Sidney Philip - some sonnets. Sir Philip Sidney as an Elizabethan 'cult figure'
Sidney had a love of science, language and literature and became a patron of poets before becoming famous in this capacity himself.
Paying tribute to other forms of poetry - elegies, ballads, odes, heroic and satirical verse, after Sidney English poets preferred the sonnet to all others. E. Spencer, D. Davis left hundreds of miniature masterpieces contained in the same 14 lines.
F. Sidney acted as a serious theorist of literature and art in the treatise “ Defense of Poetry" - an aesthetic manifesto of his circle, written in response to Puritan pamphlets condemning "frivolous poetry." It is imbued with humanistic reflections on the high purpose of literature, which educates a moral personality and helps to achieve spiritual perfection, which is impossible without the conscious efforts of people themselves. According to the author, the goal of all sciences, as well as creativity, is “to understand the essence of man, ethical and political, with subsequent influence on him.” With humor and polemical fervor, drawing on Aristotle's Poetics, as well as examples from ancient history, philosophy and literature, Sidney argued that a poet is more suitable for promoting high moral ideals than a moral philosopher or historian with their boring preaching and edification. Thanks to his boundless imagination, he can freely paint the image of an ideal person in front of an audience. The poet in his eyes grew into a co-author and even a rival of Nature: everyone else notices its laws, and “ only the poet... creates essentially a different nature,... something that is better than what is generated by Nature or has never existed...»
Sidney's thoughts about the purpose of poetry were accepted by the best writers of that time - E. Spencer, W. Shakespeare, B. Johnson. He laid the foundation for a tradition that determined the face of literature in the era of Queen Elizabeth, created by intellectual poets obsessed with high ethical ideals, but alien to philistine moralizing.
F. Sidney and his protégé E. Spencer became the founders of English pastoral. Sidney's unfinished novel " Arcadia“, in which prose and poetry freely alternated, telling about the exciting adventures of two princes in love in a blessed land, the idyllic description of which resurrected the image of ancient Arcadia, but at the same time it reveals the landscape of the poet’s native England.
Links
- E.V. Khaltrin-Khalturina. An Anthology of Poetic Forms in Philip Sidney's Old Arcadia: Under the Sign of the Opposition between Apollo and Cupid// Verse and prose in European literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance / Rep. ed. L.V. Evdokimova; Institute of World Lit. them. A.M. Gorky RAS. – M.: Nauka, 2006.). (in Russian, in the author's design and with the permission of the author)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
- Philip Staros
- Philip Stamma
See what "Philip Sidney" is in other dictionaries:
Sydney- Philip (Philip Sidney, 1554 1586) one of the largest representatives of English noble literature of the Renaissance. An aristocrat by birth, a brilliant representative of the Elizabethan court, a brave warrior, poet, critic, traveler,... ... Literary encyclopedia
Sydney Philip- (Sidney, 1554 86) English poet. Genus. in an aristocratic family (he was the nephew of Lord Leicester), received an excellent education, visited France, Germany and Italy, meeting poets, scientists and artists everywhere, and was a welcome guest... ...
