SOTHEBY, WILLIAM (1757-1833).—­Poet and translator, belonged to a good family, and was ed. at Harrow.  In early life he was in the army.  He pub. a few dramas and books of poems, which had no great popularity, and are now forgotten; his reputation rests upon his admirable translations of the Oberon of Wieland, the Georgics of Virgil, and the Iliad and Odyssey.  The last two were begun when he was upwards of 70, but he lived to complete them.  His Georgics is considered one of the best translations from the classics in the language.

SOUTH, ROBERT (1634-1716).—­Divine, s. of a London merchant, was b. at Hackney, and ed. at Westminster School and Oxf., where in 1660 he was appointed Univ.  Orator.  He became domestic chaplain to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and in 1663 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him.  After accompanying an embassy to Poland he became Rector of Islip, and a chaplain to Charles II.  Thereafter he steadily declined higher preferment, including the bishopric of Rochester.  He was opposed to the Romanising measures of James II., but owing to his views as to the duty of passive obedience he declined to associate himself in any way with the Revolution, to which nevertheless he submitted.  He was an expert controversialist, but it is chiefly by his sermons, which are among the classics of English divinity, that he is remembered.  He has the reputation of being the wittiest of English preachers, and this characteristic is sometimes present to a degree not quite suitable to the subjects treated.

SOUTHERNE, THOMAS (1660-1746).—­Dramatist, b. in Dublin, and ed. at Trinity Coll. there, came to London and studied law at the Middle Temple.  Afterwards he entered the army and saw service.  He wrote ten plays, of which two were long acted and are still remembered, The Fatal Marriage (1694) and Oroonoko (1696), in the latter of which he appeals passionately against the slave-trade.  Unlike most preceding dramatists he was a practical man, succeeded in his theatrical management, and retired on a fortune.  Other plays are The Loyal Brother (1682), The Disappointment (1684), The Wives’ Excuse (1692), The Spartan Dame (1719), etc.

SOUTHEY, MRS. CAROLINE ANNE (BOWLES) (1786-1854).—­Poetess, dau. of a captain in the navy, submitted a poem, Ellen Fitzarthur to Southey (q.v.), which led to a friendship, and to a proposed joint poem on Robin Hood, not, however, carried out, and eventually to her becoming the poet’s second wife.  She wrote various other works, including Chapters on Churchyards and Tales of the Factories.