TO A.D. 1603.]

SHORTER POEMS.

When Sidney had passed from Shrewsbury to Christchurch, Oxford, his father served the Queen as representative of her authority in Ireland as well as in Wales. Sidney left Oxford at seventeen, without a degree, was for a while at court, then went to Paris in the suite of an ambassador, and was there in 1572, at the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He travelled from Paris to Frankfort, Vienna, Venice, Padua, came home through Germany to England, was employed in embassies, and earned high trust. When he was but a young man of four-and-twenty, William of Orange thought so much of his ability and earnestness as to send word to Queen Elizabeth that she had in him one of the ripest and greatest statesmen that he knew of in all Europe, and that if her Majesty would but try the young man, the Prince would stake his own credit upon the issue of his friend's employment about any business, either with the allies or enemies of England. So Sidney was spoken of in the year 1579, when Edmund Spenser came to London and became his friend. Veteran reformers out of England looked upon young Sidney as the man who joined to high family influence a breadth and force of mind that marked him as their English statesman of the future. old Huguenot who was busy for his cause, Hubert Languet, loved and watched over Sidney with a fluttering and almost motherly solicitude. father being a politician much too honest to be rich, Philip's chief wealth was of the mind, and he sought fellowship with men of genius, who delighted in his friendship. He was a poet and a friend of poets, but poet only as many others were, while seeking, as soldier and statesmen, active place among the great builders of England.

An

His

Philip Sidney had offended Queen Elizabeth by freedom of counsel, when he withdrew for a time from court, and was staying at Wilton, in 1580, with his sister, who had married the Earl of Pembroke. That was the year of Spenser's going to Ireland with Lord Grey. Sidney began in those idle months to write, for his sister's amusement, the long romance called "Arcadia," setting little store He also joined his sister in versifying by it himself. the Psalms of David, and it was probably in 1581 that he wrote "The Defence of Poesy," in answer to a general attack on poets, in a censure of the stage entitled "The School of Abuse," that had been unfitly dedicated to Sidney in 1579 by Stephen Gosson. In that piece of prose criticism Sidney's language was clear, vigorous, and simple.

In the "Arcadia," which is a long work in prose intermixed with verse, while his higher strain of thought made itself felt, he played much with the literary fashions of his time. There was a taste for strained Euphues," ingenuity of thought and speech that had received its name of Euphuism from a book called " just written (Part I. in 1579, Part II. in 1580) by John Lyly.

Sidney also amused himself, and so did Spenser, Dyer, Greville and others, with exercises in what

1 Both Gosson's "School of Abuse" and Sidney's "Defence of Poesy" are given by Mr. Arber, in his "English Reprints," with full introductory details, each for sixpence.

10

ZELMANE.

If mine eyes can speake to doe heartie errand, Or mine eyes' language she doe hap to iudge of, So that eyes' message be of her receiuéd,

Hope, we doe liue yet.

But if eyes faile then when I most doe need them,
Or if eyes' language be not vnto her knowne,
So that eyes' message doe returne reiected,
Hope, we do both die.

Yet dying and dead, doe we sing her honour;
So become our tombes monuments of her praise,
So becomes our losse the triumph of her gaine:
Hers be the glorie.

If the spheares senselesse doe yet hold a musique,
If the swan's sweete voice be not heard but at death,
If the mute timber when it hath the life lost
Yeeldeth a lute's tune;

Are then humane mindes priuiledg'd so meanly,
As that hatefull Death can abridge them of powre
With the vowe of truth to record to all worlds
That we be her spoiles?

Thus, not ending, ends the due praise of her praise:
Fleshly vaile consumes; but a soule hath his life,
Which is held in loue; loue it is that have ioynd
Life to this our soule.

But if eyes can speake to doe hearty errand,
Or mine eyes' language she doth hap to iudge of,
So that eyes' message be of her receiuéd,

Hope, we doe liue yet.

