James Thomson
James Thomson (c. 11 September 1700 - 27 August 1748) was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of 'Rule, Britannia!'. He wrote Spring in 1728 and finally Autumn in 1730, when the set of four was published together as The Seasons. During this period he also wrote other poems, such as to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and his first play, Sophonisba (1730). The latter is best known today for its mention in Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets, where Johnson records that one ’feeble’ line of the poem - 'O, Sophonisba, Sophonisba, O!' was parodied by the wags of the theatre as, 'O, Jemmy Thomson, Jemmy Thomson, O!'.
