Sir Thomas Overbury (play)

Sir Thomas Overbury is a 1723 tragedy by the British writer Richard Savage. It is based on the life of Thomas Overbury an associate of the Jacobean royal favourite Robert Carr whose apparent murder while incarcerated in the Tower of London provoked a trial and major scandal.

Sir Thomas Overbury
1777 playbill
Written by	Richard Savage
Date premiered	12 June 1723[1]
Place premiered	Drury Lane Theatre
Original language	English
Genre	Tragedy

Savage played the title role himself when it was staged at the Drury Lane Theatre. Other cast members included Roger Bridgewater as the Earl of Northumberland, Theophilus Cibber as the Earl of Somerset and Anne Brett as Isabella. Aaron Hill produced and revised the text of the play.[2] It was published in October 1723.[3] Historian Richard Holmes has dismissed the work as "clumsy, sub-Shakespearean, historical melodrama".[4]

References

1. Burling p.102
2. Gerrard p.88
3. Burling p.102
4. Bellany p.277

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.
• Gerrard, Christine. Aaron Hill: The Muses' Projector, 1685-1750. Oxford University Press, 2003.