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has always been vigilant, and his forth so happy a temper in their off judgment enlightened by taste. spring."

Sir Philip Sidney derived every Here are distinctly indicated, the advantage from two noble and excel. high spirit of ancestry, and the tenlent parents. His father, sir Henry, der melancholy of the mother; feawas a sage, a statesman, and had tures entirely lost in the portrait even been a hero ; but at this early blurred over by Dr. Zouch. He period of life, the character of the should have inquired whether the mother is of some importance. She maternal character did not consideris thus described by Dr. Zouch. ably influence that of sir Philip him

“ Nor was his mother less illustrious, self. We have no doubt that it did. or less amiable. Mary, the eldest daugh. In his defence of his uncle, lord Leiter of the unfortunate duke of Northum, cester, he alludes, with this highberland, alienated from the follies and

toned feeling to his descent: “I am vanities of life, by those tragical events in her own family, of which she had been

a Dudley in blood, the duke's daugh. an eye-witness, she devoted herself, like ter's son-my chiefest honour is to Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, to be a Dudley.” an employment equally pleasing, useful, Sidney resembled “the melancholy and honourable--the instruction of her Gray;" like him, too, he seems nechildren. It was her delight to form their early habits; to instil into their tender

ver to have been a boy. The lanminds the principles of religion and vir. guage of sir Fulke Greville is that tue; to direct their passions to proper ob. of truth and of the heart. “ I lived jects; to superintend not only their seri. with him, and knew him from a child, pus studies, but even their amusements." yet I never knew him other than a

man, with such staiednesse of mind, We do not reproach this passage lovely and familiar gravity, as carried with a want of elegance, but of defi

grace and reverence above greater nitive ideas. We find in this work, 100 many of these lax and general and his very play tending to enrich

years. His talk ever of knowledge, descriptions, which delineate nothing his mind; so as even his teachers that is individual. The above de. found something in him to observe, scription of sir Philip Sidney's mo

and learn, above that which they had ther may be let out for the use

usually read or taught. Which emi. any other: like those epitaphs on tombstones, which are used by the his worthy father style sir Philip, in

nence by nature and industry, made whole parish in turn. Biographers too often fail in the nice touches of my hearing (though I unseen) Lu

men familiæ suæ, the light of his fathe pencil, and Dr. Zouch has here

mily." dropt an affecting trait in the portrait

His father“ designed him for of this mother, which sir Fulke Gre- foreign travel and the business of a ville has feelingly copied from the life. Alluding to the tragical events compendium of instruction, which

court very early.” He drew up a in her own family, the companion Dr. Zouch has judiciously preserved; and the biographer of Sidney adds : “ She was of a large, ingenuous spirit,

and accompanied it by a continued racked with native strength. She chose and ingenious commentary from two rather to hide herself from the curious eyes

similar compositions of sir Walter of a delicate time, than come upon the Rawleigh, and sir Mathew Hale. The stage of the world, with any manner of English wisdom of these three vene. disparagement the mischance of sick. rable fathers we love infinitely more, ness having cast such a kind of veile over

than we admire the polite cynicism her excellent beauty, as the modesty of that sex doth.”-Again--" This clear of Rochefoucault and Chesterfield. vesse of his father's judgment, and inge- This oldfashioned, massy sense will, mous sensiblenesse of ħis mother's brought in every age, be valued by its weight.

