‫سلوى سامح حسين متولي حجازي‬ ‫االسم‬

‫الثانية‬ ‫الفرقة‬
‫اللغة االنجليزية‬ ‫القسم‬
‫انتظام‬ ‫انتساب ‪/‬‬
‫انتظام‬
‫نقد‬ ‫المادة‬
‫‪Sir Philip Sidney as a Renaissance Critic‬‬ ‫البحث‬
‫‪20760‬‬ ‫رقم الجلوس‬
‫‪29912271300903‬‬ ‫الرقم القومي‬

‫‪1‬‬
Introduction:
In this research, I am going to discuss briefly the life of Sir Philip
Sidney, who is one of the remarkable poets and critics in the
Elizabethan age. Also I am going to talk over his masterpiece An
Apology for poetry which was a reply to the attack against poetry
which was launched by Stephen Gasson.

Sir Philip Sidney was born in 1554 at Penhurst into an aristocratic

family. When he was nine, he joined Shrewsbury School and in 1568,
Christ College, Oxford where he studied for four years. He also
became a soldier and scholar later. He was frequently mentioned as
the original type of the well-educated ''Renaissance man''. His talents
were manifold, including not only poetry and cultivated studying but
also the statesmanship and navy service.

The period between the fourteenth century and extending Into the
seventeenth century has been named as the Renaissance, referring to a
rediscovery of the values, morals, and styles of classical Greece
and Rome. Humanists try to influence people through their writings.
Aristotle' Poetics and Horace's Ars poetics were the most influential
classical treatises. So all the defence and commentaries and debates
were written result to defend poetry. The poets were influenced by
Horace's precept that literature should '' teach and delight''.
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 In The School Of Abuse, Stephen Gasson employed his realization of
antiquity rather than the dominion of the scriptures to attack 'the
abuses of poets, pypers, and players'. Presenting himself as a manly
warrior rather than an effete scholar. Gosson was guided or misguided
by the spirit of sour Puritanism.

As a response to Gasson's work, Sidney's Apology for Poetry was

dedicated to him to defend poetry and apologize to it. Sidney became
noticeably influenced through the Italian renaissance writers. Before
the Renaissance critical vision appeared, people's intellect was
shrouded in darkness. So Sidney tried hard to emerge them from
darkness into light. He wrote the first treatise on literary theory
influencing by humanist concepts. Sidney's Apology was more
synthetic than original. He adapted several references to reach his
conception of poetry

Sidney's Apology was disunited into five sections. The first, he

indicated that poetry should be considered as an honorable art
because of its antiquity as it is a very old art and universality as it
appeared in all nations. Poetry is the first art to appear in all nations.
It appeared before other branches of knowledge. Historians and
philosophers wrote their works in poetry. Poets were called'' the
fathers of learning''. Sidney stated that poetry flourished in both
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barbarous and civilized nations in all ages. Poetry softens people's
sensibilities and strengthens their intelligence.

In the second section, he discussed the nature of poetry. In contrast

to the astronomer, the historian, the physician, and the philosopher
the poet makes things better than that we find in nature or attempts
an entirely new creation. So, the poet is superior to other
representatives of knowledge. Sidney stated that if the real world
'' is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden''.

Poetry yo Sidney is divided into three broad divisions:

1) Religious poetry: it is harmless because it only praises God.
2) Philosophical poetry: it gives us knowledge about philosophy,
astronomy, history in a pleasant way.
3) True kind of poetry: it is sub-divided into:-
**Pastoral which deals with the life of simple people so it arouses the
sympathy and admiration for the simple life.
**Elegiac poetry which makes the reader sympathy with the
suffering people.
**Comedy which ridicules funnily ridicules the common errors thus it
warns the reader against these errors.
**Tragedy which tenerats the depth of human nature and penetrates
the types of people and discusses the actions of tyran people and
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makes the reader hate tyranny.
**Lyric hymns that have a religious and moral value and
strengthens virtue and courage.
**Epic poetry which was regarded by Sidney as '' the best and most
accomplished kind of poetry'' as it presents picture of heroic men and
heroic action and thus inspires men into heroic action.

Then, he discussed the usefulness of poetry in the intellectual life of

the community. He excluded natural sciences because they were not
interested in the humanity. He also points out that the most important
branches of knowledge are theology, law, philosophy, and history.
After that, he excluded theology because it is concerned with divine
and law science because it forces us to moral values and does not
inspire well-doing but history and philosophy inspire and encourage
us to do good things. So poetry is better than both.

Sidney maintained that philosophy presents merely precepts and

discusses virtue and vices which young people can not understand
because it gives them definitions without examples so they can not
apply in life. Only educated men can understand and apply
philosophy. He said that philosophy only deals with abstractions and
is ''hard to utterance and misty to be conceived''.
On the other hand, history, to Sidney, deals with definite facts and
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examples of virtue.'' the historian criticizes the philosopher's
distruptive virtue''. He also stated '' the historian wanting the precept,
is so tied not to what should be, but to what is''. He maintained that
the methods of history and philosophy are imperfect. The philosopher
gives teaching, the historian gives examples but '' both not having
both'' but poetry combines the merits of both.

In the third section, Sidney defended poetry from the accusation

against poetry. The charges were that ''poetry is useless and a waste of
time. So Sidney replies that poetry leads to valid and virtuous actions.
The second charge is that poetry is '' the mother of lies''.
Sidney's reply was that '' for to lie is to affirm what is not true. The
historian can lie for he affirms facts, but not the poet'' because he
does not deal with what is but with what should be. The third charge
was that poetry has an immoral effect. He replied was that the abuse
of poetry should not guide to the attack of poetry itself. The last
accusation was that Plato banished poets from his republic and
Sidney responsed that plato was not against poetry but the abuse
of poetry as he permitted hymns to God or religious poetry and the
verses to praise the noble men which lead to the well being of the ideal
citizen.
In the fourth section, Sidney listed some reasons for the decline of
poetry and drama:
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1) the age has impolite generation which is empty of eager and liberal
spirits necessary for poetic creation.
2) the wit slaved the contemporary poets.
3 the poetic art was spread in an ignorant way
4) the poets who write tragedies neglect rules.

The fifth and the last section lighted on some rules of versifications.
He maintained that what distinguishes English poetry from
conventional poetry is accent and rhyme, mentioning that the
renaissance interest is to introduce classical meters into English and
also concerns with life problems of rhyme and meter.

after discussing all the elements we can recognize that poetry

had been attacked for a long time because of the puritans and their
followers and after the renaissance, people's intellects lighted up again
because humanists worked hard to know more about all kinds of art.
Sidney was a great humanist and critic who defended poetry and his
name shined in the sky of the renaissance critics.

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4) Criticism textbook '' theortical and practical criticism''.