PREFACE.

SOME severe animadversions on the character of Sir Philip Sidney gave rise to the following work*. Whatever aspersions have been cast upon his memory, the candid and ingenuous reader will regard them with caution. The shafts of ridicule, when aimed against a virtuous man, lose their edge, and fall upon him blunted and despoiled of their force. The complexion of Sir Philip Sidney's conduct through life, was without a stain or a blemish. He admitted none into his friendship but good and wise men. His habits of intimacy with them, prove, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the congeniality of their minds.

.......In companions

That do converse and waste the time together,
Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
There must be needs a like proportion

Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit.

SHAKSPEARE.

It has been remarked of him by an eminent writer, distinguished by a superior knowledge of English biography,

* Lord Orford's Works, vol. i. p. 342,

that he approaches more nearly to the idea of a perfect "man as well as of a perfect knight, than any character of

THE letters, to which a reference is frequently made in this work, are those of Hubert Languet to Mr. Philip Sidney. They were originally printed at Frankfort in 1632. They were reprinted at Edinburgh in 1776, under the direction of Sir David Dalrymple. This collection of letters extends to a period nearly of seven years, from November 1573, to October 1580.

THE portrait prefixed to this volume, is taken from a very fine picture by Diego Velasquez de Silva, and now in the possession of Henry Vernon, Esquire, at Wentworth Castle, in Yorkshire.

MEMOIRS,

CHAPTER I.

FROM THE BIRTH OF MR. PHILIP SIDNEY IN 1554, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS TRAVELS IN 1572.

No period of the English history is more richly adorned with examples of genuine worth, than the golden reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was the age of reviving literature, when men began to be esteemed according to their wisdom. It was distinguished by the great glory of the establishment of the reformation, and ennobled by an uncommon display of public and domestic virtue. Among those truly illustrious men, whose exalted characters contributed to the welfare of her government, the fame of Sir Philip Sidney 'shines forth with a splendour peculiarly attractive. He was born on the 29th day of November, 1554, at Penshurst, in the county of Kent. This place, pleasantly situated near

B

the banks of the river Medway, was the ancient seat of Sir Stephen de Peneshurste or Penecestre, a warden of the

Cinque Ports, and constable of Dover castle in the reign of Henry III.; and was granted by Edward VI. to Sir William Sidney and his heirs (1).

We learn from Ben Jonson's description of Penshurst, that it was not embellished with works of touch or marble, with polished pillars or a roof of gold; that it had other and better marks of its excellency, in the fertility of its soil, the salubrity of its air, and its charming scenery of wood and water. No vestiges now remain of that venerable oak, which traditionary fame announces to have been planted on the birth of Sir Philip Sidney (2), in the Park at Penshurst:

"Thou

(1) Having been possessed by many noble and distinguished persons, it was at length forfeited to the crown by the attainder of Sir Ralph Fane, in the reign of Edward VI.

(2) What Cicero said of the Marian oak, has been applied to this tree, which was called "the bear's oak;" in allusion probably to one of the cognizances of the Sidney family:-"manet vero et semper manebit: sata

enim

"Thou hast thy walks for health, as well as sport,
"The mount to which the Dryads do resort,

"Where Pan and Bacchus their high feasts have made
"Beneath the broad beech, and the chesnut shade:
"That taller tree, which of a nut was set

"At his great birth, where all the Muses met."

Ben Jonson's Forest ii.

THIS rural object hath not been omitted by Mr. Waller in his beautiful verses, written during his residence at this delightful seat:

"Go, boy, and carve this passion on the bark
"Of yonder tree, which stands the sacred mark
"Of noble Sidney's birth."

IT is asserted on the authority of Verstegan, that the family of the Sidneys or Sydnies (3), originally of French

extraction,

enim est ingenio, nullius autem agricolæ cultu stirps tam diuturna quam poetæ versu seminari potest."

The oak was cut down in 1768.

De Legibus, l. i.

(3) The two letters i and y were used indiscriminately in the surnames of English families; as in Savile or Savyle, Nevile or Nevyle, Leicester or Leycester. In the sixteenth century the English language had no standard

of