2 Adusted (Latin "adustus "), burnt, scorched.

10

In January, 1583, Sidney was knighted. Two months afterwards he married Frances, eldest daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. Among his poetry is a series of love poems from Astrophel (the

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. From the Portrait once in possession of Fulke Greville.

lover of the star), to Stella (the star), which form one of those "passions" already described.' Penelope Devereux, the Stella of these poems, was forced in 1581 into marriage with an ignoble Lord Rich, protesting at the altar; and she turned from him after marriage to form a union of her own choice with Sir Christopher Blount, who in 1600 became Lord Mountjoy, afterwards Earl of Devonshire. Sidney's homage of friendly gallantry has, I believe, like Surrey's, been gravely misunderstood, because for very many years, while French criticism dominated over Europe, there was much laying down of law with little knowledge. The history of the sonnet was unknown, and the sonnet itself went out of literature. Sidney's sonnets were not misread by his contemporaries. Fulke Greville wrote in after years a life of his friend, and described him as England saw him in his own day. "Now," he wrote, "let princes vouchsafe to consider what importance it is to the honour of themselves and their estates to have one man of such eminence; not only as a nourisher of virtue in their courts or service, but besides for a reformed standard by which even the most humorous persons could not but have a reverend kind of ambition to

be tried and approved current. This I do the more confidently affirm because it will be confessed by all men that this one man's example and personal respect did not only encourage learning and honour in the schools, but brought the affection and true use thereof both into the court and camp. Nay more, even many gentlemen, excellently learned amongst us, will not deny but that they affected to row and steer their

1 See page 157.

course in his wake. Besides which honour of unequal nature and education his very ways in the world did generally add reputation to his prince and country, by restoring amongst us the ancient majesty of noble and true dealing ;- -as a manly wisdom that can no more be weighed down by any effeminate craft than Hercules could be overcome by that effeminate army of dwarfs. And this was it which, I profess, I loved dearly in him, and still shall be glad to honour in the good men of this time: I mean that his heart and tongue went both one way, and so with every one that went with the truth, as knowing no other kindred, party, or end. Above all, he made the religion he professed the firm basis of his life."

Sidney shared all that was noblest in the desires of Drake and Raleigh, and he went to Plymouth bent on joining Drake in 1585, but was stopped by the Queen's order. In the same year he went to the Netherlands, as the Governor of Flushing, where he was joined by his wife. He fretted a little under the inaction of his uncle Leicester, and laboured zealously himself. The next year was 1586. In May of that year his father died; in August his mother died; in September he himself received his death-wound before Zutphen. "An unfortunate hand out of those fore-spoken trenches," Fulke Greville tells us, "brake the bone of Sir Philip's thigh with a musket shot. The horse he rode upon was rather furiously choleric than bravely proud, and so forced him to forsake the field, but not his back, as the noblest and fitting bier to carry a martial commander to his grave. In which sad progress, passing along by the rest of the army, where his uncle the general was, and being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called for drink, which was presently brought him; but as he was putting the bottle to his mouth he saw a poor soldier carried along who had eaten his last at the same feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle. Which Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man, with these words, "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.' And when he had pledged this poor soldier, he was presently carried to Arnheim." After sixteen days of suffering, when his shoulder-bones were worn through his skin by constant reclining in one posture, Sir Philip Sidney was himself first to observe signs of mortification of his wounded limb. Knowing that this foreboded death, he then made confession of his faith, and dictated his will, parting his books between his two dearest friends, Fulke Greville and Edward Dyer. Then he called for music, "especially," says Greville," that song which himself had entitled La cuisse rompue: partly, as I conceive by the name, to show that the glory of mortal flesh was shaken in him; and by the music itself to fashion and enfranchise his heavenly soul into the everlasting harmony of angels, whereof these concords were a kind of terrestrial echo." Then followed the leave-taking of his two weeping younger brothers, to whom his farewell was "Love my memory, cherish my friends; their faith to me may assure you that they are honest. But above all, govern your will and affections by the Will and Word of your Creator; in me beholding the end

TO A.D. 1603.1

SHORTER POEMS.

of this world with all her vanities."

