Philip Sidney citations

Philip Sidney était un poète anglais.

Surnommé « le plus accompli des gentilshommes d'Angleterre » par ses contemporains, il était le neveu du comte de Leicester, favori de la reine Élisabeth. Il était issu du milieu protestant, auquel il se montrera fidèle toute sa vie.

À 14 ans il part finir ses études à Oxford. Puis de 1572 à 1575 il fait un long voyage sur le continent, comme il convenait alors à un jeune homme bien né. À son retour la reine lui confie une mission diplomatique auprès de Guillaume d'Orange aux Pays-Bas. Mais les faveurs royales cessent en 1580 après qu'il eut écrit une lettre à la reine pour lui déconseiller d'épouser le duc d'Anjou[réf. nécessaire].

En 1585, la reine le rappelle pour lutter contre les Espagnols installés aux Pays-Bas. Il est mortellement blessé à la bataille de Zutphen à l'âge de 32 ans.

Giordano Bruno lui dédicaça deux livres, et George Whetstone écrivit son élégie en 1587.

✵ 30. novembre 1554 – 17. octobre 1586
Philip Sidney photo
Philip Sidney: 26   citations 0   J'aime

Philip Sidney: Citations en anglais

“My dear, my better half”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book III. books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=GxhRAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=half
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Fool," said my muse to me. "Look in thy heart and write.”

Philip Sidney livre Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 1,Concluding couplet from Loving in truth,and fain in verse my love to show
Compare: "Look, then, into thine heart and write", Henry W. Longfellow, Voices of the Night, Prelude.
Variante: Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool!" said my muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.
Source: Astrophel and Stella (1591)
Contexte: .... But words came halting forth, wanting Invention's stay,
Invention, Nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows,
And others' feet still seemed but strangers in my way.
Thus great with child to speak, and helpless in my throes,
Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite:
"Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart and write."

“Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge.”

Page 39.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“A fair woman shall not only command without authority but persuade without speaking.”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 3, page 485.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy.”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 1. Compare: "Great thoughts come from the heart", Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Maxim cxxvii.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Thy necessity is yet greater than mine”

Allegedly spoken after the Battle of Zutphen, when offering water to an injured peer, though himself gravely wounded.
Source: Sir Philip Sydney Biography http://www.biography.com/people/sir-philip-sidney-21397397,

“And thou my minde aspire to higher things;
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust.”

Sidney, Sonnet. Leave me, O Love. Quote reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 419-23.

“Certainly, I must confess my own barbarousness, I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet.”

Page 99.
The old song is usually known as "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" or "The Hunting of the Cheviot".
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“As in geometry, the oblique must be known, as well as the right; and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even; so in actions of life, who seeth not the filthiness of evil, wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue.”

Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney; with remarks, by Miss Porter (1807), p. 23. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.aa0000617332;view=1up;seq=53

“Open suspecting others comes of secret condemning themselves.”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 1, page 144.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“Who shoots at the mid-day sun, though he be sure he shall never hit the mark, yet as sure he is he shall shoot higher than who aims but at a bush.”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 2, page 253.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“In the sweetly constituted mind of Sir Philip Sidney, it seems as if no ugly thought or unhandsome meditation could find a harbour. He turned all that he touched into images of honour and virtue.”

Charles Lamb "Characters of Dramatic Writers, Contemporary with Shakspeare", in Thomas Hutchinson (ed.) The Works in Prose and Verse of Charles and Mary Lamb (1908) vol. 1, p. 70.
Criticism

“Poetry, a speaking picture… to teach and delight”

From 'Tracing Aristotle's Rhetoric' in Defense of Poesy 1581.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“Have I caught my heav'nly jewel.”

Philip Sidney livre Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 1, Second Song. Note: Quoted by William Shakespeare in Merry Wives of Windsor.
Astrophel and Stella (1591)

“They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 1. Compare: "He never is alone that is accompanied with noble thoughts", John Fletcher, Love's Cure, act iii. sc. 3.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

“The poet…nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth.”

Page 103.
An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

“That sweet enemy, France.”

Philip Sidney livre Astrophel and Stella

Sonnet 41, line 4.
Astrophel and Stella (1591)

“Many-headed multitude.”

Philip Sidney livre The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

Book 2. Compare: "Many-headed multitude", William Shakespeare, Coriolanus, act ii. sc. 3.; "This many-headed monster, Multitude", Daniel, History of the Civil War, book ii. st. 13.
The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

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