THE LIFE OF SACKVILLE. In the turbulent and fanguinary reign of Queen Mary, when the fires of perfecution were kindled in Smithfield, and every part of England was polluted with murders, more atrocious than the flaughters of the moft bloody civil war; the cultivation of polite literature was neglected amidst the calamities of the ftate, and only one poetical production, of prominent excellence, intitu led, A Mirror for Magiftrates, illuminates that interval of darkness between Surrey and Spenser. More writers than one were concerned in the compofition of that popular poem, which originated in the reign of Mary, and was not finally completed till the beginning of the seventeenth century; but its inventor, and most distinguished contributor was THOMAS SACKVILLE, the first Lord Buckhurst, and Earl of Dorfet, Lord High Treasurer of England, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, author of the firft genuine English tragedy, and “the Patriarch of a race of genius and wit." This distinguished statesman and poet, was the fon of Richard Sackville, Efq. of Buckhurst, in the parish of Withiam, in Suffex, where he was born in the year 1527. His mother was a daughter of Sir John Bruges, Lord Mayor of London, and afterwards wife of John Powlet, Marquis of Winchester. He discovered, from his childhood, a lively wit and vigorous understanding, and was removed from a domeftic tuition, to Hart-hall in Oxford, where he refided fome time; but took no degree. He afterwards removed to Cambridge, where he did not refide long; but had the degree of Master of Arts conferred on him. At both univerfities he became celebrated as a Latin and English poet. Wood mentions him as "having been in his younger years poetically inclined; and wrote, while he continued in Oxon, feveral Latin and English poems: though published, either by themselves, or mixed among other men's poems, yet I presume they are loft or forgotten, as having no name to them, or that the copies are worn out." He afterwards entered himself a student in the Inner Temple, and at an early period of life was called to the bar. He carried his love of poetry, which he seems to have almost solely cultivated, to the Inner Temple, where, in conjunction with Thomas Norton, a fellow-labourer of Hopkins and Sternhold, he wrote a tragedy, intituled, Ferrex and Porrex, which was acted before Queen Elizabeth, at Whitehall, by the students of the Inner Temple, in 1561. It was printed incorrectly and furreptitiously in 1565; more accurately in 1570; in 1590, by the title of Gorboduc; and reprinted by Dodfley in 1736, with a preface by Mr. Spence, by the procuration of Pope, "who wondered that the propriety and natural case of it had not been better imitated by the dramatic authors of the fucceeding age." About the year 1557, he formed the plan of the Mirror for Magiftrates, in which all the illuftrious but unfortunate characters of the English history, from the Conquest to the end of the fourteenth century, were to pass in review before the poet, who defcends, like Dante, into hell, and is conducted by Sorrow. Every perfonage was to recite his own misfortunes in a foliloquy. But he had leifure only to finish a poetical preface, called an Induction, and one legend, which is the Life of Hen y Stafford Duke of Buckingham. 6 Relinquishing, therefore, the design abruptly, and hastily adapting the close of his Induction to the appearance of Buckingham, whose story was to have been the last in his feries, he recommended the completion of the whole to Richard Baldwyne and George Ferrers, men of the greatest wit in that age. Deterred, perhaps, by the greatness of the attempt, they invited to their affiftance Churchyard, Phayer, and other men of wit and genius, who chose such lives from the chronicles of Fabian and Hall, as feemed to display the most affecting catastrophes, and which were probably pointed out by Sackville. This collection was printed in 4to, 1559, with the following title, A Myrroure for Magiftrates, wherein may be feen, by example of others, with bore greuous plages vices are punifbed, and bow frail and unflable worldly profperitie is founde, even of those whom fortune seemeth most bigbly to favour. « Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.” Anno 1559, Edibus Thoma Marfbe. As he early quitted the study of the law for the flowery paths of poetry; fo the poet was foon loft in the statesman ; and negociations and embaffies extinguished the milder ambitions of the ingenious mufe. In the fourth and fifth years of Queen Mary, his name appears in the parliamentary lifts; and in the fifth of Queen Elizabeth, 1564, when his father was elected knight of the fhire for Suffex, he was returned one of the members for Buckinghamshire. Not long after this, he travelled into France and Italy, and was detained some time a prisoner a Rome, in confequence of fome pecuniary inconvenience. On his father's death in 1566, his liberty was procured, and he returned to England, to take pol feffion of an ample patrimony. His eminent accomplishments and abilities having acquired the confidence and efteem of Queen Elizabeth, he was knighted in 1567, in her presence, by the Duke of Norfolk, and at the fame time promoted to the peerage, by the title of Baron Buckburst. In confequence of the Queen's frequent admonitions, he is faid to have corrected his tafte for magnificence and expence, which had fome times fubjected him to confiderable inconveniencies. In 1573, he went ambassador to France. In 1574, he fat on the trial of the Duke of Norfolk; at which time he was alfo in the Privy Council. He was nominated one of the commiffioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots; but it does not appear that he was present at her condemnation at Fotheringay Castle; yet after the confirmation of the sentence, he was appointed to bear the unhappy tidings to her, and to see the sentence put in execution. In 1587, he went