Among the English miscellaneous poets of the age of Elizabeth, who preceded Spenser, Sackville unquestionably holds the first rank. THOMAS SACKVILLE was of a very ancient family, and was born at Buckhurst, Sussex, in 1536. Having prepared for college at Eton school, he entered the university of Oxford, but sometime after removed to Cambridge, where he remained until he took the degree of master of arts. From Cambridge he passed to the Inner Temple, London, and proceeded so far in the study of the law as to be called to the bar; not, however, with the view of practicing the legal profession, but merely to prepare himself the more effectually to serve his country in parliament, into which he entered toward the close of the reign of Mary. Sackville had acquired, while at the university, the reputation of a good poet; and in 1557, he formed the design of writing a series of poems under the title of The Mirror for Magistrates, the object of which was to exhibit the career of eminently bad men who had come to an unhappy end. Of this poem he executed little more than the Induction, or introduction, which was immediately published, and received with unbounded applause. In 1561, he aided Thomas Norton in the composition of Gorboduc, the first regular tragedy produced in the English language. This performance we shall, however, have occasion more particularly to notice under the department of dramatic literature. Having, in this way, succeeded in establishing the reputation of being the best poet of the age, Sackville suddenly abandoned the muses, made the tou of France and Italy, and on his return to England assumed the character of a statesman. He soon became a great favorite with queen Elizabeth, to whom he was distantly related, and by whom he was raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Buckhurst. In 1591, he was, by the queen's special interposition, made chancellor of Oxford, and in 1598, on the death of Lord Burleigh, he succeeded to the treasury, and thus became the queen's recognized prime minister. After the death of Elizabeth he retained the office of lord high treasurer under king James, and was created, by that monarch, on the thirteenth of March, 1604, earl of Dorset. In the height of his power and influence, Sackville was still unremitting in his attention to business, and at his death, which occurred on the nineteenth of April, 1608, he left a universal regret for his departure. In The Mirror for Magistrates,' Sackville, like Dante, and several other poets, lays the scene of his poem in the infernal regions, whither he is conducted under the guide of an allegorical personage named Sorrow. It was his object to make all the great persons of English history, from the Conquest downwards, pass here in review, and each tell his own story as a warning to existing statesmen; but other duties compelled the poet, after he had written the 'Induction,' and a legend on the life of the Duke of Buckingham, to leave the completion of the work to the inferior hands of Baldwyne and Ferrers. The part of this poem executed by Sackville fre quently exhibits a strength of description, and a power of drawing allogorical characters, scarcely inferior to Spenser. From this poem we extract the following descriptions of its various allegorical characters : ALLEGORICAL PERSONAGES IN THE INFERNAL REGIONS. And first, within the porch and jaws of hell, Her eyes unsteadfast rolling here and there, Whirl'd on each place, as place that vengeance brought, Tost and tormented with the tedious thought Of those detested crimes which she had wrought; Next, saw we Dread, all trembling how he shook, And, next, within the entry of this lake, Sat fell Revenge, gnashing her teeth for ire; But frets within so far forth with the fire Of Misery, that next appear'd in sight: His face was lean, and some-deal pin'd away, For, on his carcass raiment had he none, Which in his wallet long, Got wot, kept he, As on the which full daintily would he fare; Whose wretched state when we had well beheld, Of greedy Care, still brushing up the briers; The morrow gray no sooner had begun To spread his light e'en peeping in our eyes, But he is up, and to his work y-run; But let the night's black misty mantles rise, By him lay heavy Sleep, the cousin of Death, And next in order sad, Old Age we found: To rest, when that the sisters had untwined There heard we him with broke and hollow plaint Crook-back'd he was, tooth-shaken, and blear-eyed; Sore sick in bed, her colour all foregone; Bereft of stomach, savor, and of taste. Ne could she brook no meat but broths alone; But oh, the doleful sight that then we see ! We turn'd our look, and on the other side A grisly shape of Famine mought we see: With greedy looks, and gasping mouth, that cried Whereto was left nought but the case alone. And that, alas, was gnawen every where, All full of holes; that I me nought refrain And with her teeth gnash on the bones in vain, Great was her force whom stone wall could not stay: Her tearing nails snatching at all she saw; With gaping jaws, that by no means ymay Be satisfied from hunger of her maw, But eats herself as she that hath no law; Where you may count each sinew, bone, and vein. Lastly, stood War, in glittering arms yclad, With visage grim, stern look, and blackly hued: That to the hilts was ail with blood imbued; Cities he sack'd, and realms that (whilom flower'd There hung his targe, with gashes deep and wide. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY and SIR WALTER RALEIGH deserve a passing notice among the early poets of Elizabeth's reign, though it is chiefly for their compositions in prose that their memories are cherished. The former has left us a few Sonnets, delicate in sentiment, and sweet and flowing in expression, of which the following are specimens:— Because I oft in dark abstracted guise With dearth of words, or answers quite awry To them that would make speech of speech arise, They deem, and of their doom the rumour flies, That poison foul of bubbling Pride doth lie O happy Thames, that didst my Stella bear! SIR WALTER RALEIGH Wrote comparatively little poetry, but that which we have is sufficient to satisfy us that had he courted the poetic muse exclusively, he would have attained to a very high degree of celebrity. The following extracts from a poem under the title of The Country's Recreations breathe a melancholy tenderness that poetic feeling alone could inspire: Heart-tearing cares and quiv'ring fears, Fly, fly to courts, Fly to fond worldling's sports; Where strained sardonic smiles are glozing still, 1 Press, throng. |