All England

mourned when the news came of Sir Philip Sidney's death; and when his body was brought home, a princely funeral paid homage to the true soul that had also reached its home.

The following sonnets-usually accurate, it will be seen, in their structure, and Petrarchan except for the rhyming couplet at the close-are from the

1 Of the series of Lant's thirty drawings, etched in 1587, and designed, when joined together, to show the whole pomp of Sir Philip Sidney's funeral, the only perfect copy known is in a show-case at the British Museum. From this the above sketch of the pall and its bearers-one of the thirty plates-has been copied. The four who carry the family banners before and after the pall are youths of the family. The four pall-bearers are Sidney's intimate friends; the dearest of these-Fulke Greville and Edward Dyer-are shown in front; the other two are Thomas Dudley, who was of his kindred, and Edward Wotton (elder brother of Sir Henry Wotton), who had been in his younger days Sidney's friend and companion at Vienna, who had risen himself in public trust, and to whom Sidney bequeathed by his will, in life-long remembrance of his love, an annual present of a buck from Penshurst. Sidney's brother next to him in age followed the body as chief mourner; then his youngest brother, with knights and gentlemen; then the Earls of Leicester and Huntingdon, of Pembroke and Essex, and other lords; then a representative of each of the United Provinces of the Netherlands; and so forth. There had been a pomp to precede the body, there was a pomp to follow, and there was the love of true friends by its side.

2 See page 156. In the first-quoted Sonnet-"True Beauty Virtue When the order of is"-the order of the two rhymes in the quatrains is not Petrarchan (Petrarch's order being a, b, b, a; a, b, b, a). rhyme in one quatrain is varied, as it may be, the other should answer to it exactly-that is to say, a, b, a, b must be paired with a, b, a, b, not, as here, with b, a, b, a. Modern change of pronuncia

TRUE BEAUTY VIRTUE IS.

It is most true that eyes are form'd to serve
The inward light, and that the heavenly part
Ought to be King; from whose rules who do swerve,
Rebels to nature, strive for their own smart.
It is most true, what we call Cupid's dart
An image is, which for ourselves we carve,
And, fools, adore in temple of our heart,
Till that good god make church and churchmen starve.
True, that True Beauty Virtue is indeed,
Whereof this Beauty can be but a shade

"carve

tion has also in this Sonnet accidentally parted one pair of rhymes, and "starve," from its fellows, "serve" and "swerve." The other Sonnets are all regular. In that on "Stella," and that on "Her Eyes," the two in which the rhymes of the first eight lines are not arranged in Petrarch's manner, the quatrains are perfectly symmetrical, and the right structure of the Sonnet is preserved. Observe also how, as to its inner life, each Sonnet of Sidney's is true to the structure that allows the two quatrains, forming the first eight lines, for the introduction of the thought, and the two terzettes, forming the last six lines, for its delivery.

Which elements with mortal mixture breed. True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made, And should in soul up to our country move: True; and yet true-that I must Stella love.

These are from the same series

VIRTUE'S COURT.

Queen Virtue's Court, which some call Stella's face,
Prepar'd by Nature's choicest furniture,
Hath his front built of alabaster pure;
Gold is the covering of that stately place;
The door, by which sometimes comes forth her grace,
Red porphyr is, which lock of pearl makes sure,
Whose porches rich-which name of cheeks endure-
Marble, mixt red and white, do interlace.

The windows now, through which this heav'nly guest
Looks o'er the world, and can find nothing such
Which dare claim from those lights the name of best,
Of touch they are, that without touch do touch,
Which Cupid's self from Beauty's mind did draw:
Of touch they are, and poor I am their straw.

LOVE'S LESSONS.

