credit with you against me as to wreak their vengeance and cruelty in a thing of so little consequence and relating to a mere act of humanity.

64. SIR HENRY SIDNEY TO HIS SON PHILIP (1565).

Sir Philip Sidney is the typical knight of Elizabethan chivalry, and one of England's truest heroes. He embodied the best traits of the "spacious times" which he ornamented, and any one of several striking incidents might be borrowed from his career. In preference to these may be taken a letter that he received from his father when at Shrewsbury school. The question of nurture and training is so prominent in every life, whether great or mean, that it cannot be amiss to reprint the precepts which were set before Philip Sidney in his youth. His father, Sir Henry, was an eminent man, Lord Deputy of Ireland and one of Elizabeth's trusted councillors.

SOURCE.-Letter to his Son, Philip Sidney. Sir H. Sidney (1529-1586). In Somers' Tracts, vol. i., p. 492.

Son Philip,

I have received two letters from you, the one written in Latin, the other in French, which I take in good part, and will you to exercise that practice of learning often, for it will stand you in stead, in that profession of life which you are born to live in : and now, since that this is my first letter that ever I did write to you, I will not that it be all empty of some advices, which my natural care of you provoketh me to with you, to follow as documents [lessons] to you in this tender age. Let your first action be the lifting up of your hands and mind to Almighty God, by hearty prayers, and feelingly digest the words you speak in prayer with continual meditations and thinking of him to whom you pray; and use this at an ordinary hour, whereby the time itself will put you in remembrance to do that thing which you are accustomed in that time.

Apply to your study such hours as your discreet master doth assign you earnestly, and the time, I know, he will so limit, as shall be both sufficient for your learning, and safe for your health; and mark the sense and matter of that you read, as well as the words; so shall you both enrich your tongue with words, and your wit with matter; and judgment will grow as years grow on you.

Be humble and obedient to your master; for, unless you frame yourself to obey, yea, and to feel in yourself what obedience is, you shall never be able to teach others how to obey you hereafter.

Be courteous of gesture, and affable to all men with universality of reverence, according to the dignity of the person : there is nothing that winneth so much with so little cost.

Use moderate diet, so as after your meat, you may find your wit fresher, and not duller; and your body more lively, and not more heavy.

Seldom drink wines, and yet sometimes do; lest, being forced to drink upon the sudden, you should find yourself inflamed. Use exercise of body, but such as is without peril of your bones or joints; it will much increase your force, and enlarge your breath.

Delight to be cleanly, as well in all parts of your body, as in your garments; it shall make you grateful in each company, and otherwise loathsome.

Give yourself to be merry; for you degenerate from your father, if you find not yourself most able in wit and body to do anything, when you be most merry; but let your mirth be ever void of scurrility and biting words to any man; for a wound given by a word is harder to be cured than that which is given by a sword.

Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of other men's talk, than a beginner, or procurer of speech, otherwise you will be accounted to delight to hear yourself speak.

Be modest in each assembly, and rather be rebuffed of light fellows for a maiden shamefacedness, than of your sober friends, for pert boldness.

Think upon every word you will speak before you utter it, and remember how nature hath, as it were, rampired up [built ramparts about] the tongue with teeth, lips, yea, and hair without the lips, and all betoken reins and bridles to the restraining the use of that member.

• Above all things, tell no untruth, no not in trifles; the custom of it is naught: and let it not satisfy you, that the hearers, for a time, take it for a truth; for afterwards it will be known as it is to shame; and there cannot be a greater reproach to a gentleman, than to be accounted a liar.

Study, and endeavour yourself to be virtuously occupied; so shall you make such a habit of well doing, as you shall not know how to do evil, though you would.

Remember, my son, the noble blood you are descended of by

your mother's side,1 and think, that only by a virtuous life and good actions, you may be an ornament to your illustrious family, and otherwise, through vice and sloth, you may be esteemed Labes Generis, one of the greatest curses that can happen to a man. Well, my little Philip, this is enough for me, and I fear too much for you at this time; but yet, if I find that this light meat of digestion do nourish anything the weak stomach of your young capacity, I will, as I find the same grow stronger, feed it with tougher food. Farewell; your mother and I send you our blessing, and Almighty God grant you his; nourish you with his fear, guide you with his grace, and make you a good servant to your prince and country. Your loving Father, HENRY SIDNEY.

65. EUPHUISM (1579).

The speech of Elizabethan gallants was flowery and fantastic, often to the point of grotesqueness. During the last twenty years of the reign it was customary at court to embroider one's conversation with high-flown metaphors and similes drawn from nature. This dialect is styled "Euphuism," because John Lyly, in his Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit, 1579, poured forth a tide of ingenious and far-fetched sentences which laid hold upon aristocratic fancy, and at once set a new fashion. Not only was the spoken language infected by Lyly's mannerism: prose and poetry after for a while reflecting, ended by exaggerating it. The two specimens cited below are from Euphues itself. Lyly's prologues and epilogues are far more "conceited ". SOURCE.-Euphues. John Lyly (1554 ?-1606). Ed. Arber. Birmingham, 1868. A, p. 47; B, p. 78.

