things which are the most notable in those places which you come unto. . . .

"Who rightly travels, with the eye of Ulysses, doth take one of the most excellent ways of worldly wisdom. For hard, sure it is, to know England without you know it by comparing it with some other country, no more than a man can know the swiftness of his horse without seeing him well matched. . . . This, therefore, is one notable use of travellers, which stands in the mind and correlative knowledge of things, in which kind comes in the knowledge of all leagues betwixt prince and prince; the topographical description of each country; how the one lies by situation to help or hurt the other; how they are to the sea, well-harboured or not; how stored with ships, how with revenue, how with fortifications and garrisons ; how the people, warlike, trained, or kept under; with many other such considerations, which, as they confusedly come into my mind, so I, for want of leisure, hastily set them down."

CHAPTER III.-SIDNEY AT COURT.

Elizabeth distinguishes him with her Favour-Serves against the Irish RebelsAmbassador to Germany-Travels in the Netherlands-Returns to England -Patronizes Men of Letters-Intimacy with Edmund Spenser-" Arcadia" at Penshurst-Sidney at Court-The Earl of Ormond-Quarrel with Molyneux-An angry Letter-" Spero" and "Speravi "-Affront of the Earl of Oxford-The Queen's interference.

On his return to England, in May 1575, Sidney appears to have sprung into a sudden popularity-to have become without effort the "observed of all observers "and from the grace of his person, the elegance of his address, the versatility of his accomplishments, and the

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chivalrousness of his disposition, to have been immediately recognized as the ornament and boast of the splendid Court of Elizabeth. The Queen particularly distinguished him as her Philip, in pleasant contra-distinction to the Pope's Philip-Philip of Spain; and among those grave statesmen, those brilliant wits, those sumptuous courtiers, and able councillors, who circled her throne with a magnificence of intellectual power unknown before or since, he held his own with a facility and a success that proved the wide extent of his studies, and the depth, truth, and solidity of his genius.

He visited his father in Ireland in the autumn of 1576, and proceeded into the northern parts to serve against the Catholic rebels under the gallant, gay, and glittering Essex. Probably there was little glory to be gained in such a warfare, for Sidney soon wearied of it, and, returning to England, resumed his attendance at Court. He also shone conspicuous in the festivities which celebrated the nuptials of his sister Mary with Henry, Earl of Pembroke. But nobler work was speedily found for him. The Queen despatched him as ambassador to congratulate the Emperor Rodolph on his accession to the imperial throne. At the same time, he received secret instructions to observe, with attentive scrutiny, the relations that subsisted between the various German states, and what princes were sincerely attached to the Protestant religion, or disposed to struggle against the intolerable supremacy of Spain. Elizabeth was already preparing for that desperate contest which she discerned as "looming in the future," and which finally culminated in the destruction of Philip's Invincible Armada.

Sidney executed his task with the utmost gravity and

discretion, though when it was imposed upon him he was but three-and-twenty years of age. After visiting the Emperor at Prague, and delivering the Queen's congratulations, he repaired to Heidelberg, where he was admitted to an interview with the Elector Palatine. Next he passed through the Netherlands, and at Brussels was introduced to the heroic Don John of Austria, a soldier of deserved repute, but as bitter a foe to Protestantism as at Lepanto he proved himself to the followers of Mohammed. When in Holland the ambassador visited the wise and virtuous William of Orange, veritably "the Father of his People," whom he had endowed, by the exercise of surpassing wisdom and admirable fortitude, with the rare advantages of civil and religious liberty.

Having thus obtained a personal insight into the characters of the principal potentates of Europe, Sidney returned to England in June 1577 to receive the Queen's high approval of the tact with which he had discharged his onerous and delicate mission. "There hath not been any gentleman," wrote Mr. Secretary Walsingham to the young diplomatist's father, "these many years, who hath gone through so honourable a charge with as great commendation as he." He was appointed the Queen's cup-bearer, and received from her royal hands the precious gift of a lock of her royal hair. For the great Gloriana, as Spenser calls her, loved wit and wisdom and valour, and loved them all the more when they were set off by a handsome person and a courtly address. And among all her courtiers Sidney stood foremost in his accomplishments, mental and physical. "He was the perfect type of a gentleman. If the chief qualities comprehended under this term are generosity, dignity,

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refinement of heart and mind, it would be hard to find in any age or nation a better example than Sidney. His soul overflowed with magnanimity and sympathy. These inward excellences were set off, when living, by his extreme beauty of person, sweetness of voice, and proficiency in all accomplishments and arts, as well as by a certain gracefulness, which appeared in whatever he did or said, and still shines through his writings with a peculiar charm.” *

But while shining in the fites and ceremonies of Elizabeth's glittering Court, he did not neglect the study of letters, and distinguished himself by his liberal patronage of learned men. "He became known," says Mr. Lloyd, "not in England only, but throughout Europe as the friend of men of letters. Poets, scholars, musicians, engineers, navigators, historians, thronged his house to receive assistance from his open purse, and encouragement from his enthusiasm, which was ever ready to be kindled by any noble idea. His London house was the house of Leicester, near where Temple Bar now stands; and his prospective inheritance of the Earl's estates, as well as those of his other childless uncle, the Earl of Warwick, added considerable value to his patronage. But the support which he gave by his name and money was made doubly precious by his fine taste and still more exquisite delicacy of feeling. The dedications which he received were almost innumerable. The great scholar Henry Stephens inscribed a work to him; and sent him a copy of the Greek Testament, with a tenderly affectionate letter. Dr. Powell, the author of a History of Wales, addressed his book to Sidney, exhorting him to

* Lloyd, "Life of Sir Philip Sidney,"

thank God for his good gifts, and use them to the glory of God and to his country's benefit. Other books dedicated to him were Hakluyt's first volume of Voyages, the Poetica Geographia of Lambert Dané, the first English Translation of Tasso, a version of a Spanish Treatise on the Art of War, and a work by Theophilus Banco, on the Logic of Ramus, which was the favourite study of Sidney's friend and secretary William Temple, and engaged the thoughts of learned men much till it was superseded by the bolder theories of Descartes and the philosophy of Bacon."*

It was at this period (A.D. 1578) that Sidney was introduced by Gabriel Harvey to the poet Edmund Spenser, whose warm and generous patron he remained through life, and whose "Faery Queen" was undertaken at his encouragement. The poet, for awhile, resided with his patron at stately Penshurst, directing his poetical studies, and encouraging that peculiar Platonism of feeling which was then in vogue with the wits and courtiers of the great Gloriana's train. The poet of the “ Faery Queen," however, was susceptible of a warmer and more passionate love, and nourished in the shadowy groves of Penshurst his devotion to a certain cruel Beauty of the North, whom he celebrated as Rosalind, "the widow's daughter of the glens," and whose cold loveliness was. not to be forgotten even in the leafy Kentish dales,—

"Where shepherds rich,

And fruitful flocks bene everywhere to see."

In that portion of the "Shepherd's Calendar "--the ninth eclogue--which was written at Penshurst, and Lloyd. See also Dr. Zouch, "Memoirs of Sidney.

Todd's "Spenser."