of the day in which he received his death wound, he is said to have taken off his defensive armour, that he might not appear to have been surpassed in daring, by one whom he had accidentally met lightly armed. This incident gave rise to a remark of Queen Elizabeth to an impetuous young nobleman, who had gone abroad without her knowledge, to serve under one of her generals:-"Serve me so once again, and I will lay you fast enough for running. You will never leave 'till you are knocked on the head, as that inconsiderate fellow Sidney was," But he was too little employed in military affairs, to admit of any estimate of his talents in the capacity of a soldier being fairly made. Considered in this light, the comparison between him and the Chevalier Bayard, or Edward the Black Prince, completely fails. Of his public performances in state pageants, in tilts and tournaments, little need be said, they won him temporary fame, but make no appeal to posterity.

That he patronised Spenser, is past all dispute by the poet's own acknowledgment; but the story of his ordering his steward to advance him a large sum of money upon first reading the Fairy Queen,* is contradicted by Sidney's circumstances at the time. He was then a young man dependent on the bounty of his uncle, and as it appears, living upon a quarterly allowance made him by his father, who was himself of too noble

*Many of the commentators on Spenser, among whom may be included Mr. Todd, the latest and the best, are of opinion, that the Fairy Queen owes its origin to the advice of Sir Philip Sidney, and that a portion of it was written when the Poet resided at Penshurst.

a disposition to acquire wealth by his employments. So far from being in circumstances to act the part of a munificent patron, we find by a curious document printed by Dr. Zouch, that Sidney at this period of his life, was occasionally unable to pay his debts, and was obliged to refer a tradesman to his father's steward, for the amount of his bill, consisting of less than five pounds, under promise of returning it at the next quarter. public employment had produced him but little, and he beld no office under the crown, if an exception may be made to that of cup-bearer, and a small sinecure in Wales, which has been before alluded to.

His

As a statesman, Sir Philip Sidney was but little tried. The embassy which he undertook in early life, appears to have been one of parade only, and of but a few months continuance. From this time to his appointment as governor of Flushing, in the last year of his life, he was never placed in any situation of trust, either civil or military, though he constantly resided at court, was ambitious of power, frequently solicited employment, and had the powerful influence of hist uncle and father in law, not to mention his excellent father, to promote his views, He was not even adCouncil, until within a

mitted a member of the Privy

year or two of his death, though he was anxious to obtain that honour, and in order to procure it, descended even to request the assistance of his father's secretary, whom he had previously insulted with unfounded suspicions of being unfaithful to his trust. This augurs some defect in our hero. It was not the custom of Queen Elizabeth or her advisers, to permit merit to sue for employment, and though the period of Sidney's

life was not the most active part of her reign, yet situations were not wanting, in which talents such as are usually assigned to him, might have been advantageously called into action.

As a writer, Sir Philip Sidney could not be publicly known during his life, none of his works being printed until some years after his death. He attained the full amount of his honours while living to enjoy them, and they have been confirmed only by posterity; so that no part of his reputation can with propriety be attributed to this source.

The elegance of his person and manners may be admitted without dispute.

Like most men of genius, Sidney appears to have been of a melancholy temperament; his friend Languet aware of this,' advises him in one of his letters, to select cheerful companions. Several instances in the events of his life, may be advanced in proof that he was irritable and impetuous in his disposition. One has been already noticed in his intemperate defence of his uncle. He also embarked with even less discretion in defence of his father's government of Ireland, which as may be expected, did not please all men. Among others, the Earl of Ormond, a near relation of the queen's, and highly esteemed by her, expressed his opinion unfavourably of some measures adopted by the Lord Deputy. Sir Philip Sidney publicly insulted him, with the intention of provoking a challenge, which the magnanimity of the Earl prevented, who asserted, that he would accept no quarrel with a gentleman who was bound by nature to defend his father's cause, and who was otherwise furnished with so many virtues as he

knew Sidney to be. Of his quarrel with the Earl of Oxford, some notice has been taken before; his biographers are anxious to explain this affair favourably to their hero, and we have their account only, of the provocation. It is certain that Sidney, though a favourite, received a reprimand from the queen, and also found it necessary to absent himself, for a time, from the court in consequence. In his eagerness to defend his father's government, he accused his secretary, Edward Molineux, Esq. a most respectable and worthy man, of dishonourable practices, in divalging the contents of confidential papers. "The language in which he intimates his resentment," says Dr. Zouch, "is extremely indecorous. Flushed with the ardour of youth, he is for a moment alive to the impulses of anger and the victim of violence and irritability of temper." The charge appears to have been without foundation ; the punishment however, denounced for a repetition of this presumed offence, by Sidney, was death to the offender.

In the several relations of a son, a brother, and a friend, Sidney appears entitled to all the praise he has received.

From the foregoing examination of the character and conduct of Sir Philip Sidney, which was begun with strong prejudice in his favonr, and has been conducted with all the impartiality of which the writer is capable, it is plain to him, that some causes independent of pure desert, must have conspired to elevate Sir Philip Sidney to the eminence to which he has attained. Of these, perhaps, the principal one is the accident of his birth. The age in which he lived, was above all others

remarkable for producing a host of court sycophants which exhausted every term in the language in flattering those in power, or those likely to attain It was power. not to be expected that the son of Sir Henry Sidney, the Governor of Ireland and of Wales, and more particularly, the nephew and adopted heir of the Earl of Leicester the Queen's favourite, should escape from the contamination of this herd of parasites and flatterers ; more especially when both these advantages were united in one person, when that person was a young man of merit and accomplishments, and distinguished as a favourite by the Queen herself. * But it may be objected, that Sidney has had for his encomiasts, both men, and bodies of men, who from talent and rank should have been secured from this meanness. That Spenser employed his magic pen to extend his fame, and that the universities themselves bewailed his loss and celebrated his praise in every langnage in which writers could be found. Be it remembered, that Spenser wrote his immortal work to honour a Queen by whom he was neglected, that he addressed it, with a flattering sonnet, to his personal enemy the cold-hearted and tasteless Burleigh; and that he singled out the Earl of Leicester, the accused murderer of his wife, and a man contaminated

It is exceedingly probable that the Earl of Leicester, who was a designing and artful man, had some selfish end in view, in placing his accomplished nephew about the person of the queen. He well knew the queen's susceptible disposition, and her partiality for handsome young men. Mr. Parke, in a note upon the following passage in Shakspeare "There have been Earls, and what is more Pensioners here," remarks, that the poet alludes to a party of young men by which the queen was in general surrounded; from subsisting principally on her bounty, this party had acquired the title of pensioners, and Sir Philip Sidney is inserted in the list.

J