(4) Euphues having sojourned by the space of two months in Naples, whether he were moved by the courtesy of a young gentleman named Philautus, or enforced by destiny: whether his pregnant wit, or his pleasant conceits wrought the greater liking in the mind of Euphues, I know not for certainty: But Euphues showed such entire love towards him, that he seemed to make small account of any others, determining to enter into

She was a daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who was executed in August, 1553, for his action in proclaiming Lady Jane Grey.

such an inviolable league of friendship with him, as neither time by piecemeal should impair, neither fancy utterly dissolve, nor any suspicion infringe. I have read (saith he) and well I believe it, that a friend is in prosperity a pleasure, a solace in adversity, in grief a comfort, in joy a merry companion, at all times another I, in all places the express image of mine own person insomuch that I cannot tell whether the immortal Gods have bestowed any gift upon mortal men, either more noble or more necessary than friendship. Is there anything in the world to be reputed (I will not say compared) to friendship? Can any treasure in this transitory pilgrimage be of more value than a friend? in whose bosom thou mayest sleep secure without fear, whom thou mayest make partner of all thy secrets without suspicion of fraud, and partaker of all thy misfortune without mistrust of fleeting, who will account thy bale his bane, thy mishap his misery, the pricking of thy finger the piercing of his heart. But whither am I carried? Have I not also learned that one should eat a bushel of salt with him whom he meaneth to make his friend? that trial maketh trust? that there is falsehood in fellowship? and what then? Doth not the sympathy of manners make the conjunction of minds? Is it not a byword like will to like? Not so common as commendable it is, to see young gentlemen choose them such friends, with whom they may seem being absent to be present, being asunder to be conversant, being dead to be alive. I will therefore have Philautus for my pheere [companion], and by so much the more I make myself sure to have Philautus, by how much the more I view in him the lively image of Euphues.

Although there be none so ignorant that doth not know, neither any so impudent that will not confess, friendship to be the jewel of human joy: yet whosoever shall see this amity grounded upon a little affection, will soon conjecture that it shall be dissolved upon a light occasion: as in the sequel of Euphues and Philautus you shall soon see, whose hot love waxed soon cold: For as the best wine doth make the sharpest vinegar, so the deepest love turneth to the deadliest hate. Who deserved the most blame, in mine opinion, it is doubtful and so difficult, that I dare not presume to give verdict. For love being the cause for which so many mischiefs have been attempted, I am not yet persuaded, whether of them was most to be blamed, but certainly neither of them was blameless. appeal to your judgment, Gentlemen, not that I think any of you of the like disposition, able to decide the question, but being of deeper discretion than I am, are more fit to debate

I

the quarrel. Though the discourse of their friendship and falling out be somewhat long, yet being somewhat strange, I hope the delightfulness of the one will attenuate the tediousness of the other.

A Speech of Lucilla.

(B) Although I myself were never burnt whereby I should dread the fire, yet the scorching of others in the flames of fancy, warneth me to beware: Though I as yet never tried any faithless whereby I should be fearful, yet have I read of many that have been perjured, which causeth me to be careful: though I am able to convince none by proof, yet am I enforced to suspect one upon probabilities. Alas, we silly fools which have neither wit to decipher the wiles of men, nor wisdom to dissemble our affection, neither craft to train in young lovers, neither courage to withstand their encounters, neither discretion to discern their doubling, neither hard hearts to reject their complaints: we, I say, are soon enticed, being by nature simple, and easily entangled, being apt to receive the impression of love. But alas, it is both common and lamentable, to behold simplicity entrapped by subtlety, and those that have most might, to be infected with most malice. The Spider weaveth a fine web to hang the Fly, the Wolf weareth a fair face to devour the Lamb, the Mirlin striketh at the Partridge, the Eagle often snappeth at the Fly, men are always laying baits for women, which are the weaker vessels: but as yet I could never hear man by such snares to entrap man: For true it is that men themselves have by use observed, that it must be a hard winter when one Wolf eateth another. I have read that the Bull being tied to the Fig tree loseth his strength, that the whole herd of Deer stand at the gaze, if they smell a sweet apple that the Dolphin by the sound of Music is brought to the shore. And then no marvel it is that if the fierce Bull be tamed with the Fig tree, if that women being as weak as sheep, be overcome with a Fig: if the wild Deer be caught with an apple, that the tame Damsel is won with a blossom: if the fleet Dolphin be allured with harmony, that women be entangled with the melody of men's speech, fair promises and solemn protestations. But folly it were for me to mark their mischiefs, since I am neither able, neither they willing to amend their manners: it becometh me rather to show what our sex should do, than to open what yours doth.