HOLCROFT, THOMAS (1745-1809), English dramatist, was born in London on Dec. io, the son of a shoemaker who became a travelling hawker. Thomas became a stable boy at Newmarket, and in his evenings studied languages and music. After some experiments as a teacher, he became a player in 1771, and in 1778 produced a play, The Crisis, at Drury Lane. During a stay in Paris as correspondent of the Morning Herald he saw Beaumarchais's Mariage de Figaro, memorized it, and, on his return home, produced an English translation, Follies of the Day, at Drury Lane in 1784. His Road to Ruin (1791), a melodrama, was a great success and has been frequently revived.
Holcroft was in sympathy with the principles of the French Revolution, and became a member of the Society for Constitu tional Information. On that account he was indicted for high treason in 1794, but was discharged without a trial. On return ing, in 1802, from a two years' stay in Paris, he set up a printing business, which failed, like most of his financial undertakings. On March 23, 1809, Holcroft died. His self-education had been so creditable that he counted among his friends Coleridge, Charles Lamb, William Godwin and John Opie. Besides his numerous novels and plays, many of which were published anonymously, he produced able translations of plays, books on travel, political memoirs and scientific treatises.
Holcroft's Memoirs written by Himself and continued down to the Time of his Death, from his Diary, Notes and other Papers, by William Hazlitt, appeared in 1816, and have been re-edited in 1925 by E. Colby, who also published a bibliography of Holcroft's works in 1922.