Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86)

Sir Philip Sidney was considered both by his day and history as an ideal and courteous knight--along with Thomas More, he was the quintessential Renaissance man. A nobleman, he was an active participant in the most engaging and significant literary discussions of the time.

As with Wyatt and Surrey, none of Sidney's work was published during his lifetime, although it circulated widely in manuscript. His sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella, which appeared in 1591, can be considered responsible for the large number of sonnet sequence which followed it. Sidney's sequence of 108 sonnets also includes 11 songs.

Who was Sidney's Stella? Penelope Devereux, who was betrothed to Sidney in her youth, is the original for Stella in Sidney's sonnet sequence. When the engagement was broken, she married Lord Rich and Sidney married Frances Walsingham. However, the clearly autobiographical sonnet sequence records his hopeless love for Devereux.

What should we take from Sidney's sonnets?

• They move more toward modern English and are therefore a bit easier for the modern reader to grasp;
• They combine Petarchan conceits with original expression and feeling, which means that they are gradually moving away from mere translation to true creative expression;
• The sequence leads toward the building of a complete narrative or free-standing story;
• He used very clear rhyme schemes, among them abab abab cdcd ee.
• His themes were not confined to the love contemplating his beloved; instead, they encompassed such diverse themes as the notion of originality in English (Sonnet 1) and the act of writing itself.