PAYNE, JOHN HOWARD ( 1791-1852). An American actor and playwright; best known, however, as the author of Home, Sircut llon/c. Born in New York, be lived in childhood at East Hampton, L. I. Payne showed great precocity. At thirteen years while a clerk in a mer cantile house in New York, he secretly edited a weekly paper, The Thespian Mirror. He was a student of Union College, when the bankruptcy of his father interrupted his education, and he decided to go on the stage, as the best means of supporting the family. He made his &but at the Park Theatre, New York, February 24, 1809, as Young Norval in Douglas. This enterprise proved an artistic and pecuniary success, and he subsequently appeared before large and enthu siastic audiences in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In 1813 he sailed for England. and made his appearance in London at Drury Lane Theatre as Master Payne, 'the American Iloschis,' in his original part of Young Norval. His per formances were well received by the public. After this he supported himself in England as actor, manager, and playwright, but, owing to his lack of business ability, was often in financial embarrassments. In 1315 Payne published in London a selection of poems called Lispinys of the Muse. His fugitive writings, besides verse, include many articles in criticism, one of the best known being an essay on "Our Neglected Poets," published in the Democratic Review in 1838.
Payne adapted many plays from the French and produced a number of original ones, among them Brutus, or the Full of TIWrf'sc, Virginia, and the comedy of Charles II. The song Home, Sweet Home, occurs in his opera of Clari, or the Maid of Milan, which was produced at the Covent Garden Theatre in Slay, 1823. The music was adapted by Henry IL Bishop from an old melody which Payne had beard in Italy. The publishers of this song are said to have cleared 2000 guineas by it within a year, and the opera was very successful ; by all this, however, Payne himself profited but little. In 1826-27 he edited in London a periodical called the Opera Glass. In 1832 he returned to America. He was ap pointed American consul at Tunis, Africa, in 1842; was recalled in 1845; and reappointed in 1851. He died there April 9, 1852, and was buried in the Cemetery of Saint George at Tunis. In 1883 his remains were brought to Washington. Consult: Harrison, John. Howard Payne (new ed., Philadelphia, 1885) ; Brainard, John Howard Payne: A Biographical Sketch (Washington, 1885).