Sackville, Thomas, 1st Earl Of Dorset

(1536-1608)

   English statesman, poet, and dramatist, remembered largely for his share in the development of Elizabethan poetry and drama. The only son of Sir Richard Sackville, he was born at Buckhurst, Withyham, Sussex, and probably educated at Oxford. He settled in London around 1553 and in 1558 became a barrister of the Inner Temple, London, of which his father was governor. In 1566 his father died and he was created Baron Buckhurst in 1567 and earl of Dorset in 1604. He held several high positions: as member of the Privy Council he conveyed the death sentence to Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1586; chancellor of Oxford University; and Lord High Treasurer. He wrote Complaint of Buckingham, for a Myrrour for Magistrates (1563), and his Induction, the most famous part of the Myrrour, describes the poet's visit to the infernal regions, where he encounters figures representing forms of suffering and terror. He collaborated with Thomas Norton (see entry) in writing the Tragedie of Gorboduc (1561), the earliest known English drama in blank verse.

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Anchor Antholog y of Sixteenth Century Verse. Richard Sylvester, ed. Doubleday/Anchor Books, 1974. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Works of Thomas Sackville. John Russell Smith, 1859.