Alas, have I not pain enough, my friend,
Upon whose breast a fiercer gripe doth tire
Than did on him who first stale down the fire,1
While Love on me doth all his quiver spend,—
But with your rhubarb words ye must contend,
To grieve me worse, in saying that desire
Doth plunge my well-form'd soul even in the mire
Of sinful thoughts, which do in ruin end?
If that be sin which doth the manners frame,
Well staid with truth in word and faith of deed,
Ready of wit, and fearing nought but shame;
If that be sin, which in fixt hearts doth breed
A loathing of all loose unchastitie,-
Then Love is sin, and let me sinful be.

Next let us take an image of Virtue that can bear the heat and burden of the day while other earthly fairnesses flinch, as Spenser's Duessa did, when she had beguiled the Red Cross Knight into receiving her,—

"For golden Phoebus, now that mounted high
From fiery wheels of his fair chariot,
Hurléd his beams so scorching cruel hot
That living creatures mote it not abide;
And his new lady it endured not."

This is Sidney's version of the thought :

THE SUN'S KISS.

In highest way of heaven the sun did ride, Progressing then from fair Twins' golden place,

1 Who first stale down the fire. Prometheus, for stealing fire from heaven, was chained, by command of Jove, to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where (in the "Prometheus Bound" of Eschylus; Miss Swanwick's translation) Hermes thus pronounced his doom :

"Zeus' wingéd hound, the eagle red with gore,
Shall of thy flesh a huge flap rudely tear;
Coming, unbidden guest, the live-long day
He on thy black-gnawed liver still shall feast.
But of such pangs look for no term, until
Some god, successor of thy toils, appear,
Willing down Hades' rayless gloom to wend,
And round the murky depths of Tartaros."

Having no mask of clouds before his face,
But streaming forth of heat in his chief pride;
When some fair ladies, by hard promise tied,
On horseback met him in his furious race;
Yet each prepar'd, with fans' well-shading grace,
From that foe's wounds their tender skins to hide.
Stella alone with face unarmed marcht,
Either to do like him which open shone,
Or careless of the wealth, because her own.
Yet were the hid and meaner beauties parcht;
Her dainties bare went free: the cause was this,-
The sun, that others burn'd, did her but kiss.

A few more of these sonnets must suffice :

STELLA.

The wisest scholar of the wight most wise
By Phoebus' doom, with sugared sentence says,
That Virtue, if it once met with our eyes,
Strange flames of Love it in our souls would raise.
But for that man with pain this truth descries,-
Whiles he each thing in Sense's balance weighs,
And so nor will nor can behold those skies
Which inward sun to heroic mind displays,-
Virtue of late, with virtuous care to stir
Love of herself, took Stella's shape, that she
To mortal eyes might sweetly shine in her.
It is most true; for since I her did see,
Virtue's great beauty in that face I prove,
And find th' effect, for I do burn in Love.

STELLA NO ALLEGORY.

You that with Allegory's curious frame
Of others' children changelings use to make,
With me those pains, for God's sake, do not take;
I list not dig so deep for brazen fame.
When I say Stella, I do mean the same
Princess of beauty, for whose only sake
The reins of Love I love, though never slake,3

