Astrophil and Stella 14

By Sir Philip Sidney 1554–1586 Philip Sidney

Alas, have I not pain enough, my friend,

Upon whose breast a fiercer gripe doth tire

Than did on him who first stale down the fire,

While Love on me doth all his quiver spend,

But with your rhubarb words you must contend

To grieve me worse, in saying that Desire

Doth plunge my well-formed soul even in the mire

Of sinful thoughts, which do in ruin end?

If that be sin which doth the manners frame,

Well stayed with truth in word and faith of deed,

Ready of wit, and fearing naught but shame;

If that be sin which in fixed hearts doth breed

A loathing of all loose unchastity,

Then love is sin, and let me sinful be.

Biography

The grandson of the Duke of Northumberland and heir presumptive to the earls of Leicester and Warwick, Sir Philip Sidney was not himself a nobleman. Today he is closely associated in the popular imagination with the court of Elizabeth I, though he spent relatively little time at the English court, and until his appointment as governor of Flushing in 1585 received little preferment from Elizabeth. Viewed in his own age as the . . .

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