John Philip Key- John Key (eng. John Phillip Key; born August 9, 1961, Auckland, New Zealand) New Zealand political figure, leader of the New Zealand National Party. On November 8, 2008, in the 49th national elections, the National Party won... ... Wikipedia
Renaissance culture in England- The culture of the Renaissance, with its ideological basis - the philosophy and aesthetics of humanism, arises primarily on Italian soil. It is not surprising that the influence of Italy can be seen in all English writers of the Renaissance. But much more noticeable than... The World History. Encyclopedia
Comedy- a dramatic reproduction of the bad, vicious, but only such that it would excite laughter and not disgust (Aristotle, Poetics, Chapter V). This definition, given in Greece, is also true for modern culture, although the path of its development is purely ethical... ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron
Aesthetics- constitutes a special branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and art. The very term E. comes from the Greek αίσθετικός, which means sensual, and in this sense it is found in the very founder of the science of beauty, Kant, in Criticism... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron
HUMANISM- (lat. humanus humane) a system of worldview, the basis of which is the protection of the dignity and self-worth of the individual, his freedom and right to happiness. The origins of modern geography go back to the Renaissance (15th-16th centuries), when in Italy, and then in... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
Humanism- (from Lat. humanitas humanity, humanus humane, homo man) a worldview centered on the idea of man as the highest value; arose as a philosophical movement during the Renaissance (see Renaissance ... ... Wikipedia
Humanist
Humanism- Humanism (from Lat. humanitas humanity, Lat. humanus humane, Lat. homo man) a worldview centered on the idea of man as the highest value; arose as a philosophical movement during the Renaissance (see Renaissance humanism) ... Wikipedia
Philip Sidney
(1554-1586)
Already during his lifetime, this wonderful poet turned into a legend. Family ties connected him with outstanding people of the era. The famous Italian Giordano Bruno dedicated his famous book “On Heroic Enthusiasm” to him. Sidney's godfather, who gave him his name, was the future King of Spain Philip II, married to the English Queen Mary Tudor. While fighting with his godfather's army in the Netherlands, Sidney received a fatal wound to the thigh. Tormented by thirst, he was given water, but, feeling that he was dying, he handed it to a slightly wounded soldier, saying that he needed help more. For the last time, Sidney served as a court steward, although this time he gave a drink not to the king, but to a simple warrior.
There was something Hamlet-esque in the personality of the poet, disappointed, composing poems in forced solitude, tormented by the fact that he was not allowed to serve for the glory of his fatherland. Nothing he wrote was published during his lifetime. Only in 1595 did the treatise “Defense of Poetry” see the light of day. In it, Sidney rebelled against violations common sense and verisimilitude, especially in drama, thereby anticipating the tastes of the coming era of classicism. In 1591, two editions of the collection “Astrophil and Stella” were published, which marked the beginning in England of what is called the time of sonnets - it occurred in the last decade of the 16th century. (although this form arose much earlier).
“Astrophil and Stella” is the first complete poetic cycle in England, compiled into a book, composed of 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The number of sonnets was not chosen by chance: in Homer’s Odyssey, this is exactly how many playing stones were in the game played by the suitors who claimed Penelope’s hand. The winner could win - knock out the central stone, symbolically called Penelope, but only to feel more acutely that, receiving the symbol, he remained just as far from the desired goal. Sydney's lover was also named Penelope. According to the will of her father, the Earl of Essex, Sidney was even once considered her fiancé, not being too keen on marrying a very young girl whom he hardly knew. The marriage was upset, but Sidney truly fell in love with Penelope in London in 1581, when she was getting married. Then his sonnet cycle took shape. The hero's name is Astrophil, which in Greek means “star-lover”; Stella means “star” in Latin.
It is often said - and not without reason - that Sidney completed the process of creating the sonnet, and more broadly, the poetic form in England. Under his pen, the sonnet form was freed from imitation and ceased to be just a convention. This is discussed in the first sonnet of the cycle, the theme of which is creativity. To answer the painful question for the poet: “How to write?” - the answer is already ready. "Fool! - was the voice of the Muse. “Look into your heart and write” (hereinafter translated by V.V. Rogov).
In the second sonnet, love is born - unusual, non-banal. This is not love at first sight, but the poet is captivated by it all the more painfully and completely. Here Sidney has one of the first Russian associations in English poetry: “Like a Muscovite, born under a yoke, / I keep saying that slavery is not a problem.” It turns out that in 1553 the first Englishman to travel to Ivan the Terrible’s Muscovy, Richard Chancellor, was recommended for this purpose by Sidney’s father. As you can see, the interest in the distant country was family.
The emotional plot of the collection is based on the feeling of the unattainability of the beloved, the gap between her and the poet. At first, hope grows, the poet passionately tries to be convincing. Then hope goes away, for the beloved, although she reciprocates, cannot break given to the spouse vow of fidelity. Then separation sets in, and the feeling of hopeless loneliness grows in the poems.
