THE LIFE AND TIMES

OF

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.

CHAPTER I.

N the queenly days of Elizabeth, the soil of
England was trodden by noble men, whose

footprints will be revered until the sun shall gild for the last time the dominions on which it has been said, he never sets. Bacon, who has left a legacy of wisdom quite large enough to redeem his meanness; Burleigh, the serene, sagacious statesman; Sir Walter Raleigh, the mirror of chivalrous accomplishment; Sir Francis Drake, the renowned navigator; Howard, the brave Earl of Effingham, whose fleet defeated the Spanish Armada; Spenser, Shakspeare, and a host of minor lights, glittered in the firmament of the august Tudor. No other annals of sovereignty can boast such an assemblage of learning, wit,