Understanding Sidney: Astrophil and Stella by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview

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SIR PHILIP SIDNEY

Sir Philip Sidney lived from 1554 to 1586. He was only 32 years old when he died. And, as some scholars remark, when he died, all of England mourned. However, the people of England, in 1586, were not mourning the death of a poet. Rather, they were mourning the death of a hero, of a popular figure and a noble lord in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Like many writers of times long past, Sidney's poetry and other literary works were not published until after his death. England's mourning would surely have been increased if the majority of the people at that time had realized that they had lost not only a great lord, but also a great poet.

In all likelihood, the members of Queen

Elizabeth's court, though, were quite familiar with Sidney's poetic gifts. Reading poetry was a common practice in the court at that time. And Sidney's poetry would have been passed around in manuscript form as would the poetry of other individuals connected with the court, including the Queen herself. Thus, in only a few short years after his death, and still during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sidney's poetry was published and made available to all of the people in England.

Sidney, like other Renaissance poets, did not make a career of writing. Writing poetry was an avocation, a labor of love. It was not a job. Sidney was a courtier and a soldier. He served as a diplomat for Queen Elizabeth. Like most aristocrats, Sidney had certain advantages not available to the commoners. He attended Oxford University, but he never graduated. Because he was financially established, he could also support other writers. Sidney was a patron of other poets. And the student should note that Sidney was even the patron of Edmund Spenser, one of the greatest Renaissance poets.

Sidney died the death of a hero. Queen

Elizabeth criticized Sidney because he would often fight for Protestant causes. During the 16^th century the growth of the Protestant Reformation led to serious and deadly political conflicts between Catholic countries and Protestant ones. In 1586 Sidney went to the Netherlands to help that Protestant country fight against their enemy, Spain (a Catholic country). During the conflict a musket ball (an early form of bullet) struck Sidney. The wound that he received became infected, and soon after Sidney died from that infection. Sidney is known for writing three great works of literature, all of which, as mentioned, were published after his death:

(1) His Arcadia, published in 1590, is a pastoral romance. This long work is actually, for the most part, written in prose. However, many poetic passages are intermixed with the rest of the text.

(2) Sidney's Defence of Poesy (Poetry) was published in 1595. This book is a major work of literary criticism, and many authorities still consider it as one of the most essential works of criticism of all time. In it, Sidney emphasizes moral poetry. Poetry should present moral lessons and moral attitudes.

(3) Astrophil and Stella was published in 1591, but it was written circa 1582. This is the first great sonnet cycle or sonnet sequence in Elizabethan literature. For this work, Sidney found inspiration in the Italian poet Francis Petrarch. More than 200 years before Sidney wrote his sonnets, Petrarch wrote a series of sonnets chronicling his emotional ups and downs because of his unrequited love for a woman named Laura. Sidney revived this approach in his own sonnet sequence that also depicts a man's unrequited love for a woman.