08 



SACHS SACKVILLE. 



th safety of the church, and to excite hostility 

 air.iinst the dissenters. Being impeached in the 

 house of commons, he was brought to trial in Feb- 

 ruary, 1710, and sentenced to be suspended from 

 preaching for three years. This prosecution, how- 

 ever, excited Mich a spirit in the high church party, 

 that it ultimately overthrew the ministry (see Bol- 

 ini/broke, and 7/r/<7/\ and established the fortune 

 of doctor Sacheverell, who, during his suspension, 

 made a sort of triumphal progress t'.i rough the king- 

 dom. The same month that his suspension ter- 

 minated, he was appointed to the valuable rectory 

 of St Andrew, Holborn, by queen Anne ; and such 

 was his reputation, that the copy-right of the first 

 sermon which he afterwards was allowed to preach, 

 sold for 100. He had also sufficient interest with 

 the new ministry to provide handsomely for a 

 brother. Little was heard of him after this party 

 ebullition subsided, except by his numerous squab- 

 bles with his parishioners. His abilities, even ac- 

 cording to writers on his own side, were contempt- 

 ible; and, if we may credit doctor Swift, he was 

 despised by the ministry whom his notoriety so much 

 contributed to support. He died in 1724. 



SACHS, HANS, the most distinguished master- 

 singer of Germany, in the sixteenth century, was born 

 at Nuremberg in 1494, and was by trade a shoemaker. 

 He followed his business and made verses with equal 

 assiduity. He became a Protestant, and died Jan. 

 19, 1576. His complete works appeared in 1570 

 et seq., in five folio volumes., in Nuremberg; also 

 in 1588, ibid. ; and at Kempton in five 4to. vols. 

 (1G12 1616). Biisching published a selection of 

 them in 1828 (Nuremberg, in 6 vols.). He posses- 

 sed a fruitful genius, and, notwithstanding the rude- 

 ness of his language, his poems are distinguished 

 for naivete, feeling, invention, wit, and striking de- 

 scription. 



SACHSENSPIEGEL (Mirror of the Saxons) ; a 

 private collection of legal precepts and legal customs, 

 which had the force of law in the middle ages in 

 Germany, especially in the north of Germany. A 

 Saxon nobleman (Epko von Repkau, or Eyke von 

 Repgow) made this collection in 1215 et seq. It 

 enjoyed great authority even in foreign countries, 

 as Poland, Denmark, &c., though the pope put many 

 obstacles in its way, and though it was but a private 

 collection. It is written in the old Saxon dialect, 

 and is of much value, both for the lawyer and the 

 philologist. The study of it has been revived, of 

 late, in Germany, and Homeyer published a critical 

 edition of it in Berlin (1827). 



SACK (secco, Spanish; sec, French; dry) ; a ge- 

 neral name for the different sorts of dry wine, more 

 especially the Spanish, which were first extensively 

 used in England in the sixteenth century. Thus 

 we find the writers of that time speaking of " sherry 

 sack," meaning Sherry, and " Canary sack," for the 

 dry wines of the Canaries. Henderson gives some 

 curious information on this point, on which there 

 has been a good deal of confusion and dispute. 

 (Ancient and Modern Wines, p. 308, seq.) The 

 practice of putting sugar into wine, which we often 

 find alluded to in Shakspeare and other writers, was 

 not confined to the sacks; the English, at that time, 

 Bweetened all their wines. 



SACKVILLE, THOMAS, (lord Buckhurst and 

 earl of Dorset,) an accomplished statesman and poet, 

 was the son of Sir Richard Sackville of Buckhurst. 

 'n the parish of Witham, in Sussex, where he was 

 born about 1527. He was first of the university of 

 Oxford, but removed to Cambridge, and afterwards 



became a student of the Inner Temple. At both 

 universities he was distinguished for his perfor- 

 mances in Latin and English poetry, and in the 

 Temple he wrote his tragedy of Gorboduc. Of a 

 poem intended to comprehend a view of the illus- 

 trious but unfortunate characters in English history, 

 entitled the Mirror of Magistrates, he finished only 

 a poetical preface, and one legend on the life of the 

 duke of Buckingham. He was member in the two 

 lirst parliaments of Elizabeth, after which he tra- 

 velled. On the death of his father, in }5(>C>, he 

 succeeded to a large inheritance, and was soon after 

 raised to the peerage by the title of baron Buck- 

 hurst. He was then imprisoned owing to the in- 

 fluence of the favourite, Leicester, in consequence 

 of a report in disfavour of the latter, when sent on 

 an embassy of inquiry into his conduct in Holland. 

 In 1598, he was joined with Burleigh, in negocia- 

 tions for peace with Spain, and signed the treaty 

 which followed with the states-general. On the 

 death of that minister, he succeeded him as lord 

 high treasurer. In this situation he was instru- 

 mental in discovering the dangerous projects of the 

 earl of Essex, at whose trial he presided as high- 

 steward, in which office he conducted himself with 

 great prudence and humanity. On the accession of 

 James I., his post of treasurer was confirmed to 

 him, and in 1604, he was created earl of Dorset. 

 He died suddenly, at the council table, in April, 

 1608, at an advanced age. This statesman ranks 

 among the most prudent and able of the ministers 

 of Elizabeth, and was a good speaker, and a still 

 better writer. As a poet, hp was the first who ap- 

 proached to perfection in the English heroic stanza, 

 and gave the first example of regular tragedy in 

 blank verse. His tragedy of Gorboduc, or, as en- 

 titled when printed in 1671, the Tragedie of Ferrex 

 and Porrex, is a sanguinary story from early British 

 history, composed with little pathos or attention to 

 dramatic rules, but with considerable force of poeti- 

 cal conception and moral sentiment. The language 

 is also pure and perspicuous, and free from the tur- 

 gidity which soon after prevailed. 



SACKVILLE, CHARLES, sixth earl of Dorset 

 and Middlesex, was born Jan. 24, 1637. He re- 

 ceived his education under a private tutor, and, 

 after making the tour of Italy, was chosen member 

 of the first parliament which assembled after the 

 restoration. He made a great figure as a speaker, 

 but declined all public employment, being wholly 

 engrossed with gallantry and pleasure. He, how- 

 ever, served as a volunteer in the first Dutch war, 

 in 1665, and, the night before the engagement, com- 

 posed his celebrated song of " To all you ladies now 

 at land," which isesteemedone of the happiest of his 

 productions. He succeeded to the estate of his uncle, 

 James Cranfield, earl of Middlesex, in 1674, and, in 

 1675, to his title by creation. In 1677, on the 

 death of his father, he also succeeded him in his 

 estate and the title of Dorset. He utterly disliked 

 and discountenanced the violent measures of James 

 II., and early engaged for the Prince of Orange, who 

 made him lord chamberlain of the household. In 

 1698, on the decline of his health, he retired from 

 public affairs, and died January 19, 1705 6, leav- 

 ing a son and a daughter, the first of whom was 

 created duke of Dorset in 1720. Lord Dorset 

 wrote several small poems, which are included in 

 Chalmers's collection ; but they are not numerous 

 enough to make a volume of themselves. He was 

 still more celebrated as a patron of poets and of men 

 of wit, who in their turn, have been very copious 



