gabe seiner sämmtlichen Werke ist die von Todd besorgte, London 1806, 8 Bde. in 8.
Faerie queene ward oft besonders aufgelegt; die beste Ausgabe erschien London 1751, 3 Bde. in 4.
Es ist ein romantisches allegorisirendes Epos, dessen Inhalt der Dichter dem Sagenkreise des
Königs Arthur entlehnte.

One would have thought (so cunningly the rude
And scorned partes were mingled with the fine),
That Nature had for wantonesse ensude

And them amongst some were of burnisht gold,
So made by art to beautify the rest,
Which did themselves emongst the leaves en-Art, and that Art at Nature did repine;

for And in the midst of all a fountaine stood,

Thereof she usd to give to drinke to each,
Whom passing by she happened to meet:
It was her guise all straungers goodly so to For the rich metall was so coloured,

Would surely deeme it to bee yvie trew; Such seemed they, and so their yellow heare Low his lascivious armes adown did creepe,

Christalline humor dropped downe apace. That themselves dipping in the silver dew Whom such when Guyon saw, he drew him Their fleecy flowres they fearefully did steepe,

neare,
Which drops of christall seemd for wantones to And somewhat gan relent his earnest pace;

weep.
His stubborne brest gan secret pleasaunce to

embrace.
Infinit streames continually did well
Out of this fountaine, sweet and faire to see,

The wanton maidens him espying, stood The which into an ample laver fell,

Gazing awhile at his unwonted guise; And shortly grew to so great quantitie,

Then th' one herselfe low ducked in the flood, That like a litle lake it seemd to bee,

Abasht that her a straunger did avise: Whose depth exceeded not three cubits hight,

But th' other rather higher did arise That through the waves one might the bottom

And her two lilly paps aloft displayd, see,

And all, that might his melting hart entyse All pav'd beneath with jaspar shining bright,

To her delights, she unto him bewrayd; That seemd the fountaine in that sea did sayle The rest, hidd underneath, bim more desirous upright.

made.

And all the margent round about was sett
With shady laurell trees, thence to defend With that the other likewise up arose,
The sunny beames which on the billowes bett,

And her faire lockes, which formerly were And those which therein bathed mote offend.

bownd As Guyon hapned by the same to wend,

Up in one knott, she low adowne did lose, Two naked damzelles he therein espyde,

Which flowing long and thick her cloth'd Which therein bathing seemed to contend

arownd, And wrestle wantonly, ne car'd to hyde

And th' yvorie in golden mantle gownd:
Their dainty partes from vew of any which them so that faire spectacle from him was reft,

eyd.
Yet that which reft it no lesse faire was

fownd: Sometimes the one would lift the other quight

So hidd in lockes and waves from lookers theft, Above the waters, and then downe againe

Nought but her lovely face she for his looking Her plong, as over-maystered by might,

left. Where both awhile would covered remaine, And each the other from to rise restraine; The whiles their snowy limbes, as through a Withall she laughed, and she blusht withall,

vele,

That blushing to her laughter gave more grace, So through the christall waves appeared plaine: And laughter to her blushing, as did fall. Then suddeinly both would themselves unhele, Now when they spyde the knight to slacke his And th' amorous sweet spoiles to greedy eyes

pace revele.

Them to behold, and in his sparkling face

The secrete signs of kindled lust appeare, As that faire starre, the messenger of morne,

Their wanton merriments they did encreace, His deawy face out of the sea doth reare: And to him beckned to approch more neare, Or as the Cyprian goddesse, newly borne And shewd him many sights that corage cold Of th' ocean's fruitfull froth, did first appeare:

could reare.

Sidney.

Einer der grossartigsten und ausgezeichnetsten Männer der bedeutenden Zeit, der er angehörte, ward Sir Philipp Sidney am 20. November 1554 zu Penshurst in Kent geboren, studirte noch sehr jung in Oxford und machte dann eine grosse Reise durch Europa. Bei seiner Rückkehr vermählte er sich, aber seine Gattin, so schön sie auch sein mochte, war nicht die Dame seines Herzens, dies gehörte der Lady Penelope Devereux (der Philoclea seines Arkadiens und der Stella seines Astrophe!) welche Familienrücksichten ihm verwehrt hatten als Gemahlin heimzuführen. Die Königin Elisabeth schenkte ihm schon früh ihre Gunst und Sidney zeigte sich als tapferer Krieger wie als umsichtiger Staatsmann derselben fortwährend im höchsten Grade würdig. Er starb an einer, bei der Schlacht von Zütphen am 22. September 1586 erhaltenen tödtlichen Wunde und wurde mit grosser Pracht in der St. Paulskirche zu London beigesetzt.

Sidney hinterliess einen mit Versen untermischten Schäferroman, Arkadia, eine zusammenhängende Reihe von Sonetten, Astrophel and Stella betitelt, viele kleinere, besonders lyrische Gedichte und einige prosaische Schriften. Die beste Ausgabe seiner sämmtlichen Werke ist die vierzehnte, London 1725, 3 Bde. in 8. — Eine ausführliche Biographie des vortrefflichen Mannes lieferte Th. Zouch, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Ph. S. York 1809. 1 Bd. in 4.

