SIDNEY, SIR PHILIP, was born, as is supposed, at Penruddock in Kent in the year 1554: His father was Sir Henry Sidney, an Irish gentleman, and his mother Mary the eldest daughter of John Dudley duke of Northumberland. He was sent when very young to Christchurch college at Oxford, but left the university at 17 to set out on his travels. After visiting France, Germany, Hungary, and Italy, he returned to England in 1575, and was next year sent by Queen Elizabeth as her ambassador to Randolph emperor of Germany. On his return he visited Don John of Austria, governor of the Netherlands, by whom he was received with great respect. In 1579, when Queen Elizabeth seemed on the point of concluding her long projected marriage with the duke of Anjou, Sir Philip wrote her a letter, in which he dissuaded her from the match with unusual elegance of expression, as well as force of reasoning. About this time a quarrel with the earl of Oxford occasioned his withdrawing from court; during which retirement he is supposed to have written his celebrated romance called Arcadia.
In 1585, after the queen's treaty with the United States, he was made governor of Flushing and master of the horse. Here he distinguished himself so much both by his courage and conduct, that his reputation rose to the highest pitch. He was named, it is pretended, by the republic of Poland as one of the competitors for that crown, and might even have been elected had it not been for the interference of the queen. But his illustrious career was soon terminated; for in 1586 he was wounded at the battle of Zutphen, and carried to Arnheim, where he soon after died. His body was brought to London, and buried in St Paul's cathedral. He is described by the writers of that age as the most perfect model of an accomplished gentleman that could be form-
ed even by the wanton imagination of poetry or fiction. Virtuous conduct, polite conversation, heroic valour, and elegant erudition, all concurred to render him the ornament and delight of the English court: and as the credit which he enjoyed with the queen and the earl of Leicester was wholly employed in the encouragement of genius and literature, his praises have been transmitted with advantage to posterity. No person was so low as not to become an object of his humanity. After the battle of Zutphen, while he was lying on the field mangled with wounds, a bottle of water was brought him to relieve his thirst; but observing a soldier near him in a like miserable condition, he said, This man's necessity is still greater than mine; and resigned to him the bottle of water. Besides his Arcadia, he wrote several smaller pieces both in prose and verse, which have been published.