''Sir Thomas Overbury'' is a 1723

tragedy A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a tragic hero, main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsi ...

by the British writer Richard Savage. It is based on the life of Thomas Overbury an associate of the Jacobean royal

favourite A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In Post-classical Europe, post-classical and Early modern Europe, early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated signifi ...

Robert Carr Leonard Robert Carr, Baron Carr of Hadley, (11 November 1916 – 17 February 2012) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Home Secretary from 1972 to 1974. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 26 years, and later s ...

whose apparent murder while incarcerated in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic citadel and castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamle ...

provoked a trial and major scandal. Savage played the title role himself when it was staged at the

Drury Lane Theatre The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dru ...

. Other cast members included

Roger Bridgewater Roger Bridgewater (died 1754) was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century.''The Routledge Anthology of Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Drama'' p.XXXIX He worked as party of the Drury Lane company for many years, specialising in dramatic ...

as the Earl of Northumberland,

Theophilus Cibber Theophilus Cibber (25 or 26 November 1703 – October 1758) was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber. He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alex ...

as the Earl of Somerset and Anne Brett as Isabella. Aaron Hill produced and revised the text of the play. It was published in October 1723. Historian Richard Holmes said the work is "clumsy, sub-Shakespearean, historical melodrama". Before his death, Savage completed a new version of ''Sir Thomas Overbury''. In his ''Life of Mr Richard Savage'' (1744)

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson ( – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

described this version of the play as preserving only "a few lines" of the original, as having "a total alteration of the plan"—with "new incidents, and introduc ngnew characters; so that it was a new tragedy". This revised version of ''Sir Thomas Overbury'' was first produced and published in 1777.Timothy Erwin, "Sir John Hawkins on Richard Savage and the Profession of Authorship" in ''Reconsidering Biography: Contexts, Controversies, and Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson'', ed. Martine W. Brownley (Lanham, MA: Bucknell University Press, 2011), 104, 113 n.14.

References

Bibliography

* Bellany, Alastair. ''The Politics of Court Scandal in Early Modern England: News Culture and the Overbury Affair, 1603-1660''. Cambridge University Press, 2007. * Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Erwin, Timothy, "Sir John Hawkins on Richard Savage and the Profession of Authorship" in ''Reconsidering Biography: Contexts, Controversies, and Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson'', ed. Martine W. Brownley (Lanham, MA: Bucknell University Press, 2011), 101–114. * Gerrard, Christine. ''Aaron Hill: The Muses' Projector, 1685-1750''. Oxford University Press, 2003. 1723 plays British plays West End plays Tragedy plays Plays set in London Plays set in the 17th century Plays based on real people Cultural depictions of British people {{1720s-play-stub