SIDNEY, SIR PHILIP, was born, as is supposed, at Penshurst in Kent, in the year 1544. 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 Christ-Church College at Oxford, but left the university at seventeen 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 Rodolph, the 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, and great 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 his conduct, that his reputation rose to the highest pitch. He was named, it is said, 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 being wounded at the battle of Zutphen, he was carried to Arnheim, where he died on the 15th of October 1586. 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 formed even by the wanton imagination of poetry or of 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 liter-
ature, his praises have been transmitted with advantage to posterity. No person was so law as not to become an object of his humanity. After the battle of Zutphen, whilst he was lying on the field mangled with wounds, water was brought him to relieve his thirst; but observing a soldier in a like miserable condition, looking wistfully towards him, he resigned it to him, saying, "This man's necessity is still greater than mine." Besides his Arcadia, he wrote a discourse on Poetry, and some other pieces both in prose and verse, which have been published. There is a complete edition of his works in three volumes octavo, Lond. 1725.