Peering at the movement of the month across the night sky, the poet recognizes the image of a rejected lover, that is, his own image. Sidney uses the usual sonnet parallel between the earthly and the heavenly, but he does not see in the earthly an exalting similarity with the heavenly, but is surprised to discover the opposite: injustice reigns not only on earth, but also in heaven. Love in Sidney's poetry exists according to different laws than those set by the sonnet convention, dating back to Petrarch and preserved by his successors. Sidney in his sonnets even changed the physical type of beauty of his beloved - according to tradition, blond and blue-eyed - singing her dark eyes and thus anticipating the appearance of Shakespeare's Dark Lady.
Philip Sidney.
Illustration for the novel “Arcadia” by F. Sidney. Edition 1643
Key dates in the life of Philip Sidney
November 30, 1554- birth of Philip, eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney.
October 17, 1564. - departure to the Shrewsberg school.
Between 1566 and 1568- Became a student at Oxford University.
1571- left Oxford.
May 1572- Queen Elizabeth gives permission to Philip Sidney for a two-year journey to the continent.
May 1575. - return to England.
1576 g. - the death of Lord Essex and negotiations about marrying Penelope.
1577 g. - embassy to Germany. Writing "Discourse on Irish Affairs." Visiting Ireland, possibly with Edmund Spenser.
1578 g. - creation of the pastoral "Queen of May".
1579 g. — Letter to Queen Elizabeth regarding her proposed marriage.
1580 g. - Sidney lives on his sister’s estate and begins composing “Arcadia.” Writing of the treatise "Defense of Poetry", apparently between 1580 and 1583
1581 g. - may have been elected to the House of Commons.
1582 g. - the estimated time of creation of the cycle of sonnets “Astrophil and Stella”.
1583 g. - marriage to Frances Walsingham. Meetings with Giordano Bruno.
1584 g. - election to the new House of Commons. At the beginning of the year, he may have started work on New Arcadia.
1585 g. - leaves England. Stay in the Netherlands. 17 October 1586 - death of Philip Sidney.
In compiling this material we used:
1. Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia;
2. Philip Sidney. Astrophel And Stella. An Apologie For Poetrie Philip Sidney. Astrophil and Stella. Defense of Poetry The publication was prepared by L. I. Volodarskaya. M., "Science", 1982
Philip Sidney
Some sonnets
Philip Sidney
Some sonnets
Since then I have been sick, like the thunderstorm has gone:
Since then I have been afraid that I am being watched;
Since then, the sirens have been beckoning me on my way;
4 From then on, a veil was placed over the eyes;
Since then, my mind has absorbed the poison of confusion;
Since then, freedom has been hard on the soul;
Since then I have been asking the snow for warmth
8 And the mind is taken captive by weak feeling.
Well, Love, I will submit to the yoke
And I will do as the law requires,
Because the one who broke the prison
To be honest, I was never saved.
Oh, there is so much charm in my jailer,
14 That I agree to be a slave forever.
translation by A. Sharapova
Great Love came to me,
Giving birth to timidity and illness in the heart
And, like a sworn enemy in war,
4 Seeking in murder the worst of torments;
The daring bow is not loaded with beauty,
But with its charm, which completely attracts,
And virtue won't help me
8 And the sword of reason falls from the hands:
Alive, I pay death's dues,
I dream about monsters in reality,
I'm carrying an enormous burden
And a useless cry for help
But the thought died of starvation,
14 Having tasted from Cupid's table.
translation by A. Sharapova
To the tune:
Non credo gia ehe pin infelice amante
The fire burns from my sorrows,
And the sky is pouring heavy rains,
Water weeps on the shores of the seas,
The earth mourns on the chest of the sky.
Glory is rushing to me
Time is running away
The space looks with longing,
How endless is the night without hope.
Only she doesn't feel sorry for me. They're burning after me
Her eyes are cruel lights,
But the flame of these eyes
12 It keeps the flame burning in my soul.
Burn me, fire, so that I don’t burn,
O air, perish so as not to breathe you,
Take me, water, so as not to regret me,
Earth, open up, calm your heart.
Slava, kill my gift,
Time, strike my hour,
Space, speed up the nightmare,
Elements, measures, I beg you!
But all nature turned away in fear,
And death bowed before her, alive.
