Sir Philip Sidney’s the Defence of Poesie

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY’S THE  DEFENCE OF POESIE

Sir Philip Sidney lived an active life as a courtier, solider, diplomat, and writer. He was born at Penshurst Place, in Kent in 1554. His father, Sir Henry Sidney, was appointed lord president of the Marches of Wales by Queen Elizabeth in 1559, and was later posted in Ireland; he was often absent from Penshurst. Sidney’s mother was lady-in-waiting to the queen until she caught smallpox in 1562. Sidney had a rigorous education at Shrewsbury School and then Christ Church, Oxford. After attending university, he traveled abroad for three years, where he became familiar with current political affairs and met political figures who would have a lasting influence on his life.

Sidney first traveled to Paris, where King Charles IX made him “Baron de Sidency” in 1572. During the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, the queens’ council ordered Sidney back to safety in England, but he had already moved on to Germany. When he returned to London, he was made cupbearer at Queen Elizabeth’s court. In 1577, Sidney returned to the continent to lead a special embassy from Queen Elizabeth to the family of Maximilian II of Austria following the emperor’s death. After Sidney’s return to London, his interest in establishing a Protestant League was stopped by Elizabeth. The Sidney family did not always experience a smooth relationship with Queen Elizabeth. Sidney was made governor of Flushing in 1585; he was wounded in battle in the Netherlands and died of gangrene in 1586. Sidney began writing poetry in 1578, and his writing career only lasted 7-8 years. His “The Defence of Poesy” was originally published under two different titles, The Defence of Poesie and An Apologie for Poetrie. It is a thorough and vigorous argument written by a practitioner of the art, who also had a strong education in the classics. 

NATURE AND FUNCTION OF POETRY

Sidney defends the art of poetry by emphasizing the antiquity, universality, dignity and utility of poetry. He refers to the definitions of poetry by classical writers of the past and establishes the superiority of poetry over philosophy, History, sciences and the other arts. He states the poetry teaches by giving pleasant and unpleasant pictures of virtue or vice, and making its reader move towards virtuous action.

        Sidney illustrates the antiquity of poetry by referring to the earliest writings in many languages and find out the fact that the earliest of Philosophers and historians wrote their works either in verse or in a poetical manner. He explains the universality of poetry by saying that almost in all the countries of the world the earliest writers have been poets. After proving the antiquity and universality of poetry, Sidney draws on the classical writings to explain the nature and functions of poetry.

        The Roman word ‘Vates’ denotes the creative power of the poet. The Delphic Oracels and Sibylla’s prophecies were delivered in verses. The poets have the power to penetrate the hidden reality and discern the future of the world. Similarly the poets perfect the imperfect real world by means of the imagination and intuition displayed in their poetical works. Both the prophetic nature and the creative power of the poets definitely differentiate them from other artists and associate with God and the Church. Sidney uses Plato’s poetic theory of inspiration and Aristotle’s poetic theory of imitation to explain the Nature and Function of Poetry. According to Plato, the poets are inspired by their visions of God and the ideal world of Heaven. Hence, they build up the ideal world in their works. On the other hand, Aristotle defines poetry as an art of imitation. He explains how the poets imitate the actual life by giving vivid accounts of the real world with a view to delight and teach the readers. Horace also defines the art of poetry and admires it for its speaking pictures and delightful teaching.

        After explaining the meaning and nature of poetry in the light of classical achievements, Sidney describes three kinds of poetry-religious poetry illustrated by David’s Psalms, Solomon’s Songs and the Hymns of Moses and Deborah, philosophical poetry illustrated by the moral works of Tyrtaeus, Phocylides and Cato, and true poetry further subdivided into several kinds-heroic, lyric, tragic, comic, satiric, iambic, elegiac, pastoral and so on.

        All kinds of true poetry attack the follies and foibles of society, evils and vices of mankind by inspiring readers with delightful pictures of ideal life and moving them to virtuous action. Though moral philosophy imparts a knowledge of good and evil, it fails to delight and move the readers to virtuous action for want of an emotional and imaginative treatment of the subject matter.

        Sidney dwells on the moral function of poetry in order to refute all the charges of Gosson leveled against the poetic art and poets. He establishes the superiority of poetry over Philosophy, History and Mathematics by a reference to its delightful teaching of moral percepts through memorable stories of imaginary events and characters. The classical poets represented wisdom and temperance in Ulysses; friendship in Nisus and Euryalaus, anger in Ajax, the remorse of conscience in Oedipus, the soon-repenting pride in Agamemnon, the violence of ambition in the two Theban brothers, the sour-sweetness of revenge in Medea and so on.

SUPERIOURITYOF POETRY

Sidney explains the nature and function of poetry with the help of his classical scholarship; he compares and contrasts the one with the other of the arts and the arts with the sciences in order to establish the superiority of poetry over Philosophy and History on the one hand. And Astronomy and Mathemtics on the other. By way of defending poetry against all the charges of Stephen Gosson. Sidney indicates the value of poetry for man and society.

        Though philosophy imparts the knowledge of good and evil, it fails to attract a large numer of people and make them virtuous. The dry language in which the abstract moral principles are experessed repels the people. But poetry delights the people and attracts more people by means of its sweet music, and pleasant pictures of the real and the ideal world. Therefore, it is more popular and less disliked than philosophy.

Sidney remarks, “ His(Philosopher’s) knowledge standeth so upon the abstract and the general, that happy is that man who may understand him and the more happy that can apply what he doth understand. The philosopher shows us the way, he informs us of the particularities as well of the tediousness of the way, as of the pleasant lodging you shall have when your journey is ended, as of the many by turnings that may divert you from your way.”

        No philosopher can so effectively present wisdom and temperance as the poet portrays them in Ulysses and Diomedes, and so it is with valour in Achilles, personalities of the real world without any alterations. He has no freedom to play the role of a moralist or an idealist. So he depicts the triumph of virtue and the defeat of vice. Hence, Aristotle said that poetry is more Philosophical than Science and more Studiously Serious than History. It combines the moral percepts of Philosophy with the Historical expamples virtue and vice.