Dorothy Osborne

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DO , widely known as a writer of love-letters, has been more admired by romantics than by feminists. She can be a sharply comic and often satirical observer of social custom and individual idiosyncrasy, as well as an acute commentator on public affairs and literary topics.
Photograph of a painting of Dorothy Osborne (after her marriage, as Lady Temple) by Caspar Netscher, 1671. She is seated, with her elbow on the arm of her chair and her head resting on that hand. Against a background of figured black and gold drapery, she wears a dark gold dress with voluminous skirt and sleeves, clasped in front, with white linen at the full wrists and the neckline. She has a double string of pearls, and more pearls wrapped in her dark hair, loosely piled up hair. National Portrait Gallery

Milestones

1627

DO was born at Chicksands in Bedfordshire, youngest of ten children.
Osborne, Dorothy. “Introduction”. The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple, edited by G. C. Moore Smith, Clarendon Press, p. ix - li.
xi
Osborne, Dorothy. The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple. Editor Smith, G. C. Moore, Clarendon Press.
320
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

24 December 1652-2 October 1654

DO wrote her courtship letters to the suitor whom she loved and whom her family disapproved, Sir William Temple .
Osborne, Dorothy. The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple. Editor Smith, G. C. Moore, Clarendon Press.
3, 181

7 February 1695

Lady Temple, the former DO , died in her late sixties.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Family

1627

DO was born at Chicksands in Bedfordshire, youngest of ten children.
Osborne, Dorothy. “Introduction”. The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple, edited by G. C. Moore Smith, Clarendon Press, p. ix - li.
xi
Osborne, Dorothy. The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple. Editor Smith, G. C. Moore, Clarendon Press.
320
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

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