O death, you have been deceived:
24 The haughty one despises me.
translation by A. Sharapova
To the same motive
When the jubilant April roars
And awakens the earth from sleep,
Philomela's trill flows hysterically,
As if pierced by a bunch of thorns:
Grieving and regretting
She sings sadly
Sadness squeezed her chest,
That is the memory of the violence of Tereus.
Your land is in flowers, mine is dead.
12 Thorns pierce my words.
Philomela has no other grief,
As soon as the memory of avenged love.
Sublime weakness cries while arguing
With the despair of unforgiven resentment.
But for my suffering
I'm not given a song.
But does it really matter?
It is easier to endure violence than desire.
Find, O Philomela, a drop of happiness
At least in the fact that I am tormented by passion.
Your land is in bloom, mine is dead.
24 Thorns pierce my words.
translation by A. Sharapova
4 Bright Lady.
Where is love, where are the dishes of its tables?
Where are the eyes that looked through the mists?
Where are the lips? Now they are instead of words
8 They give me wounds.
Where is now priceless love hello?
Where is the face that obscured the sun for me?
Where is the delight and wonder? Are they really not there?
12 The feeling is gone.
Should we live in slavery to feelings that are long gone?
The word is lost, dreams and glory perish.
Now it is given to me to accept retribution
16 A cup of poison.
What word did the nymph say?
How insignificant next to the words of the poet!
I didn't know what my doom was
20 The fate of the duet.
Don’t leave new pain in your heart,
Greet me with a smile when I arrive.
And I’m planning to leave - so come back
24 All the kisses.
You, like nectar, are given to the soul as food.
I see the will of heaven in your victory.
Nymph, you were born to the honor of women,
28 Bright Lady.
translation by A. Sharapova
To the tune:
Basciami vita mia
Desire, sleep, - Beauty mutters,
Go to sleep, child, your cry compresses your chest.
3 The child screams: Go away, you’re not letting me sleep!
Sleep, child, close your lips
The bed is soft and you will be at peace.
6 - Go away! Your love doesn't let me sleep.
Wait, little one, my chest is empty.
Just let the milk fill your breasts.
9 The child screams: Well, no! I can not sleep!
translation by A. Sharapova
To the tune of a Spanish song:
Se tu senora by dueles de mi
Given to you, oh sweet one.
The soul is full of music.
It was someone else's speech
What you just heard
For the one who has lost his sting
Must lie down lifeless.
The word is poison, and the word has lied.
There is a curse and guilt in it.
10 The soul is full of music.
All the timbres of beauty, all the depth
Given to you, oh sweet one.
The soul is full of music.
Youth lives on beauty
Music lives by chord.
So, the chord of your beauties
Resolved in a proud hymn.
I live in a solid consciousness:
You alone are worth the songs.
20 The soul is full of music.
All the timbres of beauty, all the depth
Given to you, oh sweet one.
The soul is full of music.
If someone - oh answer!
Overshadowed by the highest secret,
Met Madonna on earth
How can he not sing?
A heavenly benevolent gaze
I have been given the opportunity to see to the bottom.
30 The soul is full of music.
All the timbres of beauty, all the depth
Given to you, oh sweet one.
The soul is full of music.
What does this moment hide?
Under a cheerful guise?
In the sweet swan song
Death has a terrible face.
Let death threaten me with death.
The string sings about love.
40 The soul is full of music.
translation by A. Sharapova
The next four sonnets were written in the days
when the face of the poet's Beloved was struck by illness.
O corruption of life, outcast from the gates of hell,
A monster called Malady!
He weeps bitterly over his fate,
4 Who came out of your damned hands.
Like an experienced robber, you hide
In someone else's good there is a vile vice:
Her face is the abode of beauty
8 You could choose your refuge.
She was the subject of all praise
And you wanted, calculating villain,
So that the divine fire burns
Over the stains of your cruelty.
But the more her eyes attract,
14 You are hated all the more, you rogue.
translation by A. Sharapova
Woe is me! My impudent tongue
I sent my mistress an illness:
A cry grew in my sick heart,
4 Bringing praise and sorrow into a single circle;
Oh, how I praised that tender mouth,
And this imperious gaze is a hearth of love,
And the chest to which Eros fell!
