speaking against the Pope. Escaping shipwreck that time, he was careful never to offend again by an obtrusive profession of his faith. A Yorkshireman, son of Lord Scroop's steward, he had little of the Yorkshire vigour; a man of delicate constitution, of gentle and polished manners; noted for his fine penmanship and elegant scholarly acquirements, and having not a little of the dexterity of the courtier. The Toxophilus' (1545) is a dialogue on archery, sustained by Philologus and Toxophilus-Lover of the Book, and Lover of the Bow. It gives the history of the bow, compares archery with other recreations, recommends it as an exercise for the student, tells the best kind of wood for the bow, discusses the art of shooting, &c.; above all, it declares what England owes to the bow, and urges every Englishman to practise the national weapon. Upon the merits of this side of the treatise he received his pension from Henry. The Schoolmaster' (published in 1570, after his death) discusses the readiest means of acquiring a knowledge of Latin, and criticises the style of Varro, Sallust, Cicero, and Cæsar. In both "Toxophilus' and the 'Schoolmaster' he takes great liberty of digression, but does little to redeem his promise of great things under modest titles. He announced a Book of the Cockpit,' in defence of his frequenting that place of amusement, but the work was never published. His chief service to English prose is the example he sets, as a scholar and a courtier, of writing in the vernacular. This service is acknowledged by Dr Nathan Drake. Thomas Fuller says of him-" He was an honest man, and a good shooter. Archery was his pastime in youth, which, in his old age, he exchanged for cock-fighting. His 'Toxophilus' is a good book for young men; his 'Schoolmaster' for old, his ' Epistles' for all men." A collected edition of his English works was published in 1761. Another reprint in 1815 is modernised, not only in the spelling but in the language. Sir Thomas North, a collateral ancestor of the Guilford family, issued in 1579 an English version of Plutarch's Lives,' rendered from the French translation by Amyot. The work was very popular, until superseded by Dryden's translation. It is closely followed by Shakspeare in Coriolanus,' 'Julius Cæsar,' and 'Antony and Cleopatra.' An earlier work of his-the 'Dial of Princes,' a translation of Guevara's 'El Libro de Marco Aurelio,' published in 1557-is still more interesting for the history of prose style. It throws strong light on the derivation of Lyly's Euphuism (see p. 229). There are passages in it that might pass for Lyly's. Holinshed's Chronicle,' published about 1580, is known to many readers only from its being utilised by Shakspeare, who made Holinshed's translation of Boece the basis of Macbeth.' In the composition of his 'Chronicles,' which profess to be a complete history of Great Britain and Ireland, Holinshed, himself a man of uncertain biography, had several assistants, whose lives are equally obscure. The prefatory account of England in the sixteenth century, the most valuable part of the work, was written by William Harrison; the history and description of Ireland by Richard Stanihurst. John Hooker, the Chamberlain of Exeter, and uncle of "the judicious Hooker," is also said to have given some assistance. CHAPTER II. FROM 1580 TO 1610. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, 1554-1586. In the prose works of Sir Philip Sidney we discern an advance on the style of all preceding writers. The advance is not perhaps great-we are not to suppose that prose style departed from the usual law of gradual progress :—still, whatever the difference may be in the ultimate analysis, undeniably his prose is nearer the present style of English than any prose of anterior date. His style has a flow and elevation not to be found in any prose work before his time. On that ground, although he is "a warbler of poetic prose," his literary fame resting chiefly on a romance, it is desirable to analyse his style simply as a prose style at some length. As the "Hero of Zutphen," Sidney is one of the most popular characters in English history; and in his own day, at a very early age, was celebrated all over Europe for his discretion, courage, and accomplishments. It is said that he was mooted as a candidate for the throne of Poland, and that Elizabeth put her veto on the rising negotiation, because she could not part with "the jewel of her time." He was born at Penshurst in Kent; son of Sir Henry Sidney-a knight who became a favourite with Elizabeth, and was famed as an administrator of Ireland; and nephew to the Earl of Leicester. He was educated at Shrewsbury, and at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1572, at the age of seventeen, he set out with three years' leave of absence to travel on the Continent; was in Paris during the massacre of St Bartholomew, and went thence to Frankfort, Vienna, and the chief cities of Italy. During these travels, unlike most travellers of his rank, he associated with scholars and statesmen, making an earnest study of European politics. Introduced at Court in 1575, his mixed courtesy and gravity at once made him a favourite. In 1577, at the age of twenty-two, being sent as ambassador in great state to congratulate the new Emperor of Germany, and discover as far as possible his tendencies, he