present genuine thoughts in an artistic form; and Burke, Johnson, and Macaulay, avoiding the petty particularity of his contrasted words, followed his example in working up sentences and periods to the climax required for the just and forcible presentation of the argument. CHAPTER VIII COURT ROMANCE: SIR PHILIP SIDNEY WHILE one section of Elizabeth's Court occupied itself with forming out of the memories of chivalry a dialect and code of manners fitted to distinguish it as a caste, the more generous spirits endeavoured to preserve an ideal of knighthood which should have a practical bearing on the circumstances of their own life. The task was one of singular difficulty. All round them they saw a revolution in the ancient system of things. The conditions of warfare were changing; the old feudal militia and knightly exercises were being superseded by the use of mercenary troops and gunpowder. Education was changing. Arms were no longer, as in the days of Surrey, the groundwork of instruction; but the boy of gentle birth took his place side by side with the son of the farmer or the tradesman at one of the schools which the liberality of men, filled with the spirit of the great classical revival, was founding in every part of England. Here all alike were taught to speak Latin and to study geography and history, and the children of the ruling order became aware of the growing importance of the middle classes in the constitution of society. When the young nobleman or gentleman, having completed his education at the University, was sent to acquire the accomplishments of life on the Continent, he had an opportunity of seeing that the intercourse of monarchs was no longer conducted by means of heralds, but by the arts of scholars and diplomatists; and he might gain an insight into the new and strange windings which rival ambitions and religious discord were introducing into the labyrinth of European politics. It was only when he entered upon his life as a courtier, that he seemed to pass into the atmosphere of the Middle Ages. At the Court the image of knighthood, with all its Catholic and Feudal associations, was constantly before his mind, in the tournament, the chase, the tennis court, the masque, the pageant, and other kinds of diversion transmitted from the ancient life of the castle. But the old days of adventure had vanished, and in the mere routine of courtly etiquette there seemed to be no outlet through which the man of imagination could express his great conceptions in action. This harsh contrast between mediæval memories and modern realities produced in many high-spirited English gentlemen a state of feeling which is vividly represented in the life and writings of Sir Philip Sidney. Born in 1554, Philip Sidney, through both parents, derived his lineage from the noble and knightly families of England. His father, Sir Henry Sidney, the owner of Penshurst Place in Kent, had been the companion in boyhood of Edward VI., and continued in the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth to be employed in places of trust at Court. He married Lady Mary Dudley, daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, executed in the reign of Mary for his conspiracy on behalf of Lady Jane Grey; and he thus became the brother-in-law of Lord Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester, so long the prime favourite of Elizabeth. After serving meritoriously as Viceroy in Ireland, Henry Sidney, in 1562, was made Lord President of Wales; and, while making his abode in those parts, not unnaturally sent his eldest son Philip to the school at Shrewsbury which had been founded in 1551, and being at that time, according to Camden, the largest school in England-was taught by Thomas Ashton as headmaster.1 Here Philip remained till, at the age of fourteen, he was sent to Christ Church, Oxford, where the extreme Protestant party was then in the ascendant. 1 Fox Bourne's Sir Philip Sidney (1891), p. 26. His tutor at Christ Church was Dr. Thomas Thornton, a man of mark; and among his fellow-students were Hakluyt, author of the well-known book of travels, Camden, the antiquary, and Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke. From his early boyhood the character of Philip Sidney seems to have been remarkably grave and reflective, and this point must be remembered in estimating the autobiographical value of some of his poetry that will be hereafter referred to.1 1 Having finished his University studies he went, in 1572, in attendance on the Earl of Lincoln, ambassador to Charles IX., and was in Paris during the massacre of St. Bartholomew, at the house of Francis Walsingham, his future father-in-law. The same year he started on a course of foreign travel with the view of completing his education, and he remained abroad till 1575. His first experiences were in Germany, where he made the acquaintance of all the Protestant princes, and of the man who exercised a lifelong influence over his thought and character. Hubert Languet (1518-81) was a Protestant Humanist, that is, one of a large class which took up an intellectual position not far removed from, but somewhat in advance of, the opinions of Erasmus, and midway between Catholicism and the Protestantism of the more extreme followers of Luther. Bred to a life of diplomacy, he had embraced the opinions of Melanchthon, and endeavoured to form a practical guide of conduct from the blended light of Reason and Scripture. Sidney has drawn his character in the Arcadia:The song I sang old Languet had me taught, Languet the shepherd best swift Ister knew For clerkly rede and hating what is naught, For faithful heart, clean hands, and mouth as true; To have a feeling taste of Him that sits Beyond the Heaven, far more beyond our wits. 1 "I will report no other wonder than this," says Fulke Greville, "that though I lived with him and knew him from a child, yet I never knew him other than a man" (the Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney, by Sir Fulk Grevil (1652), p. 6). The same quality is noted in many passages of Languet's letters to him. And his father styled him Lumen familiæ suæ (Grevil's Life, p. 7). He said the music best thilk powers pleased And lowest sink not down to jot of ill: With old true tales he wont mine ears to fill, The correspondence between Languet and Sidney furnishes an invaluable clue to the intellectual development of the latter. Delighted with the freshness and enthusiasm of his new friend, the elder man encouraged him to open his heart on every subject, and Sidney was not slow to avail himself of the experience and advice of the diplomatist. Passing on from Frankfort to Vienna, and thence to Venice, he lets Languet see in a letter that he is smitten with the passion of learning for learning's sake: "he is studying astronomy," he says, " and getting a notion of music." 2 Languet, referring to the subject in a later letter, gives him little encouragement in this course. "You must consider," he observes, "what are your prospects, and how quickly you will have to abandon this literary use; and consequently you ought to give to those matters that are absolutely needful all the little time you have. I call those things needful of which it is discreditable for a man of high rank to be ignorant, and which by and by will perhaps serve you for ornament and resource."3 Such was in effect also the advice of Castiglione in his Courtier, and Sidney, feeling its good sense, made the most of his opportunities. At Venice he became acquainted with Tintoretto and Paul Veronese, who painted a portrait of him, and he attended the entertainments of the magnificoes; at Vienna, whither he returned in 1575, he acted on the counsels of Castiglione in the Courtier, and perfected himself in horsemanship. The account which he gives of his teacher, John Peter Pugliano, in the Apology for Poetry, furnishes a vivid illustration of the chivalrous ideal of the age : 1 Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney (Grosart), vol. iii. p. 34. 2 Letter of 19th December 1573, Fox Bourne's Life, p. 73. 3 Letter of 22nd January 1574, Fox Bourne's Life, p. 74. |