8 And legs (legs!), their victorious step.
Meanwhile, the disease overheard how they flattered her,
(He couldn't forgive me for this)
He flew to her, overwhelmed with desire,
And he burned the wondrous face with a kiss.
I praised her too much, loving her.
14 Illness, she wasn't worth you
translation by A. Sharapova
Misfortune is a guest, humiliation is a friend,
Brother of infirmity, son of poverty,
The child of the curse is a vile disease,
4 You were cast down from the heights on high.
But how dare you touch her,
Break through the doors to pure beauty
Whose modesty is a reliable shield from passions.
8 Whose feelings are inaccessible to vanity?
What courage, what power
Were you motivated? Or an evil demon
I whispered to you what suit
Should you choose a trump card, outcast?
But since she's yours, find a ban,
14 So that she doesn't say no.
translation by A. Sharapova
“Oh, evil disease,” her lips repeat.
Does she know what a waste it is?
Comprehended people? How does beauty perish?
4 Or she still doesn’t know the rules,
That people lower their gaze in fear,
Seeing that she has not been the same for a long time,
And where the beauty was stolen by a thief,
8 Does earthly vanity promise sadness?
But the wisdom in it shines with beauty:
She finds no evil in ugliness,
And, valuing not the body, but the soul,
She saved love and truth.
In her eyes, only the one who is ill is
14 Those who always lie about their illnesses.
translation by A. Sharapova
On the image of the closed eye of a dove.
Ne mi vuol vivo e ne mi trahe d"impaccio
Here's a dove. Alien to freedom, alien to captivity,
He makes his flight with his eyes closed,
Seeking salvation in the heights, until
4 The impulse will not end with a fall.
My mind is the same dove. Sweet pain
Feeling heavenly bliss,
He was thrown from a height. Isn't that why
8 He himself does not know whether he is dead or alive?
And yet on the wings of imagination
He is to an image as immature as a fruit,
Flies, blind, until exhaustion
And wounds will not interrupt his flight.
You are happy, dove, you are not involved in slavery,
14 And I am not her slave, but I am wretched.
translation by V. Shvyryaev
Edward Dyer
When the fire, hitherto unknown,
Brought to earth from the sky by Prometheus,
The satyr kissed the lovely flower,
4 Alluring with its imaginary meekness.
Feeling the sting of sudden pain,
The valley is filled with a heart-rending squeal,
He sought salvation in the river and in the field;
8 Over time, his illness passed.
Read More on This Topic
English literature: Sidney and Spencer
With the work of Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spencer, Tottel’s contributors suddenly began to look old-fashioned. Sidney...
Sidney was an excellent horseman and became renowned for his participation in tournaments-elaborate entertainments, half athletic contest and half symbolic spectacle, that were a chief amusement of the court. He hankered after a life of heroic action, but his official activities were largely ceremonial-attending on the queen at court and accompanying her on her progresses about the country. In January 1583 he was knighted, not because of any outstanding achievement but in order to give him the qualifications needed to stand in for his friend Prince Casimir, who was to receive the honor of admission to the Order of the Garter but was unable to attend the ceremony. In September he married Frances, daughter of Queen Elizabeth’s secretary of state, . They had one daughter, Elizabeth.
Because the queen would not give him an important post, he had turned to as an outlet for his energies. In 1578 he composed a pastoral playlet, The Lady of May, for the queen. By 1580 he had completed a version of his, the . It is typical of his gentlemanly air of assumed nonchalance that he should call it “a trifle, and that triflingly handled,” whereas it is in fact an intricately plotted narrative of 180,000 words.