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The academical education of Side esquire, to go out of Englandinto parts ney was completed at both the uni- beyond the seas, with three servants versities, and such was his subse- and four horses; to remain during quent celebrity, that his learned tutor the space of two years, for his aitainchose to commemorate on his tomb, ing the knowledge of foreign lan. that “ He was the tutor of sir Philip guages." Sidney." The same remarkable tes- The earl of Leicester recommendtimony to this extraordinary charac- ed him to sir Francis Walsingham, ter, was given by his friend, sir Fulke our ambassadour in France, whose Greville, lord Brooke, on whose daughter Sidney afterwards married. tomb. was inscribed, as the most last- Charles IX. received him with unuing of his honours, “ Fulke Greville, sual kindness; and made him a genservant to queen Elizabeth, counsel tleman of his chamber. This must lor to king James, and friend to sir have been one of the artifices to trePhilip Sidney!” When afterwards pap the protestants; for Sidney had we find, that there was a long pub- scarcely taken the oaths to his perfilick mourning observed for his death, dious master, ere he became a specand that the eulogiums bestowed on tator of the massacre of St. Barthohim by the most eminent of his con- lomew. temporaries, at home and abroad, are Dr. Zouch has, with much curi. positive and definitive, it seems but osity and judgment, collected the naan idle labour to refute the malici. merous catholick testimonies, many eus ingenuity of Walpole--that light of them written by eminent scholars, work of spangles and fillagree, truth approving and applauding this sanshivers at a single stroke into glitter- guinary scene.

Let the lesson pering atoms !

petually instruct. He accounts for At this momentous period of life, the seeming apathy of the court on when youth steps into manhood, was the occasion, by the political wisdom Sidney a most diligent student, a of Elizabeth: but the emphatick lanlover and a patron of all the arts; but guage which her ministers employhis ruling passion was military fame. ed, expresses their abhorrence of the This he inherited from his father, crime. We regret that we cannot who had distinguished himself on transcribe the fine picture of the si. many occasions, and particularly, in lent resentment of the English court single combat with a Scottish chief- when the French ambassadour passed tain, whom he overthrew and stripped through the circle, as described by of his arms.

himself. He left the university to com. At Paris, Sidney was seen and admence his travels. Dr. Zouch in- mired by Henry IV. the young king forms us of a wise precaution of our

of Navarre. “ He used him," says ancestors on this head.

Fulke Greville “ like an equal in “ In those days, when travelling was

nature, and fit for friendship with a considered as one of the principal causes king. of corrupt morals, a wise and sound poli- At Frankfort, he lodged at the ey dictated the expediency of observing house of Andrew Wechel, one of the the most rigid circumspection in permit- learned printers of the sixteenth centing the English nobility and gentry to visit distant countries; and in general, no

tury. Here he found Hubert Languet, persons were permitted to go abroad, and here he formed his memorable except merchants, and those who were friendship with that bright ornament intended for a military life.”

of literature, who was then resident The royal license was granted by minister from the elector of Saxony. the queen on the 25th of May, 1572, It was usual at this time for scholars and runs in this manner. “ For her to lodge in the houses of eminent trusty and well beloved Philip Sidney, printers. Robert Stephens had fre.

He prac

quently ten learned men in his house, Alexander the Great, inasmuch as all of them foreigners, who occasion. they died at the same age. All these ally corrected his proofs.

parallels are not in the manner of Languet combined with universal Plutarch. There is too much of this erudition, that keen sagacity which grave trifling. We hope the author's. discovers the real characters of men. sermons are more lively. His expertness in the conduct of poli. At Vienna, Sidney seems to have tical affairs, placed him in the confi- perfected himself in those noble acdence and employment of several complishments of the cavalier, with princes, while the suavity of his man- which count Balthassar Castiglione ners, and the classick elegance of his has adorned his courtier. style, won him the hearts of all lite- tised manly and martial exercises, rary men. Such was the person tennis, and musick; and he studied whom young Sidney (for he had not horsemanship with particular attenyet reached his twentieth year) adopt- tion. In his “ Defence of Poetry," ed as his friend, and revered as his he alludes to the partiality of his master. Their communication suf- equestrian preceptor, Pugliano, in fafered no interruption from time or vour of his own professional occupaplace. His pupil thus elegantly com- tion. memorates, in his unfinished Arca- This man, who had the place of an dia, the wisdom and the learning of equerry in the emperour's stables, his friend, while he paints himself spoke so eloquently of that noble aniwith the most delicate modesty. mal, the horse, of his beauty, his “ The song I sang, old Languet had me

faithfulness, and his courage, that taught;

his pupil facetiously says: “ if I had Languet, the shepherd best swift Ister

not been a piece of a logician before knew,

I came to him, I think he would have For clearkly reed, and hating what is persuaded me to have wished myself

naught, For faithful heart, clean hands, and

a horse.” In the second book of the mouth as true.

