page_title: Edward Askew Sothern
section_title: Our American Cousin
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Askew Sothern / Life and career / Our American Cousin
caption_attribution_description: English: photograph of Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary
context_page_description: Edward Askew Sothern was an English actor known for his comic roles in Britain and America, particularly Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin.
context_section_description: As a result of his success in Camille, Sothern was given a part in Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin at Laura Keene's Theatre. This piece would later become famous as the play that Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated. Sothern's role was Lord Dundreary, a caricature of a brainless English nobleman. At first, he was reluctant to accept the role; it was so small and unimportant that he felt it beneath him and feared it might damage his reputation. He mentioned his qualms to his friend, Joseph Jefferson, who had been cast in the leading role of Asa Trenchard in the play. Jefferson supposedly responded with the famous line: "There are no small parts, only small actors."
  On 15 October 1858, Our American Cousin premiered in New York. After a couple of unhappy weeks in the small role, Sothern began portraying the role as a lisping, skipping, eccentric, weak-minded fop prone to nonsensical references to sayings of his "bwother" Sam. His ad-libs were a sensation, earning good notices for his physical comedy and spawning much imitation and merry mockery on both sides of the Atlantic. His exaggerated, droopy side-whiskers became known as "Dundrearys". Sothern gradually expanded the role, adding gags and business until it became the central figure of the play. The most famous scene involved Dundreary reading a letter from his even sillier brother. The play ran for 150 nights, which was very successful for a New York run at the time. Sothern made his London debut in the role when the play ran for 496 performances at the Haymarket Theatre in 1861, earning rave reviews. The Athenaeum wrote, "it is certainly the funniest thing in the world... a vile caricature of a vain nobleman, intensely ignorant, and extremely indolent".
  Dundreary became a popular recurring character, and Sothern successfully revived the play many times, making Dundreary by far his most famous role. A number of spin-off works were also created, including Charles Gayler's sequel, Our American Cousin at Home, or, Lord Dundreary Abroad (Buffalo, New York, 1860, and then New York City, 1861) and H. J. Byron's Dundreary Married and Done For.  Sothern wrote his own play, Suspense, produced for Keene's 1860-61 season. He won wide popularity from his interpretation of Sam Slingsby in John Oxenford's Brother Sam (1862; revived in 1865), a play about Dundreary's brother.
caption: Sothern as Lord Dundreary
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