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 SIDNEY SIDOIST 25 occupations, and partly, it has been suggested, through the machinations of Lord Burleigh. But he defended successfully the character of his father, whose administration in Ireland had been misrepresented by enemies at court. When admonished by the queen, in conse- quence of a dispute between himself and the earl of Oxford, of the difference in degree between earls and gentlemen, he replied that, "although Oxford was a great lord by birth, alliance, and grace, yet he was no lord over him; and therefore the difference of degrees between freemen could not challenge any oth- er homage than precedency." Although the answer was taken in good part by the queen, Sidney deemed it prudent to retire for a while from court ; and while residing at the seat of his sister, the countess of Pembroke, he wrote his pastoral romance of "Arcadia," which is in prose, interspersed with short poems. It never received the finishing touches and cor- rections of the author, and was moreover left incomplete. After circulating in manuscript for several years, it was published by the coun- tess of Pembroke in 1590; and such was its popularity, that previous to the middle of the 17th century upward of ten editions had ap- peared, and a French translation was pub- lished in 1624. To this period also probably belong the "Defence of Poesie," published in 1595, and originally designed as an answer to the attacks of the Puritans, and the series of amatory poems entitled " Astrophel and Stella " (1591), which recount the author's passion for Lady Bich, sister of Lord Essex, to whom he was at one time betrothed. In the intervals of his literary occupations he participated in courtly pageants and jousts, the most conspic- uous of all the brilliant circle who surround- ed the throne; and in 1583 he married the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, and was knighted. In 1585 he was nominated governor of Flushing, and in the latter part of the year appointed general of horse under his uncle the earl of Leicester, who was sent with a body of English troops to aid the Dutch in their war of independence. Sidney was fast build- ing up a reputation as a skilful general when his career was brought to an untimely close. On Sept. 22, 1586, a small detachment of Eng- lish troops under his command unexpectedly encountered 3,000 Spaniards who were march- ing to the relief of Zutphen, and a desperate engagement was fought under the walls of the fortress, in which the enemy were signally defeated. Sidney, seeing the Spanish leader going into battle lightly armed, was induced by a chivalric spirit of emulation to imitate his example ; and after a series of gallant charges, in which he had a horse killed under him, he received a musket ball in his left thigh. While leaving the field, "being thirsty with excess of bleeding," says Lord Brooke, "he called for drink, which was presently brought him ; but as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor soldier carried along, who had eaten his last at the same feast, ghast- ly casting up his eyes at the bottle. Which Sir Philip perceiving, took it from his head before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man, with these words : ' Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.' " He lingered several weeks in great agony, and met his death with Christian serenity, solacing even his last hours with literary composition. His body was taken to London, and after lying in state was interred in St. Paul's cathedral, Feb. 16, 1587 ; and a general mourning, the first on record in England, was observed. Spenser has embalmed their mutual friendship in a pastoral ode en- titled " Astrophel." Sidney left an only daugh- ter, who became fifth countess of Butland, but died without issue ; and his name is now rep- resented in the English peerage by Lord De 1'Isle, a descendant of his brother Kobert. His "Complete Works" were published in 3 vols. 8vo (London, 1725), and .his "Miscella- neous Works " were edited with a memoir by W. Gray (Oxford, 1829; reprinted, Boston, 1860). The latest edition of his works is " The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney," edited by the Kev. A. Grosart, in the " Fuller Wor- thies' Library," printed for private circulation (2 vols., 1873). His sister MARY, countess of Pembroke (died Sept. 25, 1621), is intimately connected with his private history. He joined with her in a translation of the Psalter " into sundry kinds of verse," first printed in London in 1823. She wrote an elegy on her brother, a pastoral poem in praise of Astrsea (Eliza- beth), and a poem " On our Saviour's Passion," preserved in manuscript in the British muse- um, and published in 1862, besides translating from the French the " Tragedy of Antonie." SIDON, or Zidcn (Heb. Tzidon, fishery ; now Saida), an ancient city of Phoenicia, on the coast, 23 m. N. of Tyre. According to Jose- phus, it was called Sidon after the first born of Canaan, but the name probably has reference to the first occupation of its inhabitants. From its antiquity it was termed the metropolis of Phoenicia. It seems to have been divided into Great Sidon, on the sea, and Little Sidon, some distance inland. The Phoenicians as a nation often designated themselves as Sidonians, and were generally called so by neighboring peo- ples. The period of the greatest prosperity of Sidon, according to the classical historians, was from about 1600 to 1200 B. C., during which time, as appears from the Egyptian in- scriptions, it was more or less under the su- premacy of Egypt. At the time of the He- brew conquest of Palestine, the rule of Sidon extended over the N. W. part of that country. The ancient history of the town is in a mea- sure that of the whole of Phoenicia, at least until the commencement of the supremacy of Tyre. (See PHOENICIA, and TYEE.) It flour- ished under the Persians, but was destroyed in 351 B. C., as a punishment for rebelling against Artaxerxes III. Ochus. It was thence- forth a provincial capital, but retained its own