Philip Sidney

About

Prominent English poet of the Elizabethan era who is most remembered for a pastoral romance entitled The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.

Before Fame

He wrote Astrophel and Stella, a series of sonnets, after a 1575 meeting with Penelope Devereux inspired the work.

Trivia

He died at age thirty-two after fighting on the Protestant side in the Battle of Zutphen.

Family Life

He was one of three children born to Sir Henry Sidney and Lady Mary Dudley.

Associated With

Plot elements of Sidney's Arcadia were borrowed by William Shakespeare and used in the famous tragedy King Lear.