Thomas Sackville As Minor Poet

Life 

Thomas Sackville was born in 1536 at buckhurst, in the parish of withyham, Sussex. he was died on 19 april 1608. he was the  1st Earl of Dorset. he was an English poet, playwright, statesman, barrister and Freemason. He was a Member of Parliament at the age of 30 and Lord High Treasurer. He was called to the baron. he was the only son of Sir Richard Sackville.

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Education 

His mother Winifrede was the daughter of Sir John Bridges, Lord Mayor of London. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained his M.A., and Hertford College, Oxford. He was educated at both universities.

Subsequently he joined the Inner Temple, of which his father was governor. He studied law at the Inner Temple.

There is no documentary corroboration of the reports that he was a member of Hart Hall at Oxford and of St John's College, Cambridge.

Literature was not the only art in which Sackville delighted. Music equally attracted him. Throughout life he entertained musicians.

he was enjoyed an early reputation in Latin as well as in English poetry.

Marriage 

in 1555, Sackville married Cicely Baker, daughter of the leading politician Sir John Baker. he was father of 4 sons and 3 daughters. They had seven children.  the eldest son was Robert Sackville. 

works 

Sackville's first important literary work was the poem Induction, which describes the poet's journey to the infernal regions, where he encounters figures representing forms of suffering and terror. The poem is noted for the power of its allegory and for its sombre stateliness of tone.

While a student of the Inner Temple, he wrote his tragedy of Gorboduc, called also ferrex and porrex, the first regular English tragedy.

most especially for his collaboration with Thomas Norton, he was an author in 1561 of the first English play to be written in blank verse, Gorboduc, which deals with the consequences of political rivalry. it is the first known verse drama to use the poetic form called blank verse,a political play norton and sackville depict gorboduc as a good ruler who gives his kingdom away during his lifetime to his sons. the sons ferrex, porrex. the younger, kills ferrex. gorboducs queen avenges the death of her more beloved older son by murdering porrex. first performed in 1561 for the Inner Temple, one of the Inns of Court where students studied the law. Due to its popularity, The first of these editions, 1565, was not “authorized,” while the second, 1570, was and had a new title appended to it: The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex, though, as the edition makes clear, it represents the same play as that performed for the queen at Whitehall, staged with great pomp for such events as Christmas celebrations, claiming the first three acts by Norton, with the last two written by Sackville.

In 1566 Sackville travelled to Rome, where he was arrested and detained as a prisoner for fourteen days, for reasons not clear, but at the time there was great tension between England and the Papacy. His father died that year and he returned to England. His first important mission came in 1571, when he was sent to bear Queen Elizabeth's congratulations to Charles IX of France on his marriage to Elizabeth of Austria, the daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. 

In addition to his political career, Sackville is remembered for his literary contributions. 

In around 1587, Sackville was granted a royal licence to commission a suit of armour from the royal workshops at Greenwich.

Death 

In March, 1604, he was created Earl of Dorset. He died suddenly at the council table, having apparently suffered a stroke, referred to as "a dropsy on the brain". His funeral took place at Westminster Abbey, and he is buried in the Sackville family vault at Withyham parish Church, East Sussex.

Few ministers, as Lord Orford remarks, have left behind them so unblemished a character. In early youth he mainly devoted himself to literature.

Today, Sackville is remembered more for his artistic fame, as contributor to " A Mirror for Magistrates," "complaint of Henry, Duke of Buckingham, " "gorboduc " and " the induction ".