The Chivalric Feelings of the Nation supported by Spenser ... and by Sir Philip Sidney ... Allusions to Sidney’s Life ... particularly his kindly Consideration ... Chivalric Politeness of the Age of Elizabeth ... The Earl of Oxford ... Tilts in Greenwich Park ... Sir Henry Lee ... Chivalry reflected in the popular Amusements ... Change of Manners ... Reign of James the First ... Tournaments ceased, on Prince Henry’s Death ... Life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury ... Chivalric Fame of his Family ... His Character ... His Inferiority to the Knights of yore ... Decline of Chivalric Education ... Important Change in Knighthood by the Parliament of Charles the First ... Application of Chivalric Honors to Men of civil Station ... Knights made in the Field ... Carpet Knights ... Knights of the Bath ... Full Account of the Ancient Ceremonies of creating Knights of the Bath.
The chivalric feelings of the nation supported by Spenser,
The reigns of Edward VI. and Mary present nothing to our purpose; but the Elizabethan age is fraught with interest. Our continued intercourse with Italy promoted anew the love for romance and allegory which religious controversy had for some years been gradually stifling. Though classical literature had revived in Italy, the muse of chivalry was most fondly worshipped, and the mind delighted to wander amidst the enchanted garden of Armida. Our well-travelled ancestors brought home with them the love for romantic poetry and allegory; and Spenser’s genius, influenced by the prevailing taste of his day, chose Ariosto for his model, and painted the wild adventures of heroes and ladies. Chivalry was the supposed perfection of man’s moral nature; and the English poet, therefore, described the chief private virtues exemplified in the conduct of knights: it being his wish, as he expressed his mind to Sir Walter Raleigh, to fashion a gentleman or noble person in valorous and gentle discipline. His principal hero, he in whom the image of a brave knight was perfected in the twelve moral virtues, was King Arthur; and the poet freely used the circumstances and sentiments in the romances relating to that British hero, and also the other popular tales of chivalry.
and Sir Philip Sidney.
If poetry nourished the love of valorous knighthood, learning was equally its friend; and when Spenser addressed Sidney as the noble and virtuous gentleman, and most worthy of all titles of learning and chivalry, he spoke the feeling of his age, that the accomplishments of the mind were best displayed in martial demeanour. At the birth of Sidney, as Ben Jonson says, all the muses met. In reading the Arcadia, it is impossible to separate the author from the work, or to think that he has not poured forth all those imaginings of his fancy which his heart had marked for its own. He has pourtrayed knights and damsels valiant and gentle, placing all their fond aspirations of happiness in a rural life, and despising the pageantry of courts for the deep harmonies of nature. But Sidney’s mind was chivalric as well as romantic; and he was so fond of reverting to the fabled ages of his country, that it was his intention to turn all the stories of the Arcadia into the admired legends of Arthur and his knights.[116] To modern taste the Arcadia of Sir Philip Sidney presents no charms: yet, by a singular contradiction, the author, who was the personification of his book, is regarded as the model of perfection.
“The plume of war! with early laurels crown’d,
The lover’s myrtle, and the poet’s bay.”[117]
The popularity, however, of the Arcadia, in the Elizabethan age[118], and the high reputation of the author, showed the sympathy of the world in those days for the romance of chivalry.
Allusions to his life.
The few circumstances in the brief life of Sidney are too well known for me to be justified in detailing them: but I may remind my readers that he was born at Penshurst in Kent, in the year 1544; that he was accomplished in literature and chivalry by study and travel; that he was a courtier of Elizabeth, and yet could oppose her dearest fancies, if they were hostile to the interests of his country; that his opposition to her projected union with Anjou was spirited and well reasoned; that his love for his sister and his wife was the softening grace of that desire for chivalric valour which carried him with his uncle the Earl of Leicester to the plains of Flanders, in the year 1586; and when he received his mortal wound before the town of Zutphen, that he resigned a cup of water to the poor soldier whose lot he thought was more distressing than his own. His courage, his gallantry, and grace were his best known qualities, and those for which England and, indeed, Europe, lamented his death. His funeral in St. Paul’s was a national one, the first instance in our history of honours of that description; and for many months afterwards not an individual in the court or city appeared in public, except in a garment of black:—in such high account were chivalric virtues held in the days of Elizabeth.
Particularly his kindly consideration.