PREFACE
Reading edition
For the incidents in the life of Sir Philip Sidney, who is the central figure in this story of 'the spacious times of great Elizabeth,' I am indebted to Mr H. R. Fox Bourne's interesting and exhaustive Memoir of this noble knight and Christian gentleman.
In his short life of thirty-one years are crowded achievements as scholar, poet, statesman and soldier, which find perhaps few, if indeed any equal, in the records of history; a few only of these chosen from among many appear in the following pages. The characters of Mary Gifford and her sister, and the two brothers, Humphrey and George Ratcliffe, are wholly imaginary.
The books which have been consulted for the poetry of Sir Philip Sidney and the times in which he lived are—Vol. I. of An English Garner; M. Jusserand's Roman du Temps de Shakespere, and a very interesting essay on Sir Philip Sidney and his works, published in Cambridge in 1858.
Woodside, Leigh Woods, Clifton, October 5, 1893.
CONTENTS
BOOK I.
PAGE
I.THE SISTERS,1
II.IN THE PARK,17
III.A STRANGE MEETING,35
IV.THE HAWK AND THE BIRD,60
V.RESISTANCE,82
VI.THREE FRIENDS,101
VII.WHITSUNTIDE, 1581,121
VIII.DEFEAT,146
IX.ACROSS THE FORD,171
BOOK II.
X.AT WILTON,207
XI.LUMEN FAMILIÆ SUÆ,223
XII.FIRE AND SWORD,243
XIII.RESTORED,258
XIV.WHAT RIGHT?276
XV.THE PASSING OF PHILIP,296
XVI.FOUR YEARS LATER—1590,311
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE ENTRANCE TOWER, PENSHURST CASTLE,Frontispiece
PENSHURST CHURCH AND CASTLE,PAGE 4
THE LYCH GATE, PENSHURST,64
PENSHURST CASTLE, FROM THE PARK,70
OLD HOUSES BY THE LYCH GATE, PENSHURST,130
THE TILT YARD, WHITEHALL,148
THE GREAT HALL, PENSHURST CASTLE,224
THE BARON'S COURT, PENSHURST CASTLE,288