Fulke Greville, A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney

John Gouws (North-West University (Potchefstroom))

Ed. by J A Roe, University of York
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1633

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)

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This work recovered its proper title well over three hundred years after it was published in 1652 as

The Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney

(Wing B4899; see

Prose Work

s xiii-xiv, and Gouws 2014). In its printed incarnation it became one of the most influential biographical sources for Sidney as the English epitome of noble, Protestant chivalric virtues. In particular, it is the source of the iconic anecdote of the mortally wounded Sidney refusing to slake his own thirst before that of a wounded common soldier with the proverbial words: “Thy necessity is yet greater than mine” (

Life

sig. L3). These words—if not the anecdote itself—were, throughout the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries instilled into generations of English schoolboys and Boy Scouts, as a model of service…

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2726 words

Citation: Gouws, John. "A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 October 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3956, accessed 24 November 2024.]

Fulke Greville, A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney

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