Early in 1581 his aunt, the countess of Huntington, had brought to court her ward, who later that year married the young Lord Rich. Whether or not Sidney really did fall in love with her, during the summer of 1582 he composed a sonnet sequence, , that recounts a courtier’s passion in delicately fictionalized terms: its first stirrings, his struggles against it, and his final abandonment of his suit to give himself instead to the “great cause” of public service. These sonnets, witty and impassioned, brought Elizabethan at once of age. About the same time, he wrote , an urbane and eloquent plea for the social value of imaginative, which remains the finest work of Elizabethan. In 1584 he began a radical revision of his Arcadia, transforming its linear dramatic plot into a many-stranded, interlaced narrative. He left it half finished, but it remains the most important work of prose fiction in English of the 16th century. He also composed other poems and later began a paraphrase of the . He wrote for his own amusement and for that of his close friends; true to the gentlemanly code of avoiding commercialism, he did not allow his writings to be published in his lifetime.
The incomplete revised version of his Arcadia was not printed until 1590; in 1593 another edition completed the story by adding the last three books of his original version (the complete text of the original version remained in manuscript until 1926). His Astrophel and Stella was printed in 1591 in a corrupt text, his Defense of Poetry in 1595, and a collected edition of his works in 1598, reprinted in 1599 and nine times during the 17th century.
Although in July 1585 he finally received his eagerly awaited public appointment, his writings were to be his most lasting achievement. He was appointed, with his uncle, the earl of Warwick, as joint master of the ordnance, an office that administered the military supplies of the kingdom. In November the queen was finally persuaded to assist the struggle of the Dutch against their masters, sending them a force led by the earl of Leicester. Sidney was made governor of the town of (Dutch: Vlissingen) and was given command of a company of cavalry. But the following 11 months were spent in ineffective campaigns against the Spaniards, while Sidney was hard put to maintain the morale of his poorly paid troops. He wrote to his father-in-law that, if the queen did not pay her soldiers, she would lose her garrisons but that, for himself, the love of the cause would never make him weary of his resolution, because he thought “a wise and constant man ought never to grieve while he doth his own part truly, though others be out.”
On September 22, 1586, he volunteered to serve in an action to prevent the Spaniards from sending supplies into the town of . The supply train was heavily guarded, and the English were outnumbered; but Sidney charged three times through the enemy lines, and, even though his thigh was shattered by a bullet, he rode his horse from the field. He was carried to Arnhem, where his wound became infected, and he prepared himself religiously for death. In his last hours he confessed:
There came to my remembrance a vanity wherein I had taken delight, whereof I had not rid myself. It was the Lady Rich. But I got rid of myself of it, and presently my joy and comfort returned.
He was buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on February 16, 1587, with an elaborate funeral of a type usually reserved for great noblemen. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and scholars throughout Europe issued memorial volumes in his honor, while almost every English poet composed verses in his praise. He won this adulation even though he had accomplished no action of consequence; it would be possible to write a history of Elizabethan political and military affairs without so much as mentioning his name. It is not what he did but what he was that made him so widely admired: the embodiment of the Elizabethan ideal of gentlemanly virtue.
William Andrew RinglerLearn More in these related Britannica articles:
Jan. 8th, 2007 | 12:25 pm
mood: bad
music: Sting - John Dowland's The Battle Galliard
Since we are talking about Elizabeth, I would like to write about one of the most beloved personalities of that time, Sir Philip Sidney. I admit, I don’t know too much about him, but this limited biographical information, as well as his poems, was enough to create sympathy :-)
Sir Philip Sidney (30 November 1554 - 17 October 1586), poet, courtier and warrior, is one of the most prominent personalities of the Elizabethan era.
The eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley, Philip was born on the family estate of Penthurst, in Kent. His mother was the daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, and the sister of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Elizabeth I. His younger sister Mary, who married Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was a translator and philanthropist. It was to her that Sidney dedicated his greatest work, the novel Arcadia. Godfather Sidney Jr. became King Philip II of Spain.
After studying at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church College, Oxford, Philip traveled through Europe for three years, visiting France, where he took part in the marriage negotiations between Elizabeth and the Duke of Alençon, and also witnessed St. Bartholomew's Night, Germany, Italy, Poland and Austria. During the trip, Sidney not only improved his knowledge of languages, but also met with famous politicians and thinkers of the time, for example, famous poet Torquato Tasso.
