The learned of Europe dedicated their works to him; the republic of Poland thought him at least worthy to be in the nomination for their crown. All the muses of England wept his death. When we, at this distance of time, inquire what prodigious merits excited such admiration, what do we find?-Great valour.-But it was an age of heroes.-In full of all other talents, we have a tedious, lamentable, pedantic, pastoral romance4, which the patience of a young virgin in love cannot now wade through; and some absurd attempts to fetter English verse in Roman chains; a proof that this applauded author understood little of the genius of his own language. The few of his letters extant he had often sent for, his stomach being nice, and the small beer of Gray's inn not liking his palate. Oxford Cabinet, p. 13.] 4 [Cowper, a critic of more taste and more candour than lord Orford, has left a fairer report of "Those Arcadian scenes, that Maro sings, See the Task, book iv.] [Sidney was preceded in this successless attempt by Spenser and Harvey, the latter of whom was proud to be considered as the primus artifex: hence the following egotistic boast in one of his controversial squabbles with Nash: "If I never deserve anye better remembraunce, let me be epitaphed, The Inventour of the English Hexameter, whome learned M. Stanihurst imitated in his. Virgill, and excellent sir Philip Sid. are poor matters; one to a steward of his father, an instance of unwarrantable violence. By far the best presumption of his abilities" (to ney disdained not to follow in his Arcadia and elsewhere." Foure Letters, &c. 1592. An anonymous writer endeavoured to revive this antiquated taste in 1737, by publishing An Introduction of the Greek and Latin Measures into British Poetry; and he has been followed by that luminous star in our poetic hemisphere, Mr. Southey, but without any very visible effect.] Sidney Papers, vol. i. p. 256. [Secretary, says the superscription.] 7 I have been blamed for not mentioning sir Philip's Defence of Poetry, which some think his best work. I had indeed forgot it when I wrote this article; a proof that I at least did not think it sufficient foundation for so high a character as he acquired. This was all my criticism pretended to say, that I could not conceive how a man, who in some respects had writ ten dully and weakly, and who, at most, was far inferior to our best authors, had obtained such immense reputation. Let his merits and his fame be weighed together, and then let it be determined whether the world has overvalued, or I undervalued sir Philip Sidney. [The world, or that portion of it which constitutes the republic of letters, does not seem persuaded to reverse its early decree in favour of sir P. Sidney's claim to posthumous celebrity. For notwithstanding lord Orford's apology, the attempt to wrench the laurel or the bay from the brows of such a hero, must be deemed an invidious task. His contemporaries crowned him with the well-earned garland for his manifold accomplishments as a soldier and a scholar. By them he was hailed as "England's Mars and Muse;" as "the wonder of the wise and sage;" as "the Fitzgeffrey's Life of Sir F. Drake, 1596. us who can judge only by what we see) is a pamphlet published amongst the Sidney pa subject of true virtue's story';" as "the honey-bee of the daintiest flowers of wit and art ;" and what age, says one who was less habituated to commend than censure," what age will not praise immortal sir P. Sidney, for one of the chief pillars of our English speech?"-" The poets of his time," says Wood, "especially Spenser, reverenced, not only as a patron but a master, this short-lived ornament of his noble family, this Marcellus of the English nation, whose pen and sword have rendered him so famous that as he died by the one he will ever live by the other." Phillips, or his illustrious uncle, speaks of him as equally addicted both to arts and arms, and styles him the "great English Mæcenas of virtue, learning, and ingenuity." The modern editor of Phillips may also be adduced as an able vindicator of Sidney's reputation from the censure of lord Orford. He thinks his lordship does sir Philip great injustice in representing him as an object of temporary admiration only; for when we recollect the career of his glory, the excellences both of his head and heart, and the variety of his almost opposite attainments, and then consider that he died before he had completed his thirty-second year, his fame does not appear to have been greater than his merit; nor is it possible (he adds) for that fame to have lasted so long without some very extraordinary foundation." From the stigma cast upon the Arcadia, and which has with reason been imputed to lord Orford's love of singularity", sir Philip has been well defended by a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1767; but indeed while our admirable Cowper applauded him as the warbler of poetic prose, and delighted to roam in his Arcadian a Barnefield's Shepherd's Content, 1594. pers, being an answer to the famous libel called Leicester's Commonwealth. It defends his uncle with great spirit. What had been said in derogation to their blood seems to have touched sir Philip most. He died with the rashness of a volunteer, after having lived to write with the sang froid and prolixity of mademoiselle Scuderi. Let not this examination of a favourite character be taken in an ill light. There can be no motive but just criticism for calling in question the fame of another man at this distance of time. Were posterity to allow all the patents bestowed by cotemporaries, the temple of fame would be crowded by worthless dignitaries. How many princes would be pressing in, the weakest or wickedest of mankind, because courtiers or medals called them great! one man still appears there by a yet more admissible title, Philip the good duke of Burgundy-one shudders to read what massacres he made of his Flemish subjects. Louis the thirteenth claims. scenes, the frivolous cavils of lord Orford are likely to have little effect, and may even prove insufficient to screen the compiler of this long note from an imputation of superfluous zeal.] Sidney Papers, in the Introduction, p. 62. [And entitled, "A Discourse in Defence of the Earl of Leycester." It appears not to have been printed elsewhere.] Queen Elizabeth said of lord Essex, "We shall have him knocked o' the head like that rash fellow Sidney." under the title of the just: there can scarce be a more abominable fact than one in Voltaire's Universal History. Monsieur de Cinqmars, the king's favourite, had, with his majesty's secret approbation, endeavoured to destroy Richlieuand failed. The king was glad to appease the cardinal, by sacrificing his friend, whom he used to call Cher Ami. When the hour of execution arrived, Louis pulled out his watch, and with a villainous smile, said, "Je crois qu'à cette heure cher ami fait un vilaine mine." Voltaire, commending him, says, that this king's character is not sufficiently known.—It was not indeed, while such an anecdote remained unstained with the blackest colours of history! I am sensible that I have wandered from my subject by touching on sir Philip Sidney; but writing his life is writing sir Fulke Grevill's, who piqued himself most, and it was his chief merit, on being, as he styled himself on his tomb, THE FRIEND OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY4. 4 [Webb gives the inscription thus, in his Miscellaneous Epitaphs, vol. ii. p. 143. "Here lies the body of FULKE GREVILLE; And Friend to sir Philip Sydney." VOL. II. Warwick Church. |