But to return to SIDNEY. We have been looking far ahead at what did happen; all springing out of SIDNEY'S not asking STELLA to be his wife before Lord HUNTINGDON'S proposal of her as a fit match for the young Lord RICH. As we have seen, he blamed himself for it all; and we think rightly. It would be a great light on the subject of the Sonnets, if we could discover the crucial date of STELLA's first marriage; and also the dates of the birth of her seven children to Lord RICH. It is stated in Sloane MS. 4225, p. 47, that her son ROBERT RICH, second Earl of WARWICK, died on the igth of April 1658, aged seventy years and eleven months. This would place his birth in May 1587: but whether this ROBERT was her eldest child we cannot say. H. CONSTABLE has two Sonnets, one on the birth of Lady RICH'S daughter in 1588, on a Friday; and the other on the untimely death of the same.
SIDNEY left England for the last time on the 21st of November 1584. We think the series of Sonnets had been closed long before then: that in fact they were not continued after his marriage with FRANCES WALSINGHAM about March 1583. From which we expect that the date of STELLA'S first marriage, when recovered, will be found to have been about the beginning of 1582.
VI.
There is no distinct chronological order in the Sonnets and
Songs. Many of them have no indication of time or place at
all. Probably this was of purpose. SIDNEY never intended
them for publication. They were the expression of a personal
homage offered in the most straightforward way possible;
by one whom FULK GREVILLE tells us did restore to his generation
"the ancient majesty of noble and true dealing."
It is indisputable, however, from the Sonnets themselves, that many of them were addressed to STELLA, when she was occupying the position though bereft of the happiness of a newly wedded wife. SIDNEY knew that to do so was both hopeless and wrong. How beautifully he puts this.
With what sharp checks I in myself am shent,
When into REASON'S audit I do go;
And by just counts, myself a bankrupt know
Of all those goods which heaven to me hath lent.
Unable quite, to pay even Nature's rent,
Which unto it by birthright I do owe:
And which is worse, no good excuse can show,
But that my wealth I have most idly spent.
