Sir Philip Sidney

He was the eldest son of Sir Henry Sidney,Elizabeth's Lord Deputy in Ireland. His mother, Lady Mary Dudley,was a daughter Of the Duke Northumberland. - He was courtier, poet, critic, author of prose romance. He entered school in Shrewsbury. - His friend Sir Fulke Greville, long-life friend and future biographer. In 14he left his school to Christ church in Oxford. he traveled to France, Germany, Austria, Italy. He studied history, ethics, astronomy, music.he was appointment as governor of Flushing. He was wounded in the fight in October2, The wound proved fatal, and did not heal and within22 days he was dead. He dead in 24 October Sidney's Works :- Sidney's works consist of his famous pastoral romance Arcadia, his sonnets Astrophel and Stella, and his Apologie for Poetrie, afterwards called Defence of Poesie.

A champion of the Protestant cause in Europe, with his primary animosity directed against Spain, in 1585 he was given a command in Holland and made governor of Flushing. He engaged valiantly in several battles during that year. On September 22, 1586, he was severely wounded in a cavalry charge. The famous story is often told, as an example of Sidney’s fine sense of humanity and chivalry, of how he refused a cup of water and ordered it to be given to a soldier near him on the battlefield. Sidney died of his wound on October 7, Following his death he was universally mourned and widely elegized.

Astrophel and Stella Likely composed in the 1580s, Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella is an English sonnet sequence containing 108 sonnets and 11 songs. The name derives from the two Greek words, 'aster' (star) and 'phil' (lover), and the Latin word 'stella' meaning star. Thus, Astrophel is the star lover, and Stella is his star. Sidney partly nativized the key features of his Italian model Petrarch, including an ongoing but partly obscure narrative, the philosophical trappings of the poet in relation to love and desire, and musings on the art of poetic creation. Sidney also adopts the Petrarchan rhyme scheme, though he uses it with such freedom that fifteen variants are employed.Philip Sidneysonnet sequencesonnetsPetrarchrhyme scheme The sequence is widely believed to be written to honor Penelope, the daughter of the Earl of Essex. Penelope is stated to be Stella of the poem.

Sir Philip Sidney composed Astrophil and Stella between 1581 and 1583, most likely in the summer of A sequence of 108 sonnets and eleven songs, it is an important work in the history of English poetry for several reasons. The work remains one of the best examples of its type. It plumbs the psychology of the lover, Astrophil (“star-lover”), as he contemplates the beautiful Stella (“star”), who marries another man and gives little encouragement to Astrophil because of her need to guard her reputation. Stella is, in a number of respects, the conventional heroine of medieval and Renaissance love poetry, but she boasts, in addition to her blonde hair, fair skin, and rosy cheeks, unconventional black eyes, as did Penelope. In several of the poems, Sidney makes pointed allusions to her “rich” husband. A memorable element of the Astrophil and Stella sonnets is the striking physical description of Stella. Not that description itself is unusual; the “vertical description” of the beloved, from head to toe, is a hallmark of the Petrarchan sonnet tradition. What is unusual is Sidney’s departure from the Petrarchan cliché of the blue-eyed blonde as the feminine ideal to that of a dark beauty. The sonnet sequence is not a novel and cannot be thought of as demonstrating a plot; rather, Sidney presents a series of emotional crises, internal—and occasionally external—conflicts, and solitary musings on the course of a love affair that is destined to remain unconsummated. Soon it occurs to Astrophil that he should be pursuing virtue and not mere earthly beauty, but he continues to concentrate, sometimes defiantly, on the latter, while at other times he justifies his course with logic-chopping mental exercises. He vows to revert to virtue, but the mere sight of Stella challenges his determination. Another problem is Stella’s coldness; her heart is a “citadel” [immune] against him, presumably because a rival already “enjoys” her. (Although Sidney may have known Penelope Devereux before her marriage, it appears unlikely that there was then any opportunity for intimacy between them.) Astrophil hesitates between regarding Stella as the essence of virtue and wondering whether her scorn should be interpreted as mere ungratefulness to a passionately devoted lover. Anxious to please Stella, the speaker decides to send her poetry but cannot decide how to go about writing any. “

1 Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain: Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain, I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe, Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain: Oft turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sun-burned brain. But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay, Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows, And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way. Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes, Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite, 'Fool' said my Muse to me, 'look in thy heart and write.‘ The rhyme Scheme: The rhyme Scheme is : abab cdcd efef gg Fain: with pleasure Fit words: suitable words to express love Woe: sorrow Fresh and fruitful showers: new and suitable words Nature's child: invention Truant: idle pen which does not produce what the poet aspires to write. Spite: ill will Muse: a spirit that inspires the poet to write poetry.

Word's explanation: Fain: with pleasure Fit words: suitable words to express love Woe: sorrow Fresh and fruitful showers: new and suitable words Nature's child: invention Truant: idle pen which does not produce what the poet aspires to write. Spite: ill will Muse: a spirit that inspires the poet to write poetry.

The first Astrophil and Stella sonnet serves as an introduction to the whole, being a sort of sonnet on how to write a sonnet. In the first sonnet Astrophil, already obsessed by Stella’s charms, decides to “show” his love in verse with the hope of winning her favor, but he cannot find the appropriate words until his muse, disgusted with the lover’s ineffective efforts to imitate other poets, counsels him in the final line of the poem to ‘Fool,’ said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write.’ ” The major conflict in the sonnet sequence is not between the two rivals for Stella’s heart; since he is not much of a presence in the sonnets, the husband is not much of a threat to Astrophil there, whatever his status outside the world of the sonnets might be. What stands between Astrophil and Stella is not so much a real husband as the idea of a husband—or, to put it in the terms actually used in the sequence, the conflict is between Love and Virtue.

Characters Astrophil: the young lover in whose voice the sonnets and songs are cast. Although Stella is married and he describes her as virtuous, he still pursues her, begging her to love him. Whether the sonnets express the true feelings of their author, Sir Philip Sidney, the character of Astrophil clearly is meant to represent him. Astrophil considers himself superior to other writers of love poetry, to whom he frequently contrasts himself: They imitate one another, and only he is original, because his inspiration is his beloved Stella. He presents himself as the servant not only of Stella but also of love, personified as the boy Cupid. Stella: Astrophil’s beloved, to whom the sonnet sequence is addressed. She differs from the stock character of the Petrarchan sonnet sequence in two key respects. First, her rejection of the lover’s advances is not attributed to coldheartedness, the standard complaint of the Petrarchan sonneteer, but to her virtue, as she is married to another. Second, although her hair is the standard Petrarchan gold, her eyes are not the standard blue, but rather black. This is probably because the author of the sonnets, Sir Philip Sidney, had a real lady in mind: Penelope Devereux, who by the time the sonnets were written was married to Lord Robert Rich. After Astrophil steals a kiss, Stella admits some feeling for him, though virtue still forbids her to encourage him. Although Petrarchan sonnet sequences normally speak only in the voice of the young man, Stella’s own voice is heard in several of the songs.