2 Plato, the disciple of Socrates. The reference is to Plato's "Symposium," in which there is a festival at the house of the young poet Agatho, who celebrates his achievement of a tragic victory. A minstrel girl comes; is dismissed; the guests agree that to-day they will drink only as they please, and have use of their brains. They undertake to use them in the praise of Love. When it comes to the turn of Socrates, he professes to repeat what he has heard from Diotime, the Mantineian stranger, skilled in divination. I give the substance of the doctrine as Dr. R. D. Hampden briefly worded it in his book on "The Fathers of Greek Philosophy." Socrates said Diotime had taught him "that Love had not for its true object the gratification of this or that particular desire, but only the good," with the possession of that good for ever. How he had further learned from her that all that effort of love which is observed in the world was a seeking, to the utmost, an immortality of being and happiness; that which in itself is mortal, thus preserving its identity, and realising its immortal existence by successive renovations of self; just as personal identity remains, whilst changes are constantly proceeding in the mind and body of the individual. Whilst (as she explained to him further, he said) this effort manifested itself m various ways in the world-in some, in sensual indulgence; in some, in the love and care of their offspring; in some, in the pursuit of fame; in some again, in works of intellect, or in labours for the benefit of men, by implanting in other minds the principles of knowledge and virtue, it could never obtain its full gratification in the present condition of being, but must go on, striving still, from low to higher ground, step by step, becoming larger and more general in its aim, until at length it realises to itself the bright vision of the intrinsically beautiful and divine." This energy is "Platonic love." of which, even in connecting it with Astrophel and Stella sonnets the name has been misapplied, and made to stand, as it does, vulgarly, for a mere stagnant pool of passion without manliness. 3 Slake, slack.

And joy therein, though nations count it shame.

I beg no subject to use eloquence,

Nor in hid ways do guide philosophy;

Look at my hands for no such quintessence;

But know that I in pure simplicity

Breathe out the flames which burn within my heart, Love only reading unto me this art.

HER EYES.

O eyes, which do the spheres of beauty move;
Whose beams be joys, whose joys all Virtues be;
Who, while they make Love conquer, conquer Love;
The schools where Venus hath learn'd chastity:
O eyes, where humble looks most glorious prove,
Onely-lov'd tyrants, just in cruelty;—
Do not, O do not, from poor me remove,
Keep still my zenith, ever shine on me!

For though I never see them, but straightways
My life forgets to nourish languisht sprites;
Yet still on me, O eyes, dart down your rays!
And if from majesty of sacred lights
Oppressing mortal sense my death proceed,

Wrecks triumphs be which Love high set doth breed.

SILENT WORSHIP.

Because I breathe not love to every one,
Nor do not use set colours for to wear,
Nor nourish special locks of vowéd hair,
Nor give each speech a full point of a groan,
The courtly nymphs, acquainted with the moan
Of them which in their lips Love's standard bear:
What, he! (say they of me): now I dare swear
He cannot love; no, no, let him alone!
And think so still, so Stella know my mind.
Profess in deed I do not Cupid's art;

But

you, fair maids, at length this true shall find, That his right badge is but worn in the heart: Dumb swans, not chattering pies, do lovers prove; They love indeed who quake to say they love.

Thou blind man's mark, thou fool's self-chosen snare,
Fond fancy's scum, and dregs of scattered thought;
Band of all evils; cradle of causeless care;
Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought:
Desire! Desire! I have too dearly bought,
With price of mangled mind, thy worthless ware;
Too long, too long, asleep thou hast me brought,
Who should'st my mind to higher things prepare.
But yet in vain thou hast my ruin sought;
In vain thou mad'st me to vain things aspire;
In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire;
For Virtue hath this better lesson taught,-
Within myself to seek my only hire,
Desiring nought but how to kill Desire.

ETERNAL LOVE.

Leave me, O Love which reachest but to dust, And thou, my Mind, aspire to higher things; Grow rich in that which never taketh rust: Whatever fades but fading pleasure brings.

Draw in thy beams, and humble all thy might
To that sweet yoke where lasting freedoms be;
Which breaks the clouds, and opens forth the light
That doth both shine, and give us sight to see!
O take fast hold; let that light be thy guide
In this small course which birth draws out to death;
And think how evil becometh him to slide,
Who seeketh heav'n and comes of heav'nly breath.
Then farewell, world; thy uttermost I see:
Eternal Love, maintain thy Life in me!

In the following lines Sidney left record of his affection for his two chosen friends and fellow-poets, Fulke Greville and Edward Dyer :

1 Prest (French "prêt "), ready.

2 These initials of Dyer, Greville, and Sidney were written in the margin.

3 Give leave your flocks to range. Put business aside. In pastoral poetry a shepherd's flocks stand for a man's work in life.