SACKVILLE, THOMAS, Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset, a statesman and poet, the son of Richard Sackville of Buckhurst, in the parish of Withian, in Sussex, was born in the year 1536. He was sent to Hart Hall, in Oxford, in the latter end of the reign of Edward VI. whence he removed to Cambridge, where he took a degree of master of arts, and thence to the Inner Temple. He now applied himself to the study of the law, and was called to the bar. We are told that he commenced poet whilst at the universities, and that these his juvenile productions were much admired, though none of them have been preserved. In the fourth and fifth years of Queen Mary we find him a member of the House of Commons, about which time, in 1557, he wrote a poetical piece, entitled the Induction, or the Mirror of Magistrates. This last was meant to comprehend all the unfortunate great from the beginning of our history; but the design being dropped, it was inserted in[7:19:601] the body of the work. The Mirror of Magistrates is formed upon a dramatic plan, in which the persons are introduced speaking. The Induction is written much in the style of Spencer, who, with some probability, is supposed to have imitated this author.

In the year 1561, his tragedy of Gorboduc was acted before Queen Elizabeth by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. This was the first tolerable tragedy in our language. The Companion to the Playhouse tells us that the first three acts were written by Mr Thomas Norton. Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apology for Poetry, says, “it is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases, climbing to the height of Seneca in his style.” Rymer speaks highly in its commendation. Mr Spence, at the instigation of Pope, republished it in 1736, with a pompous preface. It is said to be our first dramatic piece written in verse. In the first parliament of this reign Mr Sackville was member for Sussex, and for Buckinghamshire in the second. In the mean time he made the tour of France and Italy, and in 1566 was imprisoned at Rome, when he was informed of his father’s death, by which he became possessed of a very considerable fortune. Having now obtained his liberty, he returned to England, and being first knighted, was created Lord Buckhurst. In 1570 he was sent as ambassador to France. In 1586 he was one of the commissioners appointed to try the unfortunate Mary queen of Scots, and was the messenger employed to report the confirmation of her sentence, as well as to see it executed. The year following he went as ambassador to the states-general, in consequence of their complaint against the Earl of Leicester, who, disliking his impartiality, prevailed on the queen to recall him, and confine him to his house. In this state of confinement he continued about ten months, when Leicester dying, he was restored to favour, and in 1580 was installed knight of the garter. But the most incontrovertible proof of the queen’s partiality for Lord Buckhurst appeared in the year 1591, when she caused him to be elected chancellor in the university of Oxford, in opposition to her favourite Essex. In 1598, on the death of the treasurer Burghley, Lord Buckhurst succeeded him, and by virtue of his office became in effect prime minister; and when, in 1601, the earls of Essex and Southampton were brought to trial, he sat as lord high steward on that awful occasion. On the accession of James I. he was graciously received, had the office of lord high treasurer confirmed to him for life, and was created Earl of Dorset. He continued high in favour with the king till the day of his death, which happened suddenly on the 19th day of April 1608, in the council-chamber at Whitehall. He was interred with great solemnity in Westminster Abbey.

Sackville, Charles, Earl of Dorset, a celebrated wit and poet, descended from the foregoing, was born in 1637. He was, like Villiers, Rochester, and Sedley, one of the libertines of King Charles’s court, and sometimes indulged himself in inexcusable excesses. He openly discountenanced the violent measures of James II., and engaged early for the prince of Orange, by whom he was made lord chamberlain of the household, and taken into the privy council. He died in 1706, and left several poetical pieces, which, though not considerable enough to make a volume by themselves, may be found amongst the works of the minor poets, published in 1749.