Joseph Reed

Joseph Reed (March 1723 – 15 August 1787) was an English playwright and poet known for his 1761 farce The Register Office and the 1769 comic opera adaptation of Henry Fielding's Tom Jones. Childhood and early career Reed was born at Stockton, Durham, in March 1723, the second son of John Reed, a presbyterian ropemaker. After a very scanty education he succeeded to his father's business, which he practised with success through life. His leisure he devoted to a study of English literature, and he developed literary aspirations; but he always regarded himself as an amateur, and, when he began to publish, often described himself on his title-pages as "a halter-maker." In August 1744 there appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine a poem by Reed, "in imitation of the Scottish dialect, on the death of Mr. Pope." In 1745 he printed, at Newcastle, a farce called The Superannuated Gallant. In 1747 he visited London with a view apparently to gaining an entrance into theatrical society. Ten years later he removed his business and family to Sun-tavern Fields, Stepney, London, and on 6 July 1758 Theophilus Cibber produced, at Covent Garden, a burlesque tragedy by Reed, in five acts, called Madrigal and Trulletta. It was humorous but critics regarded it as very long, although Reed blamed Cibber for its want of success. Tobias Smollett denounced it, when published, in The Critical Review, and Reed replied to his critic in a pungent pamphlet called A Sop in the Pan for a Physical Critick, 1759.