The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-17
SIR SIDNEY WAS
 IDOL OF AGE IN
 WHICH HE LIVED
Was Noted For Excellent Character and His Splen-
 did Traits.

No, they will never die, the days of such knights as Sir Philip Sydney. To our drowsy blood they shout with i'm perlous voices. They challenge this 1Uugher, commercial, age to soften nnd af7orn its manners Today, Oct. r. comrnemorates the death, in 1586, on the battlefield of Zu-0hen in the Low Countries or the Netherlands. of Sir Philip Sydney, He was the Idol of rls age. and he will ever be a. mir TOT of what is nOblest in man. ODhe- Has matchIess descriptio1 of Hamlet applies absolutely to Sir Philip Syi- ney:---
 '"The courtIer's, scholars, soldiers
 ere, tongue, sword,
 The expectancy and rose of the fair
 State,
 The glass of fashion and the mould of
 form,
 The observed of all c2servers-''
 Sir Philip Sydney was named Philip after Philip of Spain, spouse Of Mary Tudor, Queen of England, to whom the Sydney family were indebted for many favors. Philip Sydney's mother was a Dudley. IL was the Dudley blood of which Sir Philip was proud, for his mothers stster-in-law was the famous Lady Ja-e Grey, the poor, lovely girl who Teigned for nine days IS Queen of England, and who was beheaded 1n the Tower. Sir Philips uncle was the celebrated courier, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, i'm perious lover and dear favorite of Queen Elizabeth CthOugh she once boxed his ears). After his University years Sir Philip travelled extensively on the continent It was the Age of Great Elizabeth, the glorious period of letters, of the names of Shake speare, Ben Johnson, Beaumont, Flet- cher, Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh. In this Armament of planets the name of Philip Sy5ney was no fixed star. He was a scholar. author and poet. His Defense of POesie was the earli est off l spring of English criticism. His pop ular romance, Arcadia, contains the celebrated prayer which Charles l. ! adapted for his own use. Its ineffabIy 1 7-ea LtifuI sentences are sOlaCe iu Iife's | slydowa. and triumphant support in i Ife's bright hours. For it is Pros | Dertty that tests the stuff that you are | made of. not Adverstty As Ouida 1 said anusingly in one of her society | novels, Blue Blood is an eagle in ad- l versity, but a peacock in prOsperity,' i It was in Prosperity that the virtues | of the excellent gentleman Sir Philip l Sydney shone
 He was beautiful within and with | out, elegant in person as in mind. | Said his father to 9 younger son, Initiate Philips virtues, and his ac- ! tiOns. He is a rare monument of this 1 age, and the formuIar that young men ] should form their manners and life i by" Sir Philip Sydney was never ! too pressed in work to be courteous, i kind, heIpful---eyer the gentleman! !
 We would ike to open a Forum for ! varied voices to give in their opinion i as to what constitutes @ gentleman; 1 and what constitutes a 'Iady?'
 Sir Philip does not seem to have 1 been especially a favorite of great ! Gu, n Bess. Perhaps his conscience l would not allow him to fatter and to | fawn upon the Lioness of England. | But Elizabeth acted upon his coUn- ! sels, and seems to have been deter | mined to have him near her to call | upon in times Of perplexity, for she ! stopped him in the act of embarhing | with Sir Francis Drake on a voyag ge | of discovery. Her words are on rec | ord, T cannot lose the jewel of my . dominions."
 At last she sent him to Flushing. as ! Governor, an appointment which | Philip had earnestly desired to ob- | tain, for Sir Philip Sydney was the | soldier. and ardentIy desired to throw | himself into the thickest fight that was being wager between the great 1 Queens allies, the Dutch and the ! Spanish.
 Perhaps the outcome of a mans | ife---the whole trend of his thoughts ] and his doings---is read in his last works. Coethe's last words, the in | tellectual Goethe's, were Light, more | Light!' Sir Philip sydney's last | words were the epitOme of the man. | On the battlefield of Zutphen where | he had conducted himself as the va lorous, reckless soldier of his Queen, | his England, and for the great cause 1 cf Right, Philip was mortaIy wound | ed in the thigh. The open wound l spurted a fountain of blood. The | thirst of death was on him, augm ent- | ed by the loss of blood. As he was lifting to his dying lips a goblet of | cold water brought to him, he saw a | common soldier on the ground twist ing in the deah agony, and eyeing with longing the glass of water. Tax ing the goblet---untasted-- his . lips, Sir Philip Sydney handed it to l lis fellOw-sufferar, saying, Thy ne | cessity is greater than mine" He fell . back. They were his last words.
 4 passion Of grief swept England . when the news of his death came. 1 His body was brought to the old land, | and buried in St. PauPs cathedrcl, 1 London. The entire nobility went into mourning. Oxford and Cambridge is | sued three volumes of elegies on his . life and death. And the great Spen- | ger, author of The Farie Queen,'' in i his Astrophel wept the loss of his ! friend. "SublimeIy mild a spirit with out spot" were Shelley's words of Sir Philip Sydney. ''The antique honor of chtvalry came into the graces of the modern gentleman
 While StroIling.---''Is 1t proper for 8, gentleman to walk between two la i dies and to give one his right arm and the other his left arm when out for a stron?"
 QAnswer) )---It's ''proper'' enough but it is not in accord with the accepted rules of modern polite society A gen.