Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV SIR PHILIP SIDNEY A T Penshurst, " at a little before five of the clock" on Friday morning, November 3Oth, 1554, was ushered into the world Philip, the eldest son and heir of his parents, Sir Henry and Lady Mary Sidney. He was christened Philip, after the King-Consort, who also stood godfather to him, the other sponsors being the Earl of Bedford and the Duchess of Northumberland. His birth afforded one of those few instances of a really great man proving so fortunate as to be the father of a really great son. The son's greatness in this case was,however, to endure for all too short a span. Like Alexander amongst the ancients, like Keats, Shelley, and General Wolfe amongst the moderns, he was destined to die before reaching the prime of life, before obtaining a chance of presenting to the sight of an admiring audience the measure of his genius. It seems extraordinary, in fact, that he should have achieved so much in so short a time. His life was a dream of gold. " Those whom the gods love die young ! " No illustrious Briton has ever bequeathed to his posterity a more glorious reputation. In honouring him, the " English Marcellus," the " Bayard of Britain," the stainless knight " sans peur et sans reprochc" the sweet " warbler of poetic prose," " lumen familiae suae" the " cherished child of the Muses," the "type of chivalry in the Elizabethan age," our leading historians are in perfect accord. If his portrait has been too handsomely depicted, it hangs, at least, depicted in themost generous of colours. If his character has been too highly praised, his virtues too highly extolled, and his faults too lightly condoned, it has been due to his biographers. Except, indeed, in the case of some fictitious charges of immorality against Sir Philip on account of his lov...