This History commences at the Creation, and descends as far as the end of the second Macedonian War; when, in consequence of the death of Prince Henry, for whose instruction it was intended, he ceased from his arduous labours. The work displays a vast extent of reading in history, philosophy, theology, and Rabbinical learning.
Like Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney combined the characters of the warrior and the author. His Arcadia was a work of poetic prose, better suited to the time in which he lived than to any subsequent period, and is almost forgotten; and the stiffness and hard formality of his poetry has almost sunk it in like oblivion. A writer who is not an author for all time, may be a very useful and agreeable one in his day, but lacks power and thoughtfulness. It is only those who have the “one touch of Nature” which “makes the whole world kin,” that are independent of time, and live with the kindred spirits of all ages.
Time puts out the lesser lights which burn only to light some small apartment and corner of the world, but cannot extinguish the suns which are formed to illuminate the whole earth.
Sir Philip Sidney was rather a discerning patron of letters than a man of letters. He was the first patron and friend of Spenser, whom he introduced to the Queen, and their friendship endured till Sidney’s lamented death. Perhaps in the whole range of literary history, there is no incident so beautiful as the mutual friendship and familiar intercourse of Raleigh, Spenser, and Sidney. This pleasing friendship is frequently alluded to by Spenser. The ‘Faerie Queene’ is dedicated to Raleigh, whose return from his Western Expedition is celebrated in the Pastoral, entitled, “Colin Clout’s come home again;” from which we learn that it was their custom to recline
“... amongst the coolly shade
Of the green alders by the Mulla’s shore,”
and recite to each other their poetic effusions.
How beautiful a picture of the simplicity of great minds! It strikes us as a more lovely picture than the much-admired one of Chaucer, solitary among the daisies of the Woodstock meadows.
Sidney inspired Spenser with no mere mercenary friendship, the affection of the client for his patron’s substantial marks of favour. When death smote Sidney on the sad field of Zutphen, Spenser invoked every Muse to weep over his untimely fall, and celebrated his virtues in the beautiful elegy “The Tears of the Muses for Astrophel.” It will perhaps relieve the dryness of our subject, to observe that the first poetical use of the Forget-me-not, (Myosotis palustris) as a symbol of faithfulness, occurs in this poem, and the English reader may there find a more fitting reason to esteem this little flower than the absurd German legend of a drowning knight throwing a spray of it to his ladye-love.
The Astrophel of the following lines from Spenser’s Elegy, is Sidney; Stella is the name by which Sidney addressed his Mistress, who, it is feigned, was unable to survive his loss, and,