SACKVILLE, SIR THOMAS, EARL OF DORSET

Statesman for Elizabeth I,* Sir Thomas Sackville contributed toA Mirror for Magistratesand in collaboration with Thomas Norton wroteGorboduc, the first English tragedy in blank verse. Born in Buckhurst, Sackville was the only son of Sir Richard Sackville. He attended Oxford, joined the Inner Temple, and married Cicely Baker. Knighted on 8 June 1567 and made a peer, Baron Buck­hurst, Sackville was sent on various missions for Queen Elizabeth. His offices under Elizabeth I and James I* included commissioner at state trials, knight of the Garter, lord chancellor of Oxford, and lord high treasurer for life. He died on duty at the council table on 19 April 1608. Sackville's literary career includes contributions toA Mirror for Magistrates, a collection of verse in which famous English men and women recount their ruin. Sackville wrote the "Complaint of Buckingham," and his "Induction" toA Mirror for Magistratesfeatures Sorrow leading the poet to the dead. On 6 January 1561Gorboducwas performed at the Inner Temple. Thomas Norton, who wrote the first three acts, and Sackville, who wrote the last two, drew their story from the chronicles of Britain and patterned the play after Senecan tragedy.

N. Berlin, Thomas Sackville, 1974.