Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset

thumb|Of justice yet must God in fine restore, This noble crowne unto the lawful! heire For right will alwayes live, and rise at length, But wrong can never take deepe roote to last. Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, 1st Baron Buckhurst, PC (c. 1536 – April 19 1608) was an English statesman, courtier, poet and playwright. In politics he is most notable as the Lord High Treasurer of England; in literature as the co-author of the first blank verse play in the English language, Gorboduc. Quotes Of justice yet must God in fine restore, This noble crowne unto the lawful heire For right will alwayes live, and rise at length, But wrong can never take deepe roote to last. Gorboduc (1561), Act 5, sc. 2, last lines; the play was written in collaboration with Thomas Norton, though Acts 4 and 5 were apparently Sackville's work alone. The Induction (1563) "The Induction", first published in A Myrrour for Magistrates (1563), edited by William Baldwin et al.; cited here from Mirror for Magistrates (1815), edited by Joseph Haslewood, Vol. 2, Part 1 ; the page-numbers also refer to this edition. The wrathfull winter proching on apace,With blustering blasts had all ybarde the treene,And olde Saturnus, with his frosty faceWith chilling cold had pearst the tender greene. Line 1, p. 309 And sorrowing I to see the sommer flowers,The lively greene, the lusty lease, forlorne,The sturdy trees so shattred with the showers,The fieldes so fade, that florisht so beforne:It taught mee well, all earthly things be borneTo dye the death: for nought long time may last:The sommer's beauty yeeldes to winter's blast. Line 50, p. 311 His drinke, the running streame, his cup, the bareOf his palme cloasde, his bed, the hard cold ground:To this poore life was Misery ybound. Line 264, p. 320 Crookebackt hee was, toothshaken, and blere eyed,Went on three feete, and somtyme, crept on fowre,With olde lame boanes, that ratled by his syde,His scalpe all pild, and hee with eld forlore:His withred fist still knocking at Death's dore,Fumbling, and driveling, as hee drawes his breath,For briefe, the shape and messenger of Death. Line 330, p. 322 Misattributed So in this way of writing without thinking,Thou hast a strange alacrity in sinking. Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset "On Mr Edward Howard, upon his British Princes"; cited from Geoffrey Grigson (ed.) The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980) p. 74 External links Category:Poets from England Category:Politicians from England Category:Members of the Parliament of England Category:Playwrights from England Category:1536 births Category:1608 deaths Category:Chancellors of the University of Oxford