Sidney Sir P

NAME: Sidney, Sir Philip

ACHIEVEMENTS:  Major Elizabethan poet

NICKNAME/ALIAS:  None

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:  November 30, 1554, Penshurst, Kent, England

DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH:  October 17, 1586, Arnham, Netherlands.  Aged 32

DISCIPLINE:  Courtier/Poet/Soldier

FIELD:  Literature

LANGUAGE:  English

PARENTS:  Sir Henry Sidney; Lady Mary Dudley (Duke of Northumberland's daughter)

SIBLINGS:  Ambrosia; Mary

SPOUSE:  Frances Walsingham

CHILDREN:  Elizabeth

EDUCATION:  Shrewsbury School, England

MAJOR WORK:  "Astrophel and Stella", "The Defence of Poesie"

LIFE AND TIMES:

Sidney's family had close connections to the court of <cupbearer to> Queen Elizabeth*: his uncle, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was one of the Queen's favorites.  Sidney's godfather was <godfather was> Philip II of Spain*.

Sidney was sent Oxford, where his friends were <a pal of> Camden*, a future historian, and <his biographer was> Fulke Greville*, his biographer.

At 18, Sidney made his first trip to Paris with letters of introduction to the ambassador in France, <father-in-law was> Walsingham*, a Protestant, who had fled to the continent during the previous reign of the Catholic Queen Mary Tudor.  Walsingham welcomed Sidney and introduced him to his many friends in Protestant intellectual circles. 

Sidney was in Paris in August, 1572, when the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of the Protestants took place, led by the Duc de Guise.  Sidney and other Protestant Englishmen took shelter in Walsingham's house.

Sidney immediately left Paris for Germany, where he wintered in Frankfurt. In the spring of 1573 he toured more of Germany, then Austria.  Then he visit Venice, which did not impress him, even though Italian artists like <met> Titian*, <met> Tintoretto* and <painted by> Veronese* were all working there.  He wrote to his  brother that Venice offered nothing but wine and silks. 

However, he stayed on because he wanted to pursue a diplomatic career and Venice was the center of international diplomacy , intelligence-gathering, and intrigue.  During his two-year stay, his portrait was painted by Veronese, who was at the height of his fame.  Satisfied that he had learned the game of politics and diplomacy, he returned to England,  prepared to serve his country.

In 1576 he became official cupbearer to the Queen, a ceremonial position which he took over from his father.  The following year, he became Elizabeth's ambassador to Rudolf II, the German emperor.  Because Sidney was so young Elizabeth decided the embassy should include two older men, and he was allowed to take two close friends with him.  He chose Greville and Edward Dyer.  

His mission was to find out what the German rulers felt about the Protestant league which England intended to set up against Catholic Spain. Sidney reported that there was enthusiasm for the idea, but two other British emissaries contradicted this report, saying it was unlikely Germany would join a Protestant alliance.  Sidney was not given another important job for eight years.

Back in England, Sidney scoured the court for employment. He ingratiated himself with the French Protestant envoy Philippe de Mornay.  The next year, he became close to the German Calvinist Prince Casimir.  But no job was forthcoming. 

In 1578, he wrote a play for the Queen: "The Lady of the May," and then a verse romance: "Arcadia".   To further his ambitions in politics he agreed to become a Member of  the Parliament called at the beginning of 1581.  He dutifully sat on committees, took part in routine business, but remained generally unnoticed.

In the summer of 1581 the Countess of Huntingdon appeared at court to find a husband for her friend Lady Penelope Devereux, whose father had recently died.  Sidney slowly fell in love with Penelope,  but too slowly. By the time he was ready to ask for her hand, she had already married.  Wearing his heart on his sleeve, he wrote "Astrophel and Stella", a series of sonnets recounting his growing passion,  and renouncing his earlier love for public service.  The sonnets are regarded as second only to those of William Shakespeare.

In the same period, Sidney wrote "Defence of Poesie,"  a work of literary criticism mirroring the ideas of the Renaissance humanists on the continent.   Various projects which he thought up, (such as leading a troop of cavalry in the Netherlands, fighting in Ireland, and gaining a post on the Council of Wales) all came to nothing.

So Sidney looked further afield.  He had been fascinated by the maritime explorations of Martin Frobisher, and more recently by the return of <influenced by> Sir Francis Drake* from his voyage round the world, and dreamed of exploring.  

In 1582, a fellow undergraduate from Oxford, <fellow-student was> Hakluyt*, published "Diverse Voyages touching the Discoverie of America and the Islands Adjacent unto the Same".  Hakluyt dedicated the book to Sidney.

Sidney's interests had no limit.  He could discuss painting with miniaturist Nicholas Hillard, and chemistry with alchemist John Dee.  He was a friend of English poet <a pal of> Spenser* and Italian philosopher <a pal of> Bruno*, who was in England to flee Catholic persecution.  In 1583 Sidney was knighted and married Walsingham's daughter Frances.

Sidney eventually decided he would like to work for the government ordnance department in charge of military supplies.  His friend Lord Warwick asked the Queen to make Sidney his partner as joint Master of the Ordnance.  Sidney lobbied <lobbied> Cecil* (Lord Burghley), Elizabeth's trusted minister and his admirer.   Two years later he was appointed,   at a time when tension was mounting between Catholics and Protestants.  In 1584, the Protestant leader, William Prince of Orange, was assassinated. 

The following year, the Queen committed English troops to war in the Netherlands and sent a force to Zeeland under the command of the Earl of Leicester.

In the meantime, Sidney was preparing to join Drake on a voyage of discovery which Sidney himself had instigated and largely financed.  Sidney and Drake agreed that once they had cleared port, Sidney would share command with Drake. 

When the Queen got wind of this, she sent Sidney to Flushing, Holland, where he spent nearly a year in command of a troop of cavalry on sporadic forays against the Spanish, and achieving virtually nothing.  In September, 1586 he was wounded after gallantly charging the enemy lines three times.  The wound became infected and he died some three weeks later.

ASSESSMENT:  Wore his learning lightly, was courtly in manners, faithful in friendship, skilled and brave in military matters. 

EXTRA CONNECTIONS:  Was a friend of the <a pal of> Earl of Essex*

ONELINER: Sir Philip Sidney, Elizabethan courtier and poet

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Osborn, J. M., Young Philip Sidney,  Yale University Press, 1972