Author:
"Albert Knabe II (A.J.)"
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Date Posted: 13:30:46 01/11/01 Thu
My Answer to Jocko's Question-
I visited a man’s grave recently. He died hundreds of years ago at the very young age of 22. And here I am today reading about him, his literary career, and reading much more from what history has had to say of him as well as hearing from the critics of his own time. Upon reading as much of this information as possible I have been asked to encapsulate him as either ‘…a typical English courtier and poet, adhering to convention…’ or ‘… a radical who pushed for revolutionary new thought in the poetic creative process…’, and to provide ‘details’ as to why I did so.
Having never met the man face to face, nor having spoke to him candidly, it is difficult to get a firm understanding of who he really was, in life. Too often, history re-writes the deeds of men to either their benefit or detriment. However, I was lucky to be privy to a few of his actual works, in addition to some of the works of his contemporaries.
Born in 1554 and dying just 22 years later, does not give one much opportunity to reach the world with one’s message, and yet here we are today speaking of Sir Philip Sidney’s works and of his life. Surely such a man if he were truly only ‘a typical English courtier’, he would have been relegated to a only a brief side note in history? Instead, I am reading about his written work, The Defence of Poesy, about which many have said, “Sidney’s manner in this tract is graceful and easy, a manifestation of that 'sprezzatura', or casualness in doing something difficult perfectly,…” And to have written such a work as a teen, speaks volumes of what he could have been capable of, had he not been hewn down in such a green state. Even as a young man, his voice was heard when he outwardly protested The Queen’s Marriage the Duke of Anjou, which led to his dismissal from court for a time. Even in his work Astrophil and Stella, we see that when we compare this work to his contemporaries that “he uses no standard conventional phrases, and that his verse is original and from the heart-though it pretence is itself conventional.” And yet, would you be surprised to know that he was never published until after his death. He wrote for friends and relatives. It is quite clear that there was not full appreciation for him during his life. Even now, readers struggle to get a firm grasp of who he really was, and how much he had to share with us. “Sir Philip Sidney-courtier, soldier, poet, fried, and patron-seemed to the Elizabethans to embody all of the traits of character and personality they admired: he was Castiglionse’s perfect courtier come to life.”
In all seriousness, I don’t think anyone could get a full understanding of Me and who I really am, by only reading a few of my surviving works. Nor do I believe that remarks from my contemporaries, could make that blurred picture perfectly clear. And yet, if you look long and hard, you can see that I am not just typical ordinary word smith of my day. So it is that I pass My Judgment upon one Sir Philip Sidney, a man who once said, “good isn’t good, because better is better.” You Sir, have distinguished yourself among your peers. You wrote without the intention of mass publishing, and yet I sit here thousands of miles away from your career’s home, hundreds of years later, reading your written words. The few works that I have read of yours and of your contemporaries, lead me to believe that you are not a ‘typical’ anything.
In conclusion, I have found that Sir Philip Sidney deserves nothing more than my acceptance of him as a staunch advocate for his craft and yet a patron rather than an artist. Sir Philip Sidney may have been an English Courtier, but he wasn’t typical. Rather, I say he was something in between, a radical who would dare to oppose a Queen and a soldier armed with a pen in his Defence of Poesy. Sir Philip Sidney was not just good, he was better.
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