1 - The Courtly Performer

Summary

We should begin by re-examining one of the most enduring images of Sir Philip Sidney: that he is the embodiment of the perfect Elizabethan courtier. This is not an unreasonable starting point given that many of his contemporaries made similar observations. Gabriel Harvey and Thomas Nashe agreed that Sidney stood out from their peers as an exemplar of the ideal courtier as characterized in Baldassare Castiglione's highly influential Book of the Courtier (1528). Sir Henry Sidney instructed Philip's younger brother Robert to ‘imitate his virtues, studies, and actions’, claiming (with obvious bias) that ‘he is a rare ornament of this age, the very formula that all well-disposed young gentleman of our court do form also their manners and life by … he hath the most rare virtues that ever I found in any man’. The Elizabethan court has a dominant influence on Sidne's political career - or at least his ambitions for such a career - and on his writings. But what were Sidne's ‘courtly credentials? Indeed, what does it actually mean to be a ‘courtier’? How useful is it to describe Sidney as a courtly poet, particularly given that much of his literary output, upon which his present fame largely rests, was produced when he was away from court?

If one were to construct the ideal c.v. or resume for an aspiring Renaissance courtier it would be hard to find somebody with better qualifications and experience to draw on than the young Philip Sidney. For a start he had impeccable family connections. His father Sir Henry was a counsellor and favourite of Edward VI. In the summer of 1554, just before Philip was born, Sir Henry was sent to escort King Philip II of Spain to England to marry Mary I, and later invited the king to be his new-born son's godfather. With great irony, given the focus of Sidney's political energies later in life, Philip was named after the Spanish monarch. Sir Henry continued to serve under Mary and Elizabeth, and was appointed Lord President of Wales in 1560 and Lord Deputy Governor of Ireland in 1565. As Lord Deputy, Sir Henry was Elizabeth's supreme representative in Ireland, and the Latin title of his post ‘Pro-rex’ (Viceroy) led many continental observers to regard him as a quasi-royal figure.