Thomas Overbury Biography

Questions on this topic? Just ask!

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Thomas Overbury

Writer, careerist, and political adviser, Sir Thomas Overbury is a minor literary figure associated with the vogue of seventeenth-century English character-writing, a prose form similar to the essay but loosely modeled on the short sketches of character types, such as "The Garrulous Man" and "The Coward," composed by the ancient Greek writer Theophrastus. From 1614 to 1664 Overbury's posthumous character book A Wife Now a Widowe, comprising poems, characters, and "conceited Newes," was reprinted more frequently than other character books, including Joseph Hall's pioneering Characters of Vertues and Vices (1608) and John Earle's popular Micro-cosmographie (1628). Overbury's writings were inextricably linked to his murder in the Tower of London: unflagging public interest in his death by slow poisoning made the publication of his characters a bookseller's dream. Many of the more than eighty Overburian characters appearing in successive publications were written by "other learned Gentlemen his friends," including the playwright John Webster, who wrote thirty-two characters, and the playwright and pamphleteer Thomas Dekker, who contributed six prison characters; perhaps eleven or fewer of the sketches in the first edition were Overbury's.

Read the rest of this Biography with our Thomas Overbury Access Pass.