Lecture 4 Literature of the 16th century. The Renaissance

Sonnet 75 
One day 1 wrote her name upon the 
strand, 
But came the waves and washed it 
away: 
Again I wrote it with a second hand, 
But came the tide and made my pains 
his prey. 
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain 
assay 
A mortal thing so immortalize, 
For I myself shall like to this decay, 
And eke my name be wiped out 
likewise." 
"Not so," quoth I, "let bazer things 
devize 
To die in dust, but you shall live in 
fame; 
My verse your virtues rare shall 
eternize, 
And in the heavens write your glorious 
name. 
Where, whenas death shall all the 
world subdue, 
Our love shall live, and later life 
renew." 
Sir Philip Sidney was a poet, scholar, courtier and soldier. He became famous 
for his literary criticism, prose fiction and poetry. 
Sidney was born in Penshurst in Kent. He was of high birth and received an 
education that accorded with his background: studied at Shrewsbury School, 
followed in 1568 by Christ Church College, Oxford, which he left in 1571 without 
taking his degree, because of an outbreak of plague. For several years he travelled 
in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the Netherlands, managing to study music 
and astronomy along the way. 
In 1575 Sidney returned to England and to Elizabeth's court. He accompanied 
Elizabeth on a visit to the estate of the Earl of Essex, where he met the Earl's thirteen-
year-old daughter, Penelope. Later he immortalized her as Stella of his sonnet cycle 
"Astrophel and Stella". It was published in 1591, and consisted of 108 sonnets and 
11 songs, and usually regarded as his greatest literary achievement. 

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Philip Sidney is also the author of the prose fiction "Arcadia". Some critics 
consider "Arcadia" the most important original work of English prose written before 
the 18th century. This book was published in 1590, in revised form, as "The 
Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia". Though written chiefly in prose, it contained 
some poems. Lost for more than three hundred years, two manuscript copies of 
Sydney's original "Arcadia" were finally found in 1907. 
Sidney's third major literary achievement was a pamphlet titled "Apology for 
Poetry", published in 1595. In it the author polemized with those who denied poetry, 
and its right to exist. Sidney proclaimed the great importance of poetry because of 
its power to teach and delight at the same time. The pamphlet is usually considered 
the single most outstanding work of Elizabethan literary theory and criticism. 
In 1583 Sidney was knighted and married Frances Walsingham, the daughter of 
Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth's Secretary of State. In 1585 Queen Elizabeth 
sent him to the Netherlands to join the Protestant forces there. In September 1586, 
in a miner skirmish, Sydney received a bullet wound in the left thigh. Medical care 
of that time was still primitive, and Sidney died of his wound twenty-six days later. 
All the works of Sidney were published some years after his death. His works had a 
great influence on English literature of the time.