Sir Philip Henry As Minor Poet

 

Life

Sir Philip Sidney was born on November 30, 1554, in Kent, England. And an aristocratic family. Sir Philip Sidney was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier, who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age. Sidney was knighted in 1583.

Family 

His father, Sir Henry Sidney, was the lord president of Wales. His mother, Lady Mary Dudley  was the daughter of John Dudley, the 1st Duke of Northumberland, and the sister of Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth’s friend and advisor. Sidney was named after his godfather, King Philip II of Spain. Sidney was the eldest of three children. 

Education

He attended the Shrewsbury School beginning in 1564 at the age of ten. There, he met his longtime best friend and future biographer, Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke. Sidney attended Oxford University’s Christ Church College from 1568 to 1571. but, he left without taking a degree in order to travel .

he travelled to various countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Austria. On these travels, he met a number of prominent European intellectuals and politicians. many authers in these countries dedicated their books to sidney.

Marriage 

In 1583 Sidney was knighted, and soon afterward, he married Frances, the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. In 1584, he took up a position in Parliament. A year later, he was appointed to the Governorship of Flushing in the Netherlands.

Work

Astrophel and Stella – The first of the famous English sonnet sequences and songs written by Sir Philip Sidney. Astrophel and Stella was probably composed in the early 1580s. It tells the story of Astrophil ( Astrophel ), whose name means star-lover, and his hopeless passion for Stella, whose name means star. The Astrophel is the star lover and Stella is his star. 

His 108 sonnets and 11 songs addressed to Penelope Devereux. The poems seem to have been inspired by Sidney’s relationship with Lady Penelope, of the Devereux family. When she was 14, Penelope’s father, the Earl of Essex, tried to make a match between his daughter and Sidney. But at that time nothing came of it, and Penelope was married to Robert Rich in 1581.

The Lady of May – This is one of Sidney's lesser-known works, a masque written and performed for Queen Elizabeth in 1578 or 1579. The lady of may is a one act play by the english renaissance poet sidney. the play, which draws upon the literary tradition of pastoral entertainment. 

The coutess of pembrokes arcadia , arcadia is long prose pastoral romance by sidney written towards the end of 16 century. It has two major versions as the old arcadia and the new Arcadia. The arcadia is sidneys most ambitious literary work by far and as significant in its own way as his sonnets. His pastoral romance The Arcadia (1598) is an intricate love story. 

An apology for poetry also known as a Defence of Poesy wrote aprox 1580 and first published in 1595 after his death. It has taken place among the great critical essays in english. the work also important comments on edmund spenser and elizabethan stage.

The sidney psalms this english translation of the psalms were completed in 1599 by phillip Sidney's sister mary.

He was also known for his literary criticism, known as The Defense of Poesy.  he did not allow his work to be published during his lifetime.

Sidney returned to England in 1575 and was appointed cupbearer to Queen Elizabeth, a prestigious position. In 1577, he was sent to Germany as an ambassador, and when he returned to England soon after, he became a patron of the arts, notably encouraging the poet Edmund Spenser. He also continued his involvement in politics, opposing the queen’s planned marriage to the French heir and serving as a Member of Parliament in the early 1580s. sidney was a popular courties during the reign of elizabeth 1 and provided diplomatic advice to elizabeth 1 like his father .

Fame

Like the best of the Elizabethans, Sidney was successful in more than one branch of literature, but, none of his work appeared until after his death. His finest achievement was a sequence of 108 love sonnets. Sidney as the greatest Elizabethan sonneteer after Shakespeare.

His artistic contacts were more peaceful and significant for his lasting fame. he had met Edmund Spenser, who dedicated The Shepheardes Calender to him. Sidney played a brilliant part in the military, literary, courtly life common to the young nobles of the time.  

Death

In 1586, he fought for the Protestant cause against the Spanish, The battle of zutphen in which he was fatally wounded in his thigh and died within a month before his 32 birthday. As he lay dying, Sidney composed a song to be sung by his deathbed.

He died on 17 October 1586, Netherlands. Sidney's body was interred in St. Paul's Cathedral, London on February 16, 1587. The grave and monument were destroyed in the Great fire of London in 1666.