The Brave Courtier: Sir William Temple - Hardcover

Irish born Sir William Temple was a famous man both before and after his death in 1699. His works were widely read and he was greatly admired for his integrity, his skilful diplomacy and his elegant, yet simple, style. Dr. Johnson described him as the first writer to give cadence to English prose.
Since then, Temple's reputation has slipped into comparative obscurity7. Yet he has many claims to celebrity, as the lover (and husband) of Dorothy Osborne, as the negotiator of the Triple Alliance and intermediary in the marriage of William and Mary, as the writer of some of the most attractive essays and the first political memoirs published in English, as a gardener who introduced several varieties of fruit into England and as the employer of the young Swift.
Sir Richard Faber, who recently retired from the Diplomatic Service and can write of Ambassadors' duties from personal experience, became interested in Temple when he himself was serving as Counsellor at The Hague. In this book he presents him, first as a courtier in the Castiglione tradition, second as a diplomatist with real gifts of intuition and persuasion and, third, as a practical philosopher with a highly developed aesthetic sense.
Sir Richard's earlier books have been praised for their critical acumen and concisely agreeable style. This book, like them, is written attractively and with unassuming scholarship. It follows Temple's life in touching on a wide range of topics, of living, as well as historical, interest. Temple is portrayed against the background of an age which, as the author suggests, had a good deal in common with our own.