SIR THOMAS OVERBURY (1647)

Poet and essayist victim of a famous intrigue at the court of James I.
His poem A Wife which pictured the virtues that a young man should demand of a woman played a large role in the events that precipated his murder.

Overbury was educated at Oxford and entered the Middle Temple London in 1598.
Having travelled in the Low Countries he later wrote his poshumously published Observations in His Travailes Upon the State of the XVII Provinces (1626).

In 1606 he became secretary and close adviser to Robert Carr, the king´s favourite who was to become earl of Somerset.
Overbury was knighted in 1608.
It was said that "Overbury governed Carr and Carr governed the King".

In 1611 Carr became enamoured of Frances Howard, wife of the Earl of Essex.
Overbury fearing that Carr´s marriage would diminish his influence, bluntly stated his opinion of the Countess to Carr and circulated his poem at court where it was interpreted as an attack upon Lady Essex.
This incurred the displeasure of the King and enabled the Countess´ relatives to have Overbury sent to the Tower.
The offended Countess secretly arranged to have him slowly poisoned.

Now earl of Somerset, Carr and the Countess were married shortly thereafter.
The scandal came to light a year later.
The accomplices were hanged and the Earl and his Countess were disgraced.

Overbury´s A Wife was published in 1614 and went through several editions within a year because of Overbury´s posthumous publicity.
Its real literary value lies in the Characters, ultimately 82, that were added to the second and subsequent editions.
These prose portraits of Jacobean types drawn with wit and satire give a vivid picture of contemporary society and are important as a step in the development of the essay.
A few were by Overbury but most were contributed by John Webster, Thomas Dekker and John Donne.