"To teach high thought, and amiable words,
And courtliness, and the desire of fame,
And love of truth, and all that makes a man."
TENNYSON.

"Sidney, than whom no gentler, braver man His own delightful genius ever feigned, Illustrating the vales of Arcady

With courteous courage and with loyal loves."

SOUTHEY,

Sir Philip Sidney.

No carpet knight, he sought the tented plain;
No euphuist, he sang immortal lays;
And the ripe fancies of his vigorous brain
Recalled the humours of Arcadian days.
A gentle soul, and loyal! reverence due
He gave to tender Woman's womanhood;
Yet, soldier in the press of battle true,

His heart was armed with godlike fortitude.
It seemed that Chivalry in him renewed

Its bright pure graces and its virtues rare;
That Nature sought to show, in generous mood,
A mind most noble, and a soul most fair!
Nor in our annals is there writ a name

Dearer than his whom Zutphen clothed with fame.

At Court-Makes acquaintance with the poet Spenser,

Quarrels with the Earl of Oxford-Retires to Wilton-Composes the "Arcadia,"

1578

1580

Returns to public life,

1581

Marries the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham-Captain of the Isle

of Wight-Is knighted,

1583

Departs for the Netherlands,

1584

Receives a mortal wound at the battle of Zutphen (September 22), of

which he died on the 25th of October,

1586

I.

Sir Philip Sidney:

THE ELIZABETHAN GENTLEMAN.

"They are, and have been, taught religion; thence
Their gentle spirits have sucked innocence.
Each morn and even they are taught to pray
With the whole household; and may every day
Read in their virtuous parents' noble parts

The mysteries of manners, arms, and arts."

BEN JONSON.

CHAPTER I.-HIS EARLY YEARS.

Famous Battle-fields-Zutphen and Sir Philip Sidney-An Historical PictureExcellence of Sidney's Character-His Birth-Education-His ParentageGoes to Oxford-Remarks.

HAT nation has a nobler history than our Saxon

England? Think what glorious deeds, what

immortal worthies are connected with it! Consider only the memorable battle-fields in which it has grandly played its part!--battle-fields, whose very names stir our hearts as with the sound of a trumpet; whose greatness must be ever present to our minds from their association with the liberties which we cherish, and the sweep of empire of which we are not unjustly proud; -battle-fields, like Azincourt and Crecy, where the

meanest bowman sprang up into a paladin, and did deeds worthy of celebration by an English Homer;-battlefields like Blenheim, Oudenarde, and Ramillies, where the genius of Marlborough could

"Ride on the whirlwind, and direct the storm;"

like Talavera and Vittoria, Salamanca and Waterloothe last the "crowning victory" of a series of splendid triumphs! These are fields that Englishmen are not likely to forget-that it would be unwise for them to forget; they are linked too closely with the pride, selfreverence, and patriotism of the nation. Out upon the mawkish minds that would conceal in a cloud of philosophic sentimentalism the glories of our "well-foughten fields!" If the "good knights are dust," living and immortal are their achievements; the brightness of their splendid scutcheons still glows in the historic Valhalla of the English people, who see, in their present "pride of place❞—in the supreme power which they hold among the nations, in the far-reaching empire whose shores are kissed by the waves of every sea—the eternal memorials of their worthies, and recall, with hearts astir and souls aflåme, the recollections of a thousand fields where honour has been won.

But amongst these stirring memories obtrudes a softer, and, it may be, a purer association; and we may be content to recognize that the name of Poictiers or Blenheim, Assaye or Waterloo, is scarcely more powerful in its influence than that of a field where no special renown attended our arms, but yet the Saxon character was glorified with a deathless lustre the field of Zutphen. It is not that Englishmen contended there for a good

AN ENGLISH BAYARD.

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cause; it is not that the fight was ordered with any surpassing military genius; but that one man fought and bled upon the field whom England is proud to claim as truest knight and perfect gentleman! This was Sir Philip Sidney, the noblest scion of a noble race; the pride and boast of a Court which, as it were, absolutely glowed with chivalry, and was illustrated by the brightest and most noble spirits; the preux chevalier of a knightly age; soldier with courage unimpeached; friend with loyalty undoubted; man with virtue unstained; and courtier polluted by no shameless adulation.

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Sidney, than whom no gentler, braver man

His own delightful genius ever feigned,

Illustrating the vales of Arcady

With courteous courage and with loyal loves."

And this we take to be sufficient epitaph for our English Bayard. Courteous in his courage; loyal in his love; never false to friend nor unjust to foe; uplifting against a lie the calm brow of unfaltering truthfulness; to genius stretching out the cordial, welcome hand;-I protest that among all our English worthies I know of few brighter characters than the gentle poet and gallant soldier who, in his thirty-second year, was stricken to the death upon the fatal plain of Zutphen.

Who does not know the story?

It is one of those historical pictures which will outlive history. It is, indeed, a noble poem-a lyric, as it were, whose music the hearts of the wise and gentle will, age after age, delight to repeat. And how full of life are the truth and beautifulness of such a poem! How many souls are moved with exalted aspirations-how many minds are touched with noble thoughts-how many a