met William the Silent of Orange, who pronounced him one of the ripest statesmen in Europe. During the eight following years, he had no public employment, and lived chiefly at Court. In 1578 he wrote his masque 'The Lady of the May,' performed at Elizabeth's reception by his uncle the Earl of Leicester. Probably about the same time he began his sonnets to 'Stella,' the daughter of the Earl of Essex, afterwards married to Lord Rich. In the same year he had Spenser living with him at Penshurst. In 1580 he wrote the 'Arcadia,' dedicated to his celebrated sister, the Countess of Pembroke. In the following year he is supposed to have written the Apologie for Poetrie.' After this he became too much engaged in politics to have time for literature. As a statesman, he devoted himself to the policy of humbling the power of Spain. He had boldly written to Elizabeth in 1580, dissuading her from the marriage with Anjou, and now he was eager that the Queen should take active part with the Continental Protestants. This not being done, he impatiently planned with Drake a secret expedition to strike at the Spanish colonies in America, but was interdicted just at starting. At last Elizabeth resolved to stir, and in the fall of 1585 sent him to the Netherlands as Governor of Flushing along with an army under Leicester. Commencing operations in spring, Sidney showed great enterprise and skill, but was mortally wounded in a rencounter at Zutphen, and died Oct. 17, 1586. The touching incident that has endeared his memory, and made him known to every schoolboy, occurred as he rode wounded from the battle. Though he was well known as a writer, and widely esteemed as a patron of literary men during his life, none of his works were published till after his death. The Arcadia' was first printed in 1590, the Apologie for Poetrie' in 1595. In personal appearance Sidney was tall and handsome, with clear complexion, and hair of a dark amber colour. By Spenser's testimony he excelled in athletic sports-" in wrestling nimble, and in running swift; in shooting steady, and in swimming strong; well made to strike, to throw, to leap, to lift." He was of such prowess in the tournament, that on the occasion of a great festival he was selected as one of four champions to keep the lists in honour of England against all comers. It is not often that we find in union with such physical prowess any remarkable powers of mind. In Elizabeth's Court there were ་ many able men both physically and mentally, but none of those that were a match for Sidney in the tournament could have written the Arcadia' or the 'Apology for Poetry.' Even in his healthy active boyhood Sidney was remarkably studious; "his talk," says his schoolfellow Fulke Greville, ever of knowledge, and his very play tending to enrich the mind." When he grew to manhood, his sagacity in practical affairs soon won him golden opinions from more than one veteran statesman. If we look to his writings, we find abundant proofs of intellectual vigour. His diction is copious and felicitous, unmistakably significant of mental quickness and force. In his 'Arcadia' we are constantly struck with the extreme volatility and subtlety of his fancy. In the Apology, along with a similar sprightliness, we meet with passages suggestive of more solid power. In defending poetry against the Puritans, it shows considerable rhetorical perspicacity to claim the Psalms of David as "divine poems." And there is no small discernment in his maintaining that a poem might be written in prose; that verse is but an ornament and no cause to poetry." Taken all in all, his works bear evidence of versatile, fresh, and vigorous intellect, and support what is recorded of his adroit courtesy and sagacious observation of affairs. As regards his emotional character, were we to judge solely from his writings, we should take him to have been a man of ebullient spirits, tempered by extraordinary sweetness and warmth of disposition. This is the impression left by the soft exuberant humour of the Apology, and its strong expressions of delight in the works of the poet. He seems to have been a pleasant companion, although not of the rollicking, pleasure-loving temper that perpetually craves for society. Gay with the gay among his boon companions, he could also be serious with the serious. He loved to exchange thoughts in private colloquy with such men as Languet and Spenser. At times he courted solitude, and would even seem to have undergone fits of melancholy and despondency, as when, before leaving England for the last time, he expressed a presentiment that he should never return. To the creations of art he turned with ever fresh delight. He was not an optimist; he did not find enduring satisfaction, abundant means of enjoyment, in the actual world; he took refuge from facts in the regions of imagination" Nature's world," he said, "is brazen, the poet's only golden." The ruling emotion in his creative efforts, as we shall see when we come to analyse the qualities of his style, is tenderness-not the wild passionate tenderness of the Celtic nature, but a soft and courtly phase of the emotion. His imagination did not dwell sadly upon the sorrowful side of life, but joyfully spent itself in playful humour, in graceful fancies, in pictures of beautiful women and beautiful scenery, and in deeds of romantic devotion. |