Selected Writings

Sidney Philip

Sir Philip Sidney is the first major poet-critic. His biographer, Fulke Greville, portrayed him as a model of correctness, noble bearing and heroism. Sidney was a considerable figure in his day and is still renowned for his three major literary works: "The Defence of Poetry" (the first great essay on poetry in English), "Astrophil and Stella" (one of the finest of the English sonnet sequences) and "Arcadia" ( a romance with a claim to be the first English novel).

This selection includes the full text of the "Defence of Poetry" and "Astrophil and Stella", fully annotated, with a selection of the other poems. "When Sidney died", writes Richard Dutton, "those who mourned him did so as a hero of Protestant Europe, a model of Christian virtue, of the Renaissance scholar-poet, of the true knight". Dutton corrects the exaggerations in the popular view, painting a human, fallible and credible figure. He also emerges as a more sympathetic writer, losing the coldness of the heroic gloss that normally accompanies him.

About the Author

Sir Phillip Sidney was born in Penhurst, Kent and attended the Shrewsbury School and Christ Church College, Oxford. He was a courtly celebrity of his day, working for Elizabeth I as an ambassador and soldier, as well as being her most highly favoured poet. His works "Astrophil and Stella", "The Countess of Pemroke's Arcadia" and "The Defence of Poesy", are considered to be the greatest surviving examples of renaissance rhetoric and courtly love poetry.

In 1585 Sidney was made governor of Flushing in the Netherlands where he fought against the influx of Spanish Catholicism, receiving a mortal wound to the leg in a skirmish at Zutphen, in 1586. His body was returned to England the following year and interred at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Back to the list of books