claimed all treasonable imputations cast upon him. But Henry's insane jealousy being aroused, and his thirst of blood, which seemed to increase with the last approaching throes of dissolution, governed the issues of the trial; the earl was found guilty, sentence of forfeiture pronounced, and, the king continuing obstinately deaf to all appeals for mercy, was hurried to execution on the 21st of January, just a week before the death of the tyrant himself ;- -an event which saved the Duke of Norfolk from sharing the fate of his accomplished son, in whose alleged treason he had been implicated.

Thus perished, at little more than thirty years of age, one of the brightest ornaments of his time, bequeathing, however, to posterity a name around which poet, painter, historian, and every lover of his country and its literature, has ever since twined the wreaths of immortality. He was the first of our poets who wrote in blank verse, and the founder of the second school of English poetry, based upon the best Italian models, in which he is closely imitated by Spenser, and also, though less directly, by Milton.

His life teaches us that culture of the intellect, refinement and courtesy of manners, with the accomplishments of the sphere in which he moves, are requisite qualities to form the character of a true gentleman, however high his birth may be.

A.D. 1586.

No boy was ever truly noble who had not a large

dash of poetry in him. Indeed, it is almost the

very nature of boyhood to be poetic, whether it be in

the love of nature or in the love of truth. The golden age of youth thus contrasts forcibly with the golden age of mature life, when the love of money becomes the ruling passion, instead of the love of chivalric enterprises, and that disinterestedness which is the soul of virtue. Truly and beautifully has Campbell, the Bard of Hope, described Sidney's life as poetry put into action. His was, indeed, a noble boyhood. His graceful form and manly character, strongly relieved by the "light of young romance," seems ever to stand before our eyes, exalted almost beyond its due proportion. His contemporaries deemed him not only a highly accomplished scholar and a gallant and most true-hearted gentleman, but also a great statesman, and a greater warrior; and those who survived him -his "Arcadia" and his "Defence of Poesie," his two great works, being both posthumous-considered him one of the greatest poets of the day.

He was born at Penshurst, in Kent, on the 29th of November, 1554. His father, Sir Henry Sidney, was the favourite of Edward VI., by whom he was knighted. He was a man of excellent natural wit, of large heart and sweet conversation, and a statesman who held office under Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth! Philip's early education was obtained at the Grammar School of Shrewsbury, from whence he entered at Christchurch, Oxford, passing after a time to the sister university, a practice common at that time, and entering at Trinity College. His love of learning early