Returning to England in 1575, Sidney met 13-year-old Penelope Devereux, who inspired him to write the famous cycle of 108 sonnets “Astrophil and Stella” (1581, published in 1591), which became a significant phenomenon in English poetry (he used the poetic techniques of his beloved Petrarch, without, however, falling into dependence on the Italian teacher). The Earl of Essex, the girl's father, planned to marry his daughter to Sidney, but his death (1576) upset the marriage plans.
Philip devoted himself not only to art, but also to politics, defending the administrative reforms of his father, who was viceroy in Ireland, and also opposing the queen's French marriage, which led to Sidney's quarrel with Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford. A challenge to a duel followed, but Elizabeth forbade this duel. Philip wrote long letter to the queen, in which he substantiated the folly of marriage with the Duke of Anjou. Elizabeth was outraged by such insolence, and Sidney had to leave the court.
During his disgrace, the poet composed the novel “Arcadia” (1581, published in 1595), dedicating it to his sister, and the treatise “In Defense of Poetry” (1580, published in 1590). Another famous Elizabethan, Edmund Spencer, whom Sidney met during that period, dedicated his Shepherd's Calendar to him. It is likely that Sidney took part in the Areopagus circle of English humanists, designed to bring English verse closer to classical models. He also began a verse translation of the book of Psalms, completed after his death by his sister.
In 1581 Sidney returned to court. That same year, Penelope Deveraux married Lord Robert Rich, against her will.
In 1583 the poet was awarded a knighthood.
Philip's original plans to marry Anne, the daughter of William Cecil, Queen Elizabeth's minister, fell through towards 1571. In 1583, Sidney married 14-year-old Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State.
The following year, the poet met Giordano Bruno, who subsequently dedicated two of his books to him.
Family traditions and personal experience (during St. Bartholomew's Night he was in Walsingham's Parisian house) made Sidney an ardent Protestant. He repeatedly spoke out in favor of an attack on Spain, as well as the creation of a Protestant league to repel the power of Spain and its Catholic allies. In 1585 he was appointed governor of the Dutch Vlissingen, a year later he commanded a successful attack on Spanish troops near the Axel fortress. A few months later, Sidney fought under Sir John Norris at the Battle of Zutphen, during which he was wounded in the thigh. Twenty-two days later Sir Philip died. According to the famous story, wounded, he gave his flask to another mutilated soldier, with the words: “You need it more than me” (Thy need is greater than mine).
Philip Sidney was buried in London's St. Paul's Cathedral (02/16/1587). During his lifetime, for many Englishmen, the poet became a symbol of the ideal courtier: educated, dexterous - and at the same time, generous, brave and impulsive. Edmund Spenser immortalized him as one of the most brilliant representatives of English chivalry in his elegy Astrophel, one of the greatest works of the English Renaissance.
During the poet's lifetime, his works were not published, being known to a narrow circle of admirers. In 1591, the Countess of Pembroke collected and published her brother's works.
Sidney's very first biographer was his schoolmate and friend Fulk Greville.
In 1590, the poet's widow married Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, Sidney's failed brother-in-law, giving birth to three children.
One of the participants of the so-called "The Rye Plot" (1683), Algernon Sidney, was the great-nephew of Sir Philip.
Philip Sidney
Penelope Deveraux, Lady Rich
Francis Walsingham
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Philip Sidney wounded
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Comments (10)
(no subject)
from:
date: Jan. 8th, 2007 10:43 am (UTC)
Yes, yes, he has a wonderful poem “My true love hath my heart and I have his”, which Lester reads to Elizabeth in the film “Elizabeth”. As far as I remember, he was considered the ideal of chivalry and his death was greatly mourned.
Thanks for the portraits;)
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I hope they won't be forgotten...
from: labazov
date: Jan. 8th, 2007 11:26 am (UTC)
His sister Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke and his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Roger Manners, Earl of Rutland.
According to I. Gililov’s version, the married couple Mzhners were “Shakespeare”, and according to V. Novomirova’s version, Mary Sidney Herbert and her sons were “Shakespeare”. See William Shakespeare's Identity Mystery. .
P.S. There is also an absolutely speculative, but most interesting conspiracy theory that Philip Sidney did not die, but disappeared, and from the “underground”, together with Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, created Shakespeare.