Arcadia, he has finely described the With his sweet skill, my skilless youth management of this animal. The he drew,

works of a man of genius are thus To have a feeling taste of him that sits

frequently the records of his own Beyond the heaven ; far more beyond your feelings; these self-notices, in which wits.

our best writers abound, have not With old true tales he wont my ears to

been gleaned with sufficient care by fill,

their biographers. How shepherds did of yore, how now they From Venice, the seat of libertinthrive

ism, Sidney soon retired to Padua, He liked me, but pitied lustful youth; where he applied to the sciences of His good strong staff my slippery years geometry, and astronomy. His con

up bore; He still hoped well, because I loved stitutional delicacy, and his dispositruth.”

tion tinged with thoughtful melanThe character of Languet has not choly, induced Languet to admonish been ill drawn by Dr. Zouch ; but him not to neglect his health, “ lest

2 towards the conclusion he is not for- he should resemble a traveller, who, tunate. He first compares Languet during a long journey, attends to to Socrates, and Sidney to Alcibiades. himself, but not to his horse." Then seized by an orgasm for paral- We have now a specimen of the lels, he proceeds to another which he new mode of writing history, which likes better, namely, of Languet to enables the ingenious inventors to Mentor, and Sidney to Telemachus. give us the particulars of an event Elsewhere he compares Sidney to that never took place. Our author,

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having discovered that Tasso resided thrown. We are sorry thus to at Padua when Sidney was there, by differ from Dr. Zouch; but our the assistance of a certain historian duty to the publick will not permit (whose name appears to be LITTLE us to see this LITTLE DOUBT, unDoubt) has boldly described their der the sanction of his authority, interview. The reader may take the ranked among the Bayles, the Johnfollowing extract, as a fair specimen sons, or even the Birches of the day. how the secret history of Queen We are convinced that Sidney never Mab, may yet be written in the most had an interview with Tasso. An authentick manner!

event so interesting in the life of a " The celebrated Tasso was then resident poet, he who commemorated characat Padua, and there is LITTLE DOUBT ters and events of less importance, Mr. Sidney visited this seat of learning,

had certainly not buried in silence. with a desire to partake of the conversation of our poet. The ardour with which they

We are informed of a fact highly met, may be more easily conceived than curious and characteristick of the described. Both of them glowing with age, that when Sidney conversed all the fire of native genius, and equally with the literati of the church of emulous to excel in every thing honour- Rome, his English friends, as well able, &c. &c. How fervent, &c. &c. must

as Languet, suspected that he was their friendship have been!” p. 66.

“ Sidney," says Dr. Zouch, « left becoming a proselyte. The latter Venice and came to Padua, June

conjured him not to go to Rome, 1574.” p. 65. 6 The celebrated

that seat of ancient glory, which had Tasso was then resident at Padua.")

inflamed the curiosity of his classick

mind. p. 66. Now we must inform Dr. Z.

Sidney followed the harsh that in 1574, Tasso was « resident"

counsel, and regretted it ever after. at Ferrara. A meeting took place

Since Rome was forbidden, he picthere between Henry III, then re

jected a journey to Constantinople, turning to France, and Alphonso, the in which Languet acquiesced ; and patron of Tasso; and the poet ac

probably would have preferred that companied the duke to Venice, July Sidney should become a Turk, rather

than a Papist ! 1574. There he indulged in the festivities of the place, to the neglect of

Languet darkens the Italian chahis “ Jerusalem," till he was seized

racter. He trembles for the purity

of Sidney's morals, now whiter with a quartan fever. From Venice he went back to Ferrara, and was

than snow," and describes the subtle confined there all the winter by ex

craftiness of the Genoese; the distreme debility. All this appears in solving libertinism of the Venetians; a letter of the poet to the pronotary and the theological Machiavelism of a Porzia, inserted in Serassi's elabo

the Romans.

