Osborne, Dorothy

Osborne, Dorothy ŏzˈbərn [key], later Lady Temple, 1627–95, English letter writer. The daughter of a royalist, she became engaged to Sir William Temple against the wishes of her family. Her letters to Temple, both through their long engagement and after their marriage in 1655, show her as a woman of wit, learning, and strong character, and form an excellent picture of the period.

See edition of her letters (1928); study by Lord David Cecil (1948).

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