An Elegie, or friends passion, for
his Astrophill.
Written vpon the death of the right Honorable sir Philip
Sidney knight, Lord gouernor of
Flushing. +Sir Philip Sidney , author of the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella (c. 1580s). Astrophil, the vocal lover of the sequence is traditionally associated with Sidney, while Stella is identified as Penelope Devereux , daughter of the first earl of Essex. Reprinted alongside ‘An Epitaph upon the right Honorable sir Philip Sidney knight’ * and ‘Another of the Same’ * in Edmund Spenser’s Colin Clouts Come home againe , 1595, K2-K3. Author: probably written by Matthew Roydon soon after Sidney’s death on October 17th, 1586; see Thomas Nashe’s preface to Robert Greene’s Menaphon , 1589, sig. A2v. Structure (May/Ringler): 234: 39×6 sx8
A S then, no winde at all there blew, No swelling cloude, accloid the aire, The skie, like glasse of watchetpale blue hew, Reflected Phoebus golden haire, (5) The garnisht tree, no pendant stird, No voice was heard of any bird. +Lines 1-6: quoted in England’s Parnassus , 359.
There might you see the burly Beare, The Lion king, the Elephant, The maiden Vnicorne +Symbol of chivalry that, according to folklore, could only be captured by a virgin. was there, (10) So was Acteons horned plant, +Rollins suggests a stag. Lines 7-10: ‘There might … horned plant’: Quoted in England’s Parnassus , 486. Rollins suggests these lines are allegorical and that the bear is Leicester, the lion is William Cecil , Lord Burghley, and the unicorn queen Elizabeth. And what of wilde or tame are found, Were coucht in order on the ground.
Alcides speckled poplar tree, +The white popular tree was sacred to Alcides/Hercules, see glossary , because after he killed Cacus, a fire-breathing dragon, he crowned himself with a wreath made of white poplar branches; those victorious in battle were therefore crowned with poplar. The palme that Monarchs doe obtaine, +The palm symbolises the victorious ruler. (15) With Loue iuice staind the mulberie, +The mulberry tree stained with the blood of Pyramus and Thisbe, see glossary . The fruit that dewes the Poets braine, And Phillis philbert +A filbert is a hazelnut. According to Gower, Phyllis kills herself for love of Demophon and is turned into a filbert tree, Conf. Amant. 4. 861-72. there away, Comparde with mirtle and the bay.
The treecypress that coffins doth adorne, (20) With stately height threatning the skie, And for the bed of Loue forlorne, The blacke and dolefull Ebonie, All in a circle compast were, Like to an Amphitheater. +Lines 13-24, ‘Alcides … Amphitheater’: Quoted in England’s Parnassus , 483.
(25) Vpon the branches of those trees, The airie winged peoplebirds sat,