Volume 1
Athenae Oxonienses : An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the fasti, or annals of the said University / By Anthony A. Wood.
- Anthony Wood
- Date:
- 1813-20
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Athenae Oxonienses : An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the fasti, or annals of the said University / By Anthony A. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![days or thereabouts, he died on the sixteenth of October following. This was that Sidney, whom, as God's will was, he should be therefore born into the world, even to shew unto our age a sample of ancient virtues : so his good pleasure was, be- fore any looked for it, to call for him again, and take him out of the world, as being more worthy [229] of heaven than earth. ' ' Thus we see perfect virtue suddenly vanisheth out of sight ^, and the best of men continue not long 9. Soon after his death, his body was brought to Flusliing, and be- ing embarqued with great solemnity on the first of November, landed at Tower wharf on the sixth day of the said month. Thence 'twas convey'd to the Minories without Aldgate, where it lay in state for some time, till his magnificent funeral in St. Paul's cathedral I6 of Feb. following; which, as many princes have not exceeded in the so- lemnity, so few have equalled in the sorrow for his loss He was buried near to that place which his father-in-law sir Francis Walsingham had de- signed (as I have heard) to be entombed in, with- out any monument or inscription save only a copy of English verses written on a wooden table, that were divers years after his death put over his grave. When his said father-in-law was buried in that place afterwards, there was a fair tomb designed for them both, and epitaphs composed by Dr. Jo. Rainolds, a copy of which for Sidney you may seej* elsewhere. James king of Scots, afterwards of England, honoured him with an epitaph of his composition. The muses of Oxon also lamenting much for his loss composed verses to his memory; (printed at Ox. 1587, qu.) among which I find cardinal Wolsey's daughter lament- ing the loss of her alumnus. Those of New coll. in their Peptus^ Sid/icci, dedicated to Henry earl of Pembroke (who married sir Philip's sister) as having been formerly of that house, did bewail his death. The most ingenious of Cambridge university did also exercise their fancies; made public by Alex. Nevill a member thereof. Lond. 1587, qu. besides several private persons, among which, was L. B. who wrote a historical elegy and 7 Cambdeni Britan. in Kent. * [' Gentle sir Phillip Sidney, thou knewst what belong'd to a scholler, thou knewest what paines, whattoile, what trauell conduct to perfection : wel couldst thou glue ciiery uertue his encouragement, eiiery art his due, euery writer his desert; cause none more vertuous witty or learned than thyselfe. But thou art dead in thy graue, and hast left too few successors of thy glory, too few to cherish the sons of the nitisf s, or water those budding hopes with their plentie, which thy buuntie erst planted,' Nash, Pierce Fe- nilesxe, 1592. Sign, A. 3.] 5 [Weever's Funerall Mormments, p. 320, edit. 1631.] [His death caused a general mdurning in England, sup- posed to be the first instance of tiie kind in the case of a private person. No gentleman tor many iTionths appear- ing in a gay or gaudy dress, either in the court or city. Brydges, Life in the British BiUios,rapher, i. 88.} ^ In Hist.ifAntiq. Ox. lib, 2, p^ 265, b. 3 Edit. Ox. 1587, qu. eclogue on his death, entit. Astrophel, printed at the end of Edm. Spencer's poetry called Coliu clouts, &c. Lond. 1595, qu,'* The said sir Philip left behind him a daughter named Elizabeth, who being born in 1585, Scipio Gentilis an eminent civilian wrote a Lat. poem on her nativity entit. Nei'eus, sive de nataii E/izahetha; illustriss. Phi- Uppi Sydiiai Jilia;. Lond. 1585, in one sh. in qu., She was afterwards married to Rog, Mannours earl of Rutland, but died without issue by him. [Of sir Philip Sidney and his writings an ample account will be found in Collins's Letters and Memorials of State, 1746; as well as in Zouch's Memoirs of his Life, 1808, and in the British Bib- lio<rrapher, vol. 1, pp. 81, 289- The only authentic piece of his writing to be mentioned in addition is. An Answer to Leices- ter's Commonu ealth, printed in Collins's Memorials^ p,62, &c. In this he defends his uncle, the earl of Leicester, with great spirit. Part of a Discourse on Irish Affairs; said to be in sir Phil. Sidney's own hand, is among the Cottonian MSS. Titus B xii. fol. 557- MS, Harl. 6057, fol. 10, b. is a poem entitled, An old Dittie of Sir Phillipp Sidneyes omitted in the pri)ited Arcadia. But there seems every rea- son to suppose that this is not what it pretends to be 5. Various letters of sir Philip Sydney will be found among the Harleian MSS. Nos. 285, 286, 287, 444, 1323, 3638, 6845, 6992, 6993. See Catalogue, 1808, i. pp. 127, 130, 132, 138, 317; ii. p. 4; iii. pp. 48,431,470, 471. In the Cotton collection, Gaiba, B xi. fol. 363, 370, 387 ; C vhi. fol. 213; C ix. 44, 56, 93, 101 ; Cx. 75; Cxi. 265: And ten are printed by Collins. Nothing now remains but to give some speci- men of sir Philip Sydney's poetry. The follow- ing is extracted irom a MS. in the Bodleian'', and has never, as I believe, been printed. [ro these may be added,besides several others, 1. A poem on the life and death oj sir Philip Sidney, Li- censed in 4to, to Robert Waldegrave. 2, The mourning muses of Lod. Bryskett vpon the death of the most noble Sir Pliillip Sydney, kniglit, &c. licensed in 1587 to John Wolf, These two are noticed by Herbert, Typ- Anliq. 1144, 1186. 3. The Epitaph of Sir Phillip Sidney, knight, lately lord gouernour of Floshing. Lond. by George Robinson, one sheet 4to, without date. This is dedicated to sir Philip's widow, and was written by Thomas Churchyard, but is not noticed by hitson. It commences, A greate losse then world well waies, or may be toucht with pen. No lacke so much (in these our dales) as want of worthie men, &c. 4, Three Epitaphs in the Phcenix-nest. Lond. 1593. An account of his funeral was engraved, on thn ty-four copper-plates, by Theodore de Bry, Lond. 1588, from the designs of Thomas Launt,] 5 [See Catalogue cfthe Hurl. MSS. 1808, vol. iii. p. 314,. col. a.] 6 [Rawl. Poet. 85,j 1](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24751236_0001_0466.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
