years, the brilliancy of his imagination grew more correct, not less abundant. He was called, says Lloyd, "the Starchamber Bell," (a comparison that does not convey much idea at present; but he explains it by adding) "so very flowing was his invention 5." His secretaries, says sir Robert Naunton, had difficulty to please him, he was so facete and choyce in his phrases and style.

He was author of the celebrated tragedy called "Gorboduc;"

the first dramatic piece of any consideration in the English language, written many years before Shakspeare set forth his plays. He was assisted in it by Norton, a fellow-labourer of Sternhold and Hopkins. This tragedy was acted before the queen at Whitehall, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple, 1561. It originally had the title of "Ferrex and Porrex," was printed incorrectly and surreptitiously in 1565; more completely in 1570; in 1590, by the title of

several Latin and English poems; which though published either by themselves, or mixed among other men's poems, yet (he adds) I presume they are lost or forgotten, as having either no name to them, or that the copies are worn out. Athenæ, vol. i. col. 347.]

"Gorboduc." It was republished by Dodsley in 1736, with a preface by Mr. Spence, by the procuration of Mr. Pope, "who wondered that the propriety and natural ease of it had not been better imitated by the dramatic authors of the succeeding age." It is to be found at the head of the second volume of the Collection of old Plays, published by Dodsley. Sir Philip Sidney, in his Apologie for Poetrie, gives this lofty character of it?" It is full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases, clyming to the height of Seneca his style, and as full of notable moralitie, which it doth most delightfully teach, and so obtayne the very end of poesie." Puttenham

* Vide Preface. [Dr. Anderson, an excellent judge, thinks that the assistance of Norton may be justly doubted; since every scene of Gorboduc is marked by Sackville's characteristic manner, which consists in a perspicuity of style and a command of numbers, superior to the tone of his age. British Poets, ut sup.]

9 [Edmund Bolton, whom Oldys and Warton pronounce a judicious and sensible old English critic, for his Hypercritica or Rule of Judgment in writing or reading our Histories, written about 1616, though not printed till 1722; this said critic terms the tragedy of Gorboduc, "the best of that time, even in sir Philip Sidney's judgment," and thinks all skilful Englishmen cannot but ascribe as much thereto, for its phrase and eloquence.]

⚫ [Notwithstanding the praise of Sidney, Bolton, and others, it has been observed by Dr. Anderson that this tragedy never

says, "I thinke that for tragedie the lord of Buckhurst and maister Edward Ferrys, for such doings as I have seen of theirs, do deserve the highest price; the earle of Oxford, and maister Edwardes, of her majesties chappell, for comedy and enterlude "." His lordship wrote besides

"A Preface, and the Life of the unfortunate Duke of Buckingham, in the Reign of Richard the Third, in verse 3,"

in a work intituled, "A Mirrour for Magistrates, being a true chronicle History of the

was popular, owing to the uninteresting nature of the plot, the tedious length of the speeches, the want of a discrimination of character, and almost a total absence of pathetic incidents. The dialogue, however, contains much dignity, strength of reflection, and good sense. Ut sup.]

• Art of Poetry. [Meres also, in his Comparative Discourse of our English Poets, with the Greeke, Latine, and Italian, declares, that as Eschylus, Euripides, &c. flourished in Greece; so these are our best for tragedie; the lorde Buckhurst, maisters Ferris, Shakespeare, &c. Palladis Tamia, 1598.]

[In a list of authors prefixed to Hayward's British Muse, 1738, the legend of Michael Joseph the blacksmith, and lord Audeley, is given to the earl of Dorset on the supposition that Cavil, who is named as the author, was a mistake for Sackville; but this solitary conjecture seems destitute of all support.]

✦ [A work, says Cibber, of great labour, use, and beauty. The Induction is indeed a masterpiece; and if the whole could have been completed in the same manner, it would have been an honour to the nation to this day, nor could have sunk under the ruins of time: but the courtier put an end to the poet;