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THOMAS SACKVILLE, EARL OF DORSET.

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his love of poetry, which he seems to have almost solely cultivated, to the Inner Temple. Here he composed, with the assistance of Thomas Norton, and for the honour and entertainment of his fellow-students, the play of Gorboduc, the first ascertained 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 tragedy. It was first exhibited in the great hall of the Inner Temple, by the students of that society, as part of the grand entertainment of a grand Christmas, on the 18th of January, 1561. It was never intended for the press; but being surreptitiously and very carelessly printed in 1565, an exact edition, with the consent and under the inspection of the authors, appeared in 1571, under the title of "The Tragedie of Ferrex and Porrex:" whereas the edition of 1565 was entitled "The Tragedie of Gorboduc; whereof three actes were wrytten by Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by Thomas Sackvyle." The tragedy," writes Hazlitt, "as the first in our language, is certainly a curiosity, and in other respects it is also remarkable; though, perhaps, enough has been said about it. As a work of genius, it may be set down as nothing, for it contains hardly a memorable line or passage; as a work of art, and the first of its kind attempted in the language, it may be considered as a monument of the taste and skill of the authors. Its merit is confined to the regularity of the plot and metre-to its general good sense, and strict attention to common decorum. If the poet has not stamped the peculiar genius of his age upon this first attempt, it is not an inconsiderable proof of strength of mind and conception, sustained by its own sense of propriety alone, to have so far anticipated the taste of succeeding times as to have avoided any glaring offence against rules and modes which had no existence in his day: or perhaps a truer solution might be, that there were as yet no examples of a more ambiguous and irregular kind to tempt him to err; and as he had not the impulse or resources within himself to strike out a new path, he merely attended with modesty and caution to the classical models with which, as a scholar, he was well acquainted. The language of the dialogue is clear, unaffected, and intelligible, without the smallest difficulty even to this day. It has no figures nor no fantasies' to which the most fastidious critic can object; but the dramatic power is nearly none at all. It is written expressly to set forth the dangers and mischiefs that arise from the division of sovereign power; and the several speakers dilate upon the different views of the subject in turn, like clever schoolboys set to compose a thesis, or declaim upon the fatal consequences of ambition, and the uncertainty of human affairs. The author, in the end, declares for the doctrine of passive

obedience and non-resistance; a doctrine which, indeed, was seldom questioned at that time of day."

In the year 1559 had appeared the first edition of The Mirroure for Magistrates; "wherein may be seen, by example of others, with how grevous plages Vices are punished, and how frayle and unstable worldlie Prosperitie is founde, even of those whom Fortune seemeth most highlie to favoure." The connexion of our author with this work commenced only with the second edition, in 1563, to which he contributed that beautifully descriptive and highly-polished poem called The Induction, which served to envelop all the other contributors in the shade of secondary characters. It is a poem which sometimes reminds one of Chaucer, and at others seems like an anticipation, in some degree, both of the measure and manner of Spenser.

The high birth and ample patrimony of our author soon advanced him to important situations and employments. His eminent accomplishments and abilities having acquired the confidence and esteem of Queen Elizabeth, the poet was soon lost in the statesman, and negotiations and embassies extinguished for a time the milder ambitions of the muse. In the fourth and fifth year of Queen Mary, his name is found on the parliamentary lists, and again in the fifth of Elizabeth. Not long after, he went abroad to travel, and was detained some time prisoner at Rome, but was liberated, and returned to take possession of a patrimonial inheritance which devolved to him in 1566. He was knighted by the Duke of Norfolk, in the queen's absence, in 1567, and at the same time promoted to the dignity of the peerage, by the title of Baron Buckhurst. In 1573 his royal mistress sent him ambassador to Charles IX. of France, where he was treated with all due distinction. In 1574 he sat as one of the peers on the trial of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, at which time he was also in the Privy Council. He was nominated one of the commissioners for the trial of Mary Queen of Scots; and although it does not appear he was present at her condemnation at Fotheringay Castle, yet, after the confirmation of her sentence, he was the person made choice of, on account of his address and tenderness of disposition, to bear the unhappy tidings to her, and to see the sentence carried into execution. He was next employed on an embassy to the States-General, to accommodate a difference in regard to some remonstrances made against the conduct of Lord Leicester. This commission he executed with fidelity and honour; but he incurred the displeasure of Lord Burleigh, whose influence with the queen occasioned him not only to be recalled, but to be confined to his house for nine months. On the death of Lord Leicester, in 1588, his interest at court was renewed. He was made a knight of the Garter; was joined with Lord Burleigh

in negotiating a peace with Spain; and upon the death of Burleigh (1598), succeeded him in his office, by virtue of which he became in a manner prime minister, and as such exerted himself vigorously for the public good and her majesty's safety. In 1591 he was, by her majesty's special interposition, elected chancellor of the University of Oxford, in opposition to Lord Essex.

