Note 359 — Chapter XXXIV · LAST YEARS OF SIDNEY’S ADMINISTRATION, 1577 and 1578.

Lady Mary Sidney to Edward Molineux, Oct. 11, 1578, and a second letter (undated) soon after, in the Sidney Papers. It is the Book of Howth which accuses Sidney of being a ‘lusty feeder and surfeiter.’ The Irish nickname might very well come from some dispute with a contractor, and not from Sidney’s fondness for malt liquor. Sidney died in 1586, prematurely old, at fifty-seven years of age. In the British Museum a black letter pamphlet contains a funeral sermon by Thomas White, D.D., the founder of Sion College. The whole is interesting, more especially the following passage: ‘He consumed himself in yielding light to other men; besides his special gift of affability to poor and simple men, the very grace of all his greatness. It is no hard matter for a man to be humble in low estate, but to be lowly in greatness is not a common gift; and if pride herself be often forced to dissemble humility, because lowliness maketh a simple man to be highly commended, how much more doth it excel, when it shall indeed appear in persons of value and renown! Wherefore if any man will build his house high, let him lay his foundations very low, for envy shoots at high marks, and pride goes before a fall.’ Herein lay the secret of Sidney’s immense popularity. His haughtiness was reserved for the great and powerful.