Als Dichter zeichnet er sich durch Eleganz, Zartheit, Gedankenreichthum, Phantasie und tiefes Gefühl, so wie durch Herrschaft über Form und Sprache sehr ehrenvoll aus; doch ist er auch nicht frei von dem herrschenden Geschmack seiner Zeit und sein Bestreben das Klassische mit dem Romantischen zu verbinden, führte ihn mitunter zu Verirrungen. Dahin gehört z. B. sein Versuch, englische Hexameter und Alexandriner zu bilden, den man als gänzlich misglückt betrachten muss. Unter seinen kleinen Liedern findet sich dagegen mehr als ein Meisterwerk.

Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke.

Dieser ausgezeichnete Staatsmann, ein Liebling der Königin Elisabeth und Jakob's I. ward 1554 zu Alcaster in Warwickshire geboren, studirte zu Oxford und Cambridge und trat dann in Staatsdienste, in welchen er bis zum Staatskanzler und Pair emporstieg. Er starb am 30. September 1628, von einem seiner Diener, wahrscheinlich in einem Anfall von Wahnsinn, erstochen.

Ausser mehreren didactischen Gedichten hinterliess Lord Brooke zwei Trauerspiele: Alaham und Mustapha, welche ihn als Dichter am Längsten im Andenken der Nachwelt erhalten haben. Er war ein Mann von seltenen Fähigkeiten, aber der Verstand hatte bei Allem, was er that und schrieb, die Oberhand; was ein Poet durch geschickte Combination erreichen kann, das hat er, die Rücksicht auf seine Zeit nicht unbeachtet gelassen, erreicht, aber, allen seinen Leistungen fehlt der warme, lebendige Odem der Begeisterung und des Gefühls; sie, selbst die Trauerspiele, sind Untersuchungen und Abhandlungen in Versen, bei denen man den Scharfsinn des Verfassers bewundert, ohne vom Inhalt ergriffen zu werden.

Scene from Mustapha.
A Tragedy.

While I see who conspire, I seem conspired Against a husband, father, and a mother. By Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke. Truth bids me run, by truth I am retired; Shame leads me both the one way, and the other. (Rossa, Wife to Solyman the Turkish Emperor, per- In what a labyrinth is honour cast, suades her Husband, that Mustapha, his Son by a Drawn divers ways with sex, with time, with state, former Marriage, and Heir to his crown, seeks his life: that she may make way, by the death of Musta- In all which, error's course is infinite, pha, for the advancement of her own children, Zanger By hope, by fear, by spite, by love, and hate; and Camena. Camena the virtuous Daughter of Rossa And but one only way unto the right, defends the Innocence of Mustapha in a Conference which she holds with the Emperor.)

Camena. Solyman.

A thorny way, where pain must be the guide,
Danger the light, offence of power the praise:
Such are the golden hopes of iron days.

Cam. They that from youth do suck at for- Yet virtue, I am thine, for thy sake grieved

tune's breast,

And nurse their empty hearts with seeking higher,
Like dropsy - fed, their thirst doth never rest;
For still, by getting, they beget desire:
Till thaughts, like wood, while they maintain
the flame

Of high desires, grow ashes in the same.
But virtue! those that can behold thy beauties,
Those that suck, from their youth, thy milk of

(Since basest thoughts, for their ill-plac'd desires,
In shame, in danger, death and torment, glory),
That I cannot with more pains write thy story.
Chance, therefore, if thou scornest those that
scorn thee;

Fame, if thou hatest those that force thy trumpet
To sound aloud, and yet despise thy sounding;
Laws, if you love not those that be examples
Of nature's laws, whence you are fall'n corrupted;
Conspire that I, against you all conspired,

Their minds grow strong against the storms of Joined with tyrant virtue, as you call her,

goodness,
fortune,

And stand, like rocks in winter-gusts, unshaken;
Not with the blindness of desire mistaken.
O virtue therefore! whose thrall I think fortune,
Thou who despisest not the sex of women,
Help me out of these riddles of my fortune,
Wherein (methinks) you with yourself do pose me:
Let fates go on: sweet virtue! do not lose me.
My mother and my husband have conspired,
For brother's good, the ruin of my brother:
My father by my mother is inspired,
For one child to seek ruin of another.

I that to help by nature am required,

That I, by your revenges may be named,
For virtue, to be ruin'd, and defamed.
My mother oft and diversly I warned,
What fortunes were upon such courses builded:
That fortune still must be with ill maintained,
Which at the first with any ill is gained.
I Rosten warn'd, that man's self-loving thought
Still creepeth to the rude - embracing might
Of princes' grace: a lease of glories let,
Which shining burns; beeds serenes when 'tis set.
And, by this creature of my mother's making,
This messenger, I Mustapha have warn'd,
That innocence is not enough to save,

While I do help, must needs still hurt a brother. Where good and greatness, fear and envy have.