ambassador to the States-General; but, having incurred the displeasure of the Earl of Leicester and Lord Burleigh, he was recalled, and confined to his house nine months. On the death of Leicester, he recovered the Queen's favour, and was made Knight of the Garter, one of the peers who fat on the trial of Lord Arundel, and joined with Burleigh, in negociating a peace with Spain and Holland. In 1591, he was, by the Queen's recommendation, elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford, in oppofition to Effex, the object of her capricious paffion, and incorporated Master of Arts. On Burleigh's death, he was appointed Lord High Treasurer, and foon after joined in commission with Effex and Sir Thomas Egerton for negociating an alliance with Denmark; and when that unfortunate nobleman was brought to his trial, with his friend Southampton, he was conftituted Lord High Steward on the occafion. At the acceffion of King James, his patent of Lord High Treasurer was renewed for life; and in 1603, he was created Earl of Dorfet, and appointed one of the commiffioners for executing the office of Lord Marshal. He died fuddenly at the council-table, Whitehall, April 19th 1608, in the 81ft year of his age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His funeral fermon was preached by Dr. Abbot, his chaplain, afterwards-Archbishop of Canterbury, in which he is very lavish in his praise. The character of Sackville, as a statesman, is to be fought elsewhere. It is fufficient to fay, that few first ministers have left fo fair a character, Amidst the intrigues of an artful court, be preferv . ed the integrity of a private man. His family disdained the offer of an apology for him, against fome little cavils of a rival party. In the exercife of his political functions, the brilliancy of his imagination grew more correct, not lefs abundant. Naunton relates, that his "fecraries had difficulty to please him, he was fo facete and choice in his style." Even in the decisions of that rigid tribunal, the Star Chamber, which was never efteemed the school of eloquence," fo ftrong," fays Lloyd, " was his invention, that he was called the Star Chamber Bell." Amidst the bufinefs of an envoy at Paris, he found time to prefix a Latin Epifile to Clerke's Latin tranflation of Castiglio's "Courtier," which is not an unworthy recommendation of a treatise remarkable for its polite Latinity. Himself a poet, he encouraged the art which he improved, by his liberality; and left his wit and patronage of polite literature to his defcendants, of whom was Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorfet, the well known patron of Dryden and Prior; Whofe great forefathers every grace, He was more courted and complimented by poets than any nobleman of his time, except Essex, whefe love of literature, heroifm, integrity, and generosity, made him the favourite of the nation, and the subject of innumerable fonnets and ballads, from Spenfer to the lowest rhymer: And if panegyric were any where justifiable, it must be when paid to the man, who endeavoured to fave Spenfer from starving in the streets of Dublin, and who buried him in Westminster Abbey, with becoming folemnity. As a poet, Sackville has pretenfions to the gratitude of posterity, which have not hitherto been fully confidered or allowed. He is entitled to rank with Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Marlowe, the most eminent poets of his age; by the firft of whom he is only furpaffed in the perfection of allegory, by having had the disadvantage of writing before him; and, by the second, in his magic power of moving the paffions, and the unrivalled excellence of his dramatic dialogue. His tragedy of Gorboduc has the merit of being the first specimen in our language of a heroic tale written in blank verse, divided into acts and scenes, and clothed in all the formalities of a regular drama. It is praised by Sidney for its notable moralitie; but it was never popular, owing to the uninteresting nature of the plot, the tedious length of the speeches, the want of a difcrimination of character, and almost a total absence of pathetic incidents. The dialogue, however, contains much dignity, ftrength of reflection, and good sense; and the language has great purity and perfpicuity, and is entirely free from that tumid phraseology, and those exaggerated imageries and pedantic metaphors, which are the chief blemishes of the fcc.es of Shakspeare. The affistance of Norton, to whom the three first acts are given by Wood, may be justly doubted. Every scene of Gorboduc is marked by Sackville's characteristic manner, which confists in a perfpicuity of style, and a command of numbers, fuperior to the tone of his age. In the Mirror for Magiftrates he has two poems of confiderable length, the Induction, and Legend of Buckingham, which are the chief foundation of his fame. The collection, of which they make a confpicuous part, was reprinted in 1563, 1571, 1574, and in 1587, with an Induction, and the additions of many new lives, by John Higgins. At length the whole was digested anew, with additions by Richard Niccols, an ingenious poet, and printed in 1610, under the following title: A Mirrour for Magiftrates, being a true chronicle bißorie of the untimely fulles of fuch unfortunate princes, and men of note, as have happened fince the firft entrance of Brute inte this island, until this our age, newly enlarged, with a last part, called, A Winter's Night Vision, being an addition of fuch tragedies, especially famous, as are exempted in the former biftorie, with a poem annexed, called, England's Eliza. At London, imprinted by Felix Kyngton, 1610. Sackville's fhare in it is illuftrated in the preface. I purpose only to follow the intended scope of that most honorable patronage, who, by how much he did furpaffe the rest in the eminence of his noble condition, by fo much he hath exceeded them all in the excellence of his heroical file. |