Select Specimens of the English Poets, Ed by a de Vere

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Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012 - 324 стор.
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. Sib Philip Sidney, the glory of Queen Elizabeth's court, presented there the image of a chivalry which belonged rather to that of Edward III. A scholar, a soldier, and a courtier, he was great alike in all the walks of greatness. The estimate in which he was held by the world at large is attested by the foreign throne which was offered to him; while such was the love entertained for him at home, that all England wore mourning at his death. He died on the field of Zutphen. His character is happily illustrated by a well-known trait. A cup of water had been brought to assuage his dying thirst; he waved it away, pointing to a wounded soldier beside him, and saying, He needs it more than I. The variety of his pursuits prevented Sidney from attaining as high a degree of excellence in literature as would otherwise have been reached by him, even in his brief career; but his poetry, which is replete with beauty, purity, and refined grace, is marked not less by a peculiar and chivalrous nobleness, characteristic of him who was regarded as Europe's first gentleman. At his family seat, Penshurst, many memorials of Sidney are preserved; and amid the groves of Wilton still remains Sidney's walk. It is a memorial, both of him and of his celebrated sister, the Countess of Pembroke, in concert with whom he wrote his Arcadia. Sidney was born in 1554, and died in 1586, at the age of thirty-two. With how sad steps, O Moon ! thou climb'st the skies, How silently, and with how wan a face ! What may it be, that even in heavenly place That busy archer his sharp arrows tries ? Sure, if that long with love acquainted eyes Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case; I read it in thy looks, thy languished grace To me that feel the like thy state descrie...

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