Astrophil and Stella 72

By Sir Philip Sidney 1554–1586 Philip Sidney

Desire, though thou my old companion art,

And oft so clings to my pure Love that I

One from the other scarcely can descry,

While each doth blow the fire of my heart,

Now from thy fellowship I needs must part;

Venus is taught with Dian’s wings to fly;

I must no more in thy sweet passions lie;

Virtue’s gold now must head my Cupid’s dart.

Service and honor, wonder with delight,

Fear to offend, will worthy to appear,

Care shining in mine eyes, faith in my sprite:

These things are let me by my only dear;

But thou, Desire, because thou wouldst have all,

Now banished art. But yet alas how shall?

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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