Sir Philip Sidney

Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 – 17 October 1586) was an English poet, courtier, scholar, and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. His works include Astrophel and Stella, The Defence of Poesy (also known as The Defence of Poetry or An Apology for Poetry), and The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.

His artistic contacts were more peaceful and more significant for his lasting fame. During his absence from court, he wrote Astrophel and Stella and the first draft of The Arcadia and The Defence of Poesy. Somewhat earlier, he had met Edmund Spenser, who dedicated The Shepheardes Calender to him. Other literary contacts included membership, along with his friends and fellow poets Fulke Greville, Edward Dyer, Edmund Spenser and Gabriel Harvey, of the (possibly fictitious) 'Areopagus', a humanist endeavour to classicise English verse.

Both through his family heritage and his personal experience (he was in Walsingham's house in Paris during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre), Sidney was a keenly militant Protestant. In the 1570s, he had persuaded John Casimir to consider proposals for a united Protestant effort against the Roman Catholic Church and Spain. In the early 1580s, he argued unsuccessfully for an assault on Spain itself. Promoted General of Horse in 1583,[1] his enthusiasm for the Protestant struggle was given a free rein when he was appointed governor of Flushing in the Netherlands in 1585. In the Netherlands, he consistently urged boldness on his superior, his uncle the Earl of Leicester. He conducted a successful raid on Spanish forces near Axel in July, 1586.

An early biography of Sidney was written by his friend and schoolfellow, Fulke Greville. While Sidney was traditionally depicted as a staunch and unwavering Protestant, recent biographers such as Katherine Duncan-Jones have suggested that his religious loyalties were more ambiguous. He was known to be friendly and sympathetic towards individual Catholics.
An Apology for Poetry(also known as A Defence of Poesie and The Defence of Poetry) – Sidney wrote the Defence before 1583. It is generally believed that he was at least partly motivated by Stephen Gosson, a former playwright who dedicated his attack on the English stage, The School of Abuse, to Sidney in 1579, but Sidney primarily addresses more general objections to poetry, such as those of Plato. In his essay, Sidney integrates a number of classical and Italian precepts on fiction. The essence of his defence is that poetry, by combining the liveliness of history with the ethical focus of philosophy, is more effective than either history or philosophy in rousing its readers to virtue. The work also offers important comments on Edmund Spenser and the Elizabethan stage.

1. Sir Philip Sidney [ 1554–1586 ] Either I will find a way, or I will make one.

2. Philip Sidney was a lot of things An Elizabethan courtier [ a person who attends a royal court as a companion or adviser to the king or queen .] Poet Patron of Scholars Soldier Statesman [respected political figure]

3. Sidney’s   Astrophel and Stella  is considered the first of the great   Elizabethan sonnet   cycles following the Petrarchan conventions. His   The Defence of Poesie [Apology for Poetry]  introduced the critical ideas of  Renaissance  theorists to  England.

4. Early life of Sidney Philip II of Spain Sir Henry Sidney Mary Dudley

5. From his birth, Philip Sidney was associated with the court of England. His godfather was Philip II of Spain, after whom Sidney was named --- Philip. Philip’s father, Sir Henry Sidney, was active in government affairs in Wales and Ireland. His mother, Mary Dudley was a lady-in-waiting (Personal assistant) at the court of Elizabeth I

6. He attended the Shrewsbury School beginning in 1564 at the age of ten.

7. There Sidney met his longtime best friend and future biographer, Fulke Greville.

8. In 1568, Sidney entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he impressed his teachers and fellows with his intelligence and character. His circle of friends grew to include such notables as Richard Carew, who would become known as a poet, and Richard Hakluyt, who would win fame as an explorer and writer.

9. His stay at Oxford was cut short in 1571 when he left the university because of a plague in the spring; Sidney never obtained a degree. In 1572, he began a two-year tour of the Continent, apparently to improve his knowledge of foreign languages, but also to serve in a quasi (seemingly/partially)- diplomatic function for Queen Elizabeth I. It was during this visit that Sidney met a number of Protestant leaders in Europe and became a firm and vocal champion of their cause.

