66 66 66 Philippe, this is ynough for me, and to muche I fear for 'yow. But, yf I shall finde that this light meale of digestione nourishe any thing the weake stomake of your yonge capacitie, I will, as I find the same growe stronger, with toofer foode. 66 fead yt 66 Your lovinge father, so long as you lyve in “H. SYDNEY (5).” THE state of young Sidney's health seems at this time to have been very delicate and precarious. A letter is extant from the Earl of Leicester to Dr. Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, requesting a licence to allow his nephew "truth I may justly affirm, that I am, by my father's side, of antient and "always well-esteemed and well-matched gentry; I do acknowledge, I say, "that my chiefest honour is to be a Dudley; and truly I am glad to have "cause to set forth the nobility of that blood whereof I am descended." Reply to Leicester's Commonwealth. (5) At the end of Dr. Parr's collection of Archbishop Usher's letters, is a second letter ascribed to Sir Henry Sidney, as written by him to his son. But it appears from the best authority, that the writer of that letter was William Lord Burghley, to his second son Sir Robert Cecil, afterward Earl of Salisbury. No apology is necessary for inserting this letter in an appendix., nephew to eat flesh during the season of Lent, when he was only fifteen years old. "I thank your good Grace most humbly for my great "cheere yesterday, and signify the same; but the chiefest "matter wherein I had to move your Grace was for a "license to be granted to my boy Philip Sidney, who is "somewhat subject to sickness, for eating flesh this Lent, for "which I then forgot to speak unto you: and have therefore now thought good to desire your Grace to grant unto him "the said license in whatsoever form may seem -best unto 66 From you, so as he may have with him Mr. Doctor Cooper, who "is his tutor. And thus I humbly take my leave. leave. "Durham house this Wednesday the third of March 1569. Your Grace most humble to command, 66 (6) From a MS. in the library of Bennet College, Cambridge. THE In Rymer's Fadera, Vol. XVIII. p. 309, is the copy of an indulgence, bearing date on the 3d day of March, 1526, to Sir John Walter, knight, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, to eat flesh on the days prohibited, during his life, on a remonstrance that fish was prejudicial to his health. It was extended to his wife, and other four persons at his table, on condition of his paying a mark yearly to the poor of his parish. In the reign of Henry THE university of Oxford, which had long been denominated "the right eye of England, and a light to the "whole realm," flourished at this time under the auspices of her Chancellor, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (7). This Nobleman had strenuously exerted himself in his endeavours to defend her privileges, and to restore her ancient splendour and discipline. Her youth were thus excited to an emulation of study, and a desire of learning. The academical education of Sidney was completed under the tuition of Dr. Thomas Thornton, a very learned man, noted for the classic purity and elegance of his Latin style, and characterized as the common refuge for young 66 poor Henry VIII., Henry Earl of Surrey was imprisoned in Windsor Castle for eating flesh in Lent; and one of the most beautiful of his compositions is a very tender elegy written by him, when he was a prisoner, lamenting the happier days which he had formerly passed there. (7) He was elected Chancellor of the University of Oxford, December 31st, 1564, on the resignation of Sir John Mason, Knight, Dean of Winchester: and he continued in that most honourable office to the time of his death in 1588. "The Queen's countenance, and the Earl of Leicester's care, had such an "effect upon the diligence of this learned body, that within a few years after, "it produced more shining instances of real worth, than had ever before "been sent abroad at the same time, in any age whatever." Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth. 66 poor scholars of great hopes and parts." He was not only the preceptor of William Camden, "the prince of English antiquaries;" but his generous benefactor and faithful friend. In the inscription on his monument, in the church of Ledbury, in the county of Hereford, where his remains are deposited, he is commemorated as "the tutor " of Sir Philip Sidney, when he was of Christ Church (8).” Dr. Thornton was assisted in the province of educating Mr. Sidney, by Mr. Robert Dorsett, an eminent tutor at Oxford, many of whose letters to this his pupil are yet extant in manuscript (9.) IN 1569, the very year in which Mr. Sidney was admitted a member of the university, an overture was made, on the recommendation of Lord Leicester, for a marriage between this his nephew and Anne, eldest daughter of Sir William Cecil (1), by his second wife, Mildred, one of the daughters (8) Juventutis lectissimæ et inter alios Philippi Sidneii, equitis nobilissimi See "Willis's Cathedrals," "academicæ educationi præpositus erat." (1) This Lady was afterward married to Edward de Vere, Farl of Oxford, who died in 1604, without male issue. To her pen are attributed "Four "epitaphes after the death of her young sonne, the Lord Bulbecke, &c." printed For my daughters of Sir Anthony Coke. This alliance was proposed with no other view, than that of cementing the interests of two families, rivals to each other in greatness and power. Sir Henry Sidney gave it his entire approbation. In a letter to the secretary, dated on the twenty-fourth day of February, 1569, he expresses his sorrow on observing a coolness in the proceeding, "where "such good liking appeared in the beginning." part," he adds, "I never was more redye to perfect that "matter, then presently I am; assuringe you for my parte, "if I might have the greatest prince's daughter in Christ"endome for him, the matche spoken of betweene us on "my parte shold not be broken (2)." The principal obstacle to this treaty, which was never concluded, was probably the tender age of the parties. DURING his residence at Oxford, our academician performed a scholastic exercise by holding a public disputation with printed in Soothern's Poems.-In the Cotton MS. (Julius, F. x.) are several Latin poems in commendation of Anna Vera. See "Ritson's Bibliographia "Poetica," p. 380. Of the character of this accomplished Lady, and of the cruel treatment of her by the Earl of Oxford, see "Strype's Annals of the Reformation," Vol. II. p. 175. (2) "Sidney Papers," Vol. I. p. 44. |