SIDNEY, Sir Pinup (I554S6). A celebrated English writer and soldier. He was born at Bens hurst in Kent, and when ten years old was sent to the school at Shrewsbury,'whence, in 1568, lie went to Christ Church, Oxford. Be left the uni versity without a degree, hut with a high reputa tion for scholarship and general ability. in 1572 he went abroad to travel. lie was in Paris when the massacre of Saint Bartholomew took place, but ran no personal risk, as he was under the protection of the English embassy. Thereafter lie visited Belgium, Germany, Hungary, and Italy; wherever lie went he occupied most of his time in studying languages, literature, current history, and politics, hut he also cultivated the acquaintance of eminent men; and in 1575 he returned home. perfected in all manly accom plishments. His uncle Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was at this time in the zenith of his fortunes, and for Sidney a career at Court lay temptingly open. As a courtier his success was great ; with Queen Elizabeth lie was throughout life an es pecial favorite. In 1577 she intrusted him with a mission to Heidelberg and Prague, and, though he failed in his negotiations, he was warmly com mended on his return. Time years afterwards he had the boldness to address to the Queen a 're monstrance' against her proposed marriage with Henry, Duke of Anjou, a union to which she seemed herself not indisposed. It is significant of the high favor in which he was held by her that Elizabeth, imperious as she was in temper, and little inclined to brook such interference, was satisfied with his retirement from Court for a few months. This interval lie passed in literary work at Wilton with his sister, the accomplished Countess of Pembroke. For her entertainment he wrote his celebrated pastoral romance, Ar cadia, which was published posthumously by his sister in 1590. In 1583 he consoled himself for the marriage of Lady Penelope Devereux, to whom be had been ardently attached, and who figures as the Stella of his poems, by marrying Frances, the daughter of Sir Francis Walsing ham. In the spring of 1585 he is said to have meditated sailing with Sir Francis Drake in an expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies, but to have been forbidden by Elizabeth through fear "lest she lose the jewel of her do minions." Later in the year, however, she ap pointed him Governor of whither he went to take part in the war then being waged between her allies, the Dutch and the Spanish.
At the battle of Zutphen, in Gelderland. he reck lessly exposed himself. A horse was killed under him, and he received a musket-shot in the thigh from which, after great suffering, he died at Alm helm on October 7. 1586. A beautiful trait of humanity was noticed in him while he was borne from the field. As lie complained of thirst, a bot tle of water was brought him; Ind when he was about to drink, he was touched by the wistful look of a mortally wounded soldier, who lay close bv • and tql-ing the water nntasted from his lips, Sidney handed it to his fellow in need, with the words, "Thy necessity is greater than mine." Tbe esteem in which Sidney was held by his coun trymen was shown in the passion of grief with which the news of his death was received. His body was brought to England, and after lying for some time in state, was buried with great solemnity in the old Cathedral of Saint Paul',:, The entire nobility went into mourning. The universities of Cambridge and Oxford issued three volumes of on his death, and Spen ser, in his mourned the loss of his friend.
The love and admiration which Sidney won from his contemporaries, were a tribute to the singular beauty of his character. His short life was marked by no brilliant achievement, and his literary genius would scarcely of itself have suf ficed to account for the regard he inspired. But the purity and nobility of his nature, and the winning courtesies in which it expressed itself, took captive all hearts while he lived, and have since kept sweet his memory. "Sublimely mild, a spirit without spot," in Shelley's words, he lives in the history of his country, a rare and finished type of English character, in which the antique honor of chivalry is seen shading into the graces of the modern gentleman. His Ar cadia, overrun as it is with affectations, may still be recognized as a work of great merit. His other well-known work. Apo/ogle for Poetrie (1579), republished in 1598 as Defense of Poesie (q.v.), will repay the attention of the reader. :Many of his shorter poems, more especially some of his sonnets, are also of rare merit. Consult his Comp/etc Poems, ed. by Grosart (London. Apology for Poetry, ed. by Shueklnirgh (Cambridge, 1891) ; Miscellaneous Works 11:0s ton, 1860; London, 1893) ; Davis, Life and Times of Sir Philip Sidney (Boston, 1859) ; Ely, Chau cer, Spenser. and Sidney (New York, 1894) ; Symonds, Sir Philip Sidney (London, 1886).