10. Sidney also visited Hungary , spent time in Venice studying astronomy, music, and Italian literature, and, upon his return to Vienna , learned horsemanship under John Peter Pugliano, the foremost equestrian [horse rider] of the age . [Later , in his Defence of Poesie (1580), published in another edition as Apology for Poetry , Sidney gave a vivid description of t hese lessons .] In June, 1575, Sidney returned to England since his education was now complete, and he was ready to embark on his service to England and the court of Elizabeth. He was already known for his intelligence and his serious nature, and his contemporaries universally acknowledged him as a paragon of virtues .

11. Life’s Works As a member of the court, Sidney met Walter Devereaux , first Earl of Essex, and his daughter, Penelope, who would later become the “Stella” of Sidney’s sonnet sequence . After 1576, Sidney composed verses inspired more by literary models than Penelope herself; his earlier sonnets are clearly patterned after those of the Earl of Surrey to his love, Geraldine. It was only after 1581, when Penelope had married Lord Rich, that Sidney seemed to have been moved by real passion toward her. By then, he could only vent his feelings in the sonnets of Astrophel and Stella (1591).

12. However , Sidney was occupied with political and diplomatic affairs at court. Sidney also turned to more creative work, composing a masque called The Lady of May (1578) to celebrate Elizabeth’s May Day [ the celebration of the return of spring ] visit to one of her subjects. Sidney and Edmund Spenser met in 1578; the next year, Spenser dedicated to Sidney his important work, The Shepherd’s Calendar

13. Later on, Stephen Gosson’s The Schoole of Abuse (1579), made a virulent attack on the theater and the quickly developing English drama [along with poetry]

14. Sidney composed and circulated in manuscript his Defence of Poesie as a reply to Gosson’s charges.

15. In his spirited and vigorous defense, Sidney used the argument that poetry (by which he meant all forms of literature, including drama) teaches virtue more vividly , and therefore more profoundly, than do history or philosophy. Through its creative powers, poetry instills in its audience a lasting love of proper actions, and so makes them better persons. To bolster his argument, Sidney used as examples such English writers as Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry Howard , Earl of Surrey, and Edmund Spenser.

16. Sidney published none of his literary works during his lifetime , but he was much less discreet with the distribution of his political writings. In 1581, he was elected to Parliament; that spring he took a major part in a festive tournament and other ceremonies honoring a French embassy; and on January 13, 1583, he was knighted. He was also given a more practical post as joint master of the queen’s ordnance [artillery].

17. On September 20, 1593, Sidney married Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham . Frances Walsingham was only 16 years old when she became Philip’s wife [he was 29] She had one surviving child by Sidney: a daughter born in 1585 named Elizabeth after the Queen. After Philip’s death, Frances married in 1590 to Robert Devereux. They had 3 children. Robert was executed in 1601 after participating in an attempted coup against the Queen . In 1603, she married her third husband  Richard De Burke Earl. They had 2 children.

18. Death of Sidney In 1586, Sidney joined Sir John Norris in the Battle of Zutphen, fighting for the Protestant cause against the Spanish. [ During the battle, he was shot in the thigh and died of  gangrene [a type of tissue death due to the lack of blood supply ] 26 days later, at the age of 31.  The  Battle of Zutphen  was fought on 22 September 1586, against the Spaniards

19. One account says this death was avoidable and heroic. Sidney noticed that one of his men was not fully armored. He put off his thigh armor on the grounds that it would be wrong to be better armored than his men. According to the story, while lying wounded he gave his water to another wounded soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine ". This became possibly the most famous story about Sir Philip, intended to illustrate his noble and gallant character.

20. Memorial for Sir Philip Sidney at the spot where he was fatally injured

21. Sidney was buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on February 16, 1587 Benjamin West - The Fatal Wounding of Sir Philip Sidney

22. Funeral The grief which was felt throughout England at Sir Philip Sidney’s death was profound and sincere. His funeral on February 16 brought mourners from all social classes to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Both Oxford and Cambridge published collections of elegies in his honor, and more than two hundred other poetic memorials were printed, among them eight elegies in Spenser’s Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1595 ).