There is no reason to think that rate and most interesting “ Life of Tasso.”

the mind of Sidney was ever tainted. Tasso was, indeed, at Padua, during nition: “ To be always virtuously

He followed his pious father's admothe month of March, 1575, consulto ing the criticks of the academy there;

employed.” and we are inclined to suspect that

On his return to England, he becriticism contributed even more than

came the admiration and delight of love, to derange the irritable faculties

the English court. The queen

called

“ of this too feeling poet. Now Sidney, him her Philip."* Elizabeth, with by the doctor's own account,

such ambiguous coquetry, gratified

82, returned to England, through Germany, passing through various cities, Philip; for Sidney's father had given him

* In opposition, perhaps, to her sister's in May, 1575. So that the whole of this name to flatter Mary's fondness for this rapturous superstructure is over. her husband.

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at once her political sagacity and her agreement there is betwixt him and his feminine vanity. All her favourites

brethren; 7 and what partage they have.

In these things I shall at my return more had some endearing nickname, or

largely declare. The emperour is holy shared in some tender caress of royal (wholly] by his inclination given to the courtesy. Sidney made his gratitude warres, few of wordes, sullain of dispopicturesque, in a masque of “ The sition, very secrete and resolute, nothing Lady of the May !"

the manners his father had in winninge In 1576, at an age not much ex

men in his behaviour, but yet constant

in keeping them : and such a one, ass ceeding twenty years, Sidney was

though he promise not much outwardly, appointed ambassadour at the court

but as the Latins say, aliquid in rece88u ; of Vienna. The ostensible purpose his brother Earnest much lyke him in diswas to condole with the emperour position, but, that he is more franke, and Rodolph, on the demise of his fa- forward, which perchance the necessity ther. The concealed one, was more

of his fortune argues him to be : both ex

tremely Spaniolated.p. 93. important. It was to unite the protestant princes in the defence of their

These are some of the mysteries common cause against Rome and the of diplomacy ; high matters, which overwhelming tyranny of Spain,

serve to prove (if proof were necesthis period the terrour of Europe.

sary) that an ambassadour in all ages, The choice of young Sidney to fill is, as some one has coarsely said, a this situation is the clearest evidence privileged spy. of his distinguished character; and,

Sidney had not yet attained his indeed, his successful termination of twenty-fifth year, when he was known

to the most eminent personages in the embassy confirms it. Dr. Zouch observes: “ The queen's Europe. William the first

, prince of own penetration and discernment had Orange, emphatically described him promoted him to this appointment.

as one of the ripest and greatest It is remarked of this princess, that counsellors of state at that day in in the choice of her ambassadours, Europe.” The correspondence beshe had a regard not only to the ta

tween these two great men turned on lents, but even to the figure and per have to regret its loss,

the political state of Europe, and we son of those to whom she consigned the administration of her affairs

Sidney must indeed have been the abroad

extraordinary character which histoOur

young ambassadour has given ry records ; since he could even ex. a full narrative of his embassy in an

tort admiration from Don Juan of official letter to Walsingham, and it Austria, the Spanish viceroy in the will be considered as a splendid testi. Netherlands. A man haughty with mony of political address and matu- military fame, and whose banner rity of genius, very far above his

floated with an inscription of Exter

mination to the Protestant faith. Dr. years. He extorted unqualified approbation from Burleigh, the jealous Zouch thus gives his character. rival of his uncle Leicester. After Nothing could be more discordant

than this man, and the English ambassadescribing his interviews with the

dour. At first he looked with contempt emperour, and the rest of the impe

on his youth, and with all the insolence of rial family, he proceeds thus :

national pride, scarcely deemed him “ The rest of the daies that I lay there worthy of his notice. Yet such are the I informed myself as well as I could of charm's of intrinsick merit; so attractive such particularities as I received in my the beauty of genuine excellence, that we instructions ; as 1 of the emperour's dis- find the haughty and imperious Spaniard position ; and his brethren ; 2 by whose

struck, as it were, with reverential awe, advice he is directed; 3 when it is likely at the view of pre-eminent goodness, and he should marry; 4 what princes in Ger- contributing a just and involuntary apmany are most affected to him ; 5 in what plause to the fine talents, and high endow. state be is left for revenews ; 6 what good ments of our ancient countryman."

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