the College of Philadelphia, Godfrey became a member of the group of young men, among them Benjamin West and Francis Hopkinson, the first native poet-composer, who were founding the arts of painting, music, and drama in the Colonies.
Smith also secured Godfrey’s release from his indentures to the watchmaking trade and, in May 1758, obtained from the governor of Pennsylvania a commission for Godfrey as an ensign in the Pennsylvania militia.
Smith secured Godfrey's release from his indentures to the watchmaking trade and, in May 1758, obtained from the governor of Pennsylvania a commission for Godfrey as ensign in the Pennsylvania militia. Godfrey took part in the campaign against Fort Duquesne, apparently with the rank of lieutenant, though he did not see very active service, being stationed in a garrison on the frontier. At the end of the campaign, he accepted a position as factor in Wilmington, North Carolina. Godfrey's lyric and narrative verse, which was printed in the American Magazine, edited by Smith, or in the newspapers, was purely tentative work. His love songs were in the mode of the Cavalier poets, his pastorals had a certain sprightliness, and his one poem to be published in book form during his lifetime, The Court of Fancy (1762), had passages of imaginative power. But, as he himself pointed out, it was imitative of Chaucer and Pope, and its main interest lay in its superiority to anything else of its kind that had been written in the Colonies up to that time. His real claim to remembrance lies in his Prince of Parthia, the first drama written by a native American to be produced upon the professional stage. It was important chiefly because it was no mere closet drama. Godfrey definitely wrote it for the American Company of actors and was inspired to the writing of it by his associations. Under Smith's provostship, the College of Philadelphia defied the prejudices of the Quaker element by giving amateur dramatic productions at Commencement and other occasions. Such a production as The Masque of Alfred, given in 1756, must have had its influence upon Godfrey, for his patron wrote many of the words and his friend, Francis Hopkinson, composed the music. He may indeed have taken part. In 1754, when David Douglass brought the reorganized American Company to Philadelphia, Godfrey undoubtedly saw their performances, for influences of their repertory are found in his play. He must have begun its production in Philadelphia, for in a letter to Provost Smith, dated November 17, 1759, he told of his finishing the drama in North Carolina, and of his fears that it would be too late for Douglass's season. His fears were well grounded, and the play lay in Douglass's hands for eight years. In the meantime Godfrey had died in Wilmington, of a fever. His Juvenile Poems on Various Subjects. With the Prince of Parthia, a Tragedy, was published through the efforts of Smith and Godfrey's fellow poet, Nathaniel Evans, in 1765. The play was produced by Douglass on April 24, 1767, at the Southwark Theatre, in Philadelphia, according to advertisements in the Pennsylvania Journal and Pennsylvania Gazette. It was a romantic tragedy, laid in Parthia about the beginning of the Christian era. Godfrey's plot was largely his own, outside of a general resemblance to the royal murders which were recorded in the history of Parthia. His dramatic models were Shakespeare, Beaumont, and Ambrose Philips. The play is well constructed, the blank verse is varied and forcible, and when the drama was revived by undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania in 1915, its acting qualities were apparent.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Godfrey's love songs were in the mode of the Cavalier poets, his pastorals had a certain sprightliness, and his one poem to be published in book form during his lifetime, The Court of Fancy (1762), had passages of imaginative power.
But, as he himself pointed out, it was imitative of Chaucer and Pope, and its main interest lay in its superiority to anything else of its kind that had been written in the Colonies up to that time. His real claim to remembrance lies in his Prince of Parthia, the first drama written by a native American to be produced upon the professional stage.
It was important chiefly because it was no mere closet drama. Godfrey definitely wrote it for the American Company of actors and was inspired to the writing of it by his associations.