In 1598 he was one of those whom his majesty consulted and confided in upon all occasions; and he lived in the highest esteem and reputation, without any extraordinary decay of health, till his death in 1607.

THOMAS NEWTON.

(Born circa 1560.)

Thomas Newton, born of a respectable family in Cheshire, was sent, when about thirteen years of age, to Trinity College, Oxford. He went, soon afterwards, to Queen's College, Cambridge; but returned in a few years to Oxford, where he was re-admitted to his former college. He became famous for the pure elegance of his Latin poetry, of which he has left a specimen in his Illustria aliquot Anglorum Encomia (1589). For some time he practised physic, and in the character of that profession wrote and translated many tracts. He seems to have been a partisan of the Puritans from his pamphlet of Christian Friendship, with an invective against Dice-play and other profane games (1586). Relinquishing the medical profession, he taught school, first at Macclesfield, and then at Little Ilford in Essex, where he was beneficed, and where he probably died, having amassed a considerable fortune by his various occupations and productions. Newton edited the first collective translation of Seneca's tragedies, himself contributing the Thebais. He also wrote a poem on the death of Queen Elizabeth, called Atropoion Delion, or the Death of Delia (1603); and a flowery romance, A plesant new historie, or a fragrant posie made of three floures, Rosa, Rosalynd, and Rosemary.

HENRY ADAMSON.

(Circa 1580, died 1639.)

Henry Adamson, son of the provost of Perth, and nephew of Archbishop Adamson, was born at Perth, and educated for the church, which, however, he is believed not to have entered. He is

known as the author of a singular poem, entitled The Muses' Threnodie, or Mirthful Mournings for the Death of Mr. Gall (1638); which, however, is much less an elegy than a discursive description of the history and antiquities of Perth and its neighbourhood. The poem, it seems, was recommended for publication by Drummond of Hawthornden, who compared it, on account of its strange framework, to the Sileni of Alcibiades,-" monstrous heads without, but full of rare artifice within." The chief poem is preceded by a shorter, called

An Inventory of the Gabions; 'gabions' meaning, with the author, antiquarian nic-nacs, which, in the Threnodie, join in the lament for Mr. Gall. The Inventory is remarkable for the close resemblance of its measure and rhymes to those of Hudibras, which was written long afterwards. Mr. Adamson died in 1639.

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ULPIAN FULWELL.

(Born circa 1530.)

Ulpian Fulwell, born in Somersetshire, became a commoner of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford. We know nothing further of his personal history. He was the author of a poetical interlude entitled Like will to Like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, published in 1568, which, says Collier, contains some attempts at character, though the foundation of the piece is entirely allegorical: it is by no means regularly conducted; and a good deal has been sacrificed to produce laughter among the audience."* He wrote also a volume of mingled prose and verse, entitled The Flower of Fame; containing the bright renown and most fortunate reigne of Henry VIII. (1575).

EDWARD VERE, EARL OF OXFORD.

(1534-1604.)

Edward Vere, Lord Oxford, was the seventeenth earl of that ancient family, and by no means the least illustrious. His youth was distinguished by his wit, by adroitness in his exercises, by valour and zeal for his country. Having travelled into Italy, he is recorded by Stowe to have been the first that brought into England embroidered gloves and perfumes; and presenting the queen with a pair of the former, she was so pleased with them as to be drawn with them in one of her portraits. The Earl of Oxford shone in the tournaments of that reign, in two of which he was honoured with a prize from her majesty's own hand, being led armed by two ladies into her presence-chamber.

In the year 1585 he was at the head of the nobility that embarked with the Earl of Leicester for the relief of the States of Holand in 1588 joined the fleet, with ships hired at his own expense, to repel the Spanish Armada.

land;

He was knight of the Garter, and sat on the trials of the Queen of Scots, of the Earls of Arundel, of Essex, and Southampton; but another remarkable trial in that reign proved very disastrous to our peer himself. He was an intimate friend of the Duke of Norfolk,

* Annals of the Stage, ii.