Thomas Sackvile

, a person born to good Letters, received his first being at, or near, Withyam in the County of Sussex, educated in this University in the time of Q. Mary, (in Hart hall, as it seems,) where he became an excellent Poet. Afterwards he retired for a time to Cambridge, where he had the degree of M. of A. confer’d upon him. About the same time, being a Student in the Inner Temple, he became a Barrister, travelled into Foreign parts, and was detained (c)(c) Tho. Mills in his Cat. of Honour, p. 412. for a time a Prisoner in Rome; whence, his liberty was procured for his return into England, to possess the vast inheritance left to him by his Father, an. 1566. The next year he was advanced to the degree and title of the Lord Buckhurst; and after he had been imployed in several Embassies, (particularly into France 1571.) he was incorporated M. of A. of this University in Jan. 1591. having a little before been chosen Chancellour thereof. In the 41. of Q. Elizabeth he was constituted Lord Treasurer of England, and in the beginning of K. James was created Earl of Dorset. From his puerile years to his last, he was a continual favourer and furtherer of learning: And having been in his younger days poetically inclined, did write, while he continued in Oxon, several Latin and English Poems, which tho published, either by themselves, or mixed among other Mens Poems, yet I presume they are lost or forgotten, as having either no name to them, or that the copies are worn out. He had also an excellent faculty in composing Tragedies, and was esteemed the best of his time for that part of the Stage. But what remains of his labours in that way, that are extant, I could never see but this following.

The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex Sons to Gorboduc King of Brittain.—Acted before the Queen by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple, at White-hall, 18. Jan. 1561. It was printed at Lond. without the consent of the authors, and so consequently very imperfectly, an. 1565. Afterwards being made perfect, it was printed there again in 1570. or thereabouts, and after in qu. In the composure of this Tragedy (written in old English rhime) our outhor Sackvile had the assistance of Tho. Norton, who made the three first Acts, I mean the same Norton who made some of the Psalms of David to run in rhime, as I have told you before. However Sackvile being afterwards a noted Man in the Eye of Q. Elizabeth, (to whom he was an Allie,) and in the State, the composition of the whole was attributed to him, and the ingenious men of that age did esteem the said Tragedy to be the best of its time, even in Sir Philip Sidney’s judgment, who tells (d)(d) In his Apology for Poetry. Lond. 1595. qu. us, that it is full of stately Speeches, and well sounding Phrases, climyng to the heighth of Seneca’s stile, and as full of notable morality, which it doth most delightfully teach, and so obtain the very and of Po [•] sie; yet in truth it is very desectious in the circumstances, &c. Our author Sackvile also wrote,

Induction to the Mirrour of Magistrates.—Not to that Mirrour published by Will. Baldwyn, but to that, I suppose, which was published by Joh. Higens an eminent Poet of his time, whom I shall farther mention in Rich. Nicolls, an. 1615. Which Induction, with the Mirrour it self, were highly valued by Scholars in the time of Q. Elizabeth. What else this Noble Person hath made publick, I know not, nor any thing besides material of him, only that dying suddenly at the Council board (being one of the Privy Council to K. James) on the 19. 1608 of Apr. in sixteen hundred and eight, was buried in the Church of Withyam before-mentioned. From him is lineally descended Charles Sackvile, now Earl of Dorset and Middlesex, a person that hath been highly esteemed for his admirable vein in Poetry, and other polite learning, as several things of his composition, while Lord Buckhurst, shew,