Stella. The Lady Penelopê Devereux, the object of Sir Philip Sidney’s affection. She married Lord Rich, and was a widow in Sidney’s life-time. Spenser says, in his Astrophel, when Astrophel (Sir Philip) died, Stella died of grief, and the “two lovers” were converted into one flower, called “Starlight,” which is first red, and, as it fades, turns blue. Some call it penthea, but henceforth (he says) it shall be called “Astrophel.” It is a pure fiction that Stella died from grief at the death of Sidney, for she afterwards married Charles Blount, created by James I. earl of Devonshire. The poet himself must have forgotten his own lines:
No less praiseworthy Stella do I read,
Tho’ nought my praises of her needed are,
Whom verse of noblest shepherd lately dead [1586]
Hath praised and raised above each other star.
Spenser, Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1591).
Stella. Miss Hester Johnson was so called by Swift, to whom she was privately married in 1706. Hester is first changed into the Greek aster, and “aster” in Latin, like stella, means “a star.” Stella lived with Mrs. Dingley, on Ormond Quay, Dublin.
Poor Stella must pack off to town ...
To Liffy’s stinking tide at Dublin ...
To be directed there by Dingley ...