DORSET, CHARLES SACKVILLE, 6TH EARL of (1638-1706).—­Poet, was one of the dissolute and witty courtiers of Charles II., and a friend of Sir C. Sedley (q.v.), in whose orgies he participated.  He was, however, a patron of literature, and a benefactor of Dryden in his later and less prosperous years.  He wrote a few satires and songs, among the latter being the well-known, To all you Ladies now on Land.  As might be expected, his writings are characterised by the prevailing indelicacy of the time.

DORSET, THOMAS SACKVILLE, 1ST EARL of, AND LORD BUCKHURST (1536-1608).—­Poet and statesman, was b. at Buckhurst, Sussex, the only s. of Sir Richard S., and ed. at Oxf. and Camb.  He studied law at the Inner Temple, and while there wrote, in conjunction with Thomas Norton, Ferren and Porrex or Gerboduc (1561-2), the first regular English tragedy.  A little later he planned The Mirror for Magistrates, which was to have been a series of narratives of distinguished Englishmen, somewhat on the model of Boccaccio’s Falls of Princes.  Finding the plan too large, he handed it over to others—­seven poets in all being engaged upon it—­and himself contributed two poems only, one on Buckingham, the confederate, and afterwards the victim, of Richard III., and an Induction or introduction, which constitute nearly the whole value of the work.  In these poems S. becomes the connecting link between Chaucer and Spenser.  They are distinguished by strong invention and imaginative power, and a stately and sombre grandeur of style.  S. played a prominent part in the history of his time, and held many high offices, including those of Lord Steward and Lord Treasurer, the latter of which he held from 1599 till his death.  It fell to him to announce to Mary Queen of Scots the sentence of death.

DOUCE, FRANCIS (1757-1834).—­Antiquary, b. in London, was for some time in the British Museum.  He pub. Illustrations of Shakespeare (1807), and a dissertation on The Dance of Death (1833).

DOUGLAS, GAVIN (1474?-1522).—­Poet, 3rd s. of the 5th Earl of Angus, was b. about 1474, and ed. at St. Andrews for the Church.  Promotion came early, and he was in 1501 made Provost of St. Giles, Edin., and in 1514 Abbot of Aberbrothock, and Archbishop of St. Andrews.  But the times were troublous, and he had hardly received these latter preferments when he was deprived of them.  He was, however, named Bishop of Dunkeld in 1514 and, after some difficulty, and undergoing imprisonment, was confirmed in the see.  In 1520 he was again driven forth, and two years later d. of the plague in London.  His principal poems are The Palace of Honour (1501), and King Hart, both allegorical; but his great achievement was his translation of the AEneid in ten-syllabled metre, the first translation into English of a classical work.  D.’s language is more archaic than that of some of his predecessors, his rhythm is rough and unequal, but he had fire, and a power of vivid description, and his allegories are ingenious and felicitous.