19. +Sidney’s Poetry.+-- In addition to the +Arcadia+ and the +Apologie for Poetrie+, Sidney wrote a number of beautiful poems. The best of these are a series of sonnets called +Astrophel+ and +Stella+, of which his latest critic says: “As a series of sonnets, the +Astrophel+ and +Stella+ poems are second only to Shakespeare’s; as a series of love-poems, they are perhaps unsurpassed.” Spenser wrote an elegy upon Sidney himself, under the title of +Astrophel+. Sidney’s prose is among the best of the sixteenth century. “He reads more modern than any other author of that century.” He does not use “ink-horn terms,” or cram his sentences with Latin or French or Italian words; but both his words and his idioms are of pure English. He is fond of using personifications. Such phrases as, “About the time that the candles began to inherit the sun’s office;” “Seeing the day begin to disclose her comfortable beauties,” are not uncommon. The rhythm of his sentences is always melodious, and each of them has a very pleasant close. CHAPTER V. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 1. +The First Half.+-- Under the wise and able rule of Queen Elizabeth, this country had enjoyed a long term of peace. The Spanish Armada had been defeated in 1588; the Spanish power had gradually waned before the growing might of England; and it could be said with perfect truth, in the words of Shakespeare:-- “In her days every man doth eat in safety Under his own vine what he plants, and sing The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.” The country was at peace; and every peaceful art and pursuit prospered. As one sign of the great prosperity and outstretching enterprise of commerce, we should note the foundation of the East India Company on the last day of the year 1600. The reign of James I. (1603-1625) was also peaceful; and the country made steady progress in industries, in commerce, and in the arts and sciences. The two greatest prose-writers of the first half of the seventeenth century were +Raleigh+ and +Bacon+; the two greatest poets were +Shakespeare+ and +Ben Jonson+.