Transcriber's Note: This e-book contains the text of The Prince of Parthia, extracted from Representative Plays by American Dramatists: Vol 1, 1765-1819. Comments and background to all the plays, and links to the other plays are available here. For your convenience, the transcribers have provided the following links: Thomas Godfrey Jr. Advertisement Dramatis Personæ ACT I. ACT II. ACT III. ACT IV. ACT V. Spelling as in the original has been preserved. THE PRINCE OF PARTHIA A TRAGEDY [Pg 21] [Pg 21] THOMAS GODFREY, Jr. Jr. (1736-1763) Thomas Godfrey, Jr., was born in Philadelphia, on December 4, 1736, the son of a man who himself won fame as an inventor of the Quadrant. Godfrey, Senior, was a friend of Benjamin Franklin, the two probably having been drawn together by their common interest in science. When Godfrey, Senior, died, December, 1749, it was Franklin who wrote his obituary notice.[1] Young Godfrey was a student at the College or Academy of Philadelphia, and when his education was completed, he became apprenticed to a watch-maker, remaining in that profession until 1758. As a student at the Academy, he came under the special influence of Dr. William Smith, the first Principal or Provost of that institution,[2] and it was Dr. Smith who not only obtained for Godfrey a lieutenancy with the Pennsylvania troops in 1758, which sent him in the expedition against Fort Duquesne, but who, likewise, as the Editor of The American Magazine, was only too glad to accept and publish some of Godfrey's poetical effusions. That the young man was popular, and that he associated with some of the most promising figures of the time, will be
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