Sackville, THOMAS, Earl of Dorset, poet and statesman, was born about 1536 at Buckhurst in
Sussex, the only son of Sir Richard Sackville, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is supposed to have studied at Hart Hall, Oxford, and St John's College, Oxford, and then to have entered the Inner Temple; in 1554 he married, and in 1558 was returned to parliament. With Thomas Norton he produced the blank-verse tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex (afterwards called Gorboduc), which in January 1562 was acted before Queen Elizabeth (who was Sackville's second cousin) at Whitehall by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. This work, whose plot is founded on a British legend, and which is after the style of Seneca, the incidents being moralised at intervals by a chorus, claims particular notice as the earliest tragedy in the English language. Dramatic energy it has none, but the style is pure and stately, evincing eloquence and power of thought (see DRAMA, Vol. IV. p. 85). Sackville's other chief production was the Indvction to a Myrrow for Magistrates (1563), a noble poem, 'uniting,' as Hallam says, 'the school of Chaucer and Lydgate to the Faery Queen,' and almost rivaling the latter in the magnificence and dignity of its allegoric personifications. The influence of Dante is very perceptible. His prodigality brought Sackville into disgrace with the queen, and he travelled awhile in France and Italy, but on his father's death in 1566 returned to England, and next year was knighted and created Lord Buckhurst. He was now employed much as a diplomatist in France and the Low Countries; in 1586 announced her death-sentence to Mary Queen of Scots; in 1589 was installed a Knight of the Garter; in 1599 succeeded Burghley as lord high treasurer; and in 1604 was created Earl of Dorset. He died suddenly at Whitehall at the council table, 19th April 1608.
See the Life prefixed to the edition of his Works by the Hon. and Rev. W. Sackville-West (1859), and a long article in vol. ii. of Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. (1861).
CHARLES SACKVILLE, sixth Earl of Dorset, was born January 24, 1637, and succeeded to the title in 1677. He travelled in Italy, was returned by East Grinstead to the first parliament of Charles II., and soon became an especial favourite of the king, and notorious, like too many of the courtiers, for his boisterous and indecorous frolics. He served under the Duke of York at sea, was employed on various missions, but could not endure the tyranny of James II., and was one of the most ardent in the cause of the Prince of Orange. His later years were honoured by a generous patronage of men of letters like Prior, Wycherley, and Dryden. He died at Bath, January 19, 1706. He was himself the author of a few occasional lyrical and satirical pieces, but is only remembered for one short poem, the bright and delightful song, 'To all you Ladies now on Land.'