Chapter Shorthouse to Simms of S by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Shorthouse to Simms

Shorthouse, Joseph Henry (1834-1903).—Novelist, born at Birmingham, where he was a chemical manufacturer. Originally a Quaker, he joined the Church of England. His first, and by far his best book, John Inglesant, appeared in 1881, and at once made him famous. Though deficient in its structure as a story, and not appealing to the populace, it fascinates by the charm of its style and the “dim religious light” by which it is suffused, as well as by the striking scenes occasionally depicted. His other novels, The Little Schoolmaster Mark, Sir Percival, The Countess Eve, and A Teacher of the Violin, though with some of the same characteristics, had no success comparable to his first. Shorthouse also wrote an essay, The Platonism of Wordsworth.

Sibbes, Richard (1577-1635).—Divine, was at Cambridge, where he held various academic posts, of which he was deprived by the High Commission on account of his Puritanism. He was the author of several devotional works expressing intense religious feeling—The Saint’s Cordial (1629), The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax, etc. He was a man of great learning.

Sidney, or Sydney, Algernon (1622-1683).—Political writer, son of the 2nd Earl of Leicester, and grand- nephew of Sir Philip Sidney, in his youth travelled on the Continent, served against the Irish Rebels, and on the outbreak of the Civil War, on the side of the Parliament. He was one of the judges on the trial of Charles I., and though he did not attend, he thoroughly approved of the sentence. He opposed the assumption of the supreme power by Cromwell. After the Restoration he lived on the Continent, but receiving a pardon, returned in 1677 to England. He, however, retained the republican principles which he had all his life advocated, fell under the suspicion of the Court, and was in 1683, on the discovery of the Rye House Plot, condemned to death on entirely insufficient evidence, and beheaded on Tower Hill, December 7, 1683. Though no charge of personal venality has been substantiated, yet it appears to be certain that he received money from the French King for using his influence against war between the two countries, his object being to prevent Charles II. from obtaining command of the war supplies. Sidney was deeply versed in political theory, and wrote Discourses concerning Government, pub. in 1698.

Sidney, Sir Philip (1554-1586).—Poet and romancist, son of Sir Henry Sidney, Deputy of Ireland, and president of Wales, born at the family seat of Penshurst, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Oxford He was at the French Court on the fateful August 24, 1572—the massacre of St. Bartholomew—but left Paris soon thereafter and went to Germany and Italy. In 1576 he was with his flourished in Ireland, and the next year went on missions to the Elector Palatine and the Emperor Rudolf II. When his father’s Irish policy was called in question, he wrote an able defence of it. He became the friend of Spenser, who dedicated to him his Shepherd’s Calendar. In 1580 he lost the favour of the Queen by remonstrating against her proposed marriage with the Duke of Anjou. His own marriage with a daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham took place in 1583. In 1585 he was engaged in the war in the Low Countries, and met his death at Zutphen from a wound in the thigh. His death was commemorated by Spenser in his Astrophel. Sidney has always been considered as the type of English chivalry; and his extraordinary contemporary reputation rested on his personal qualities of nobility and generosity. His writings consist of his famous pastoral romance of Arcadia, his sonnets Astrophel and Stella, and his Apologie for Poetrie, afterwards called Defence of Poesie. The Arcadia was originally written for the amusement of his sister, afterwards Countess of Pembroke, the “Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother,” of William Browne. Though its interest now is chiefly historical, it enjoyed an extraordinary popularity for a century after its appearance, and had a marked influence on the immediately succeeding literature. It was written in 1580-81 but not published until 1590, and is a medley of poetical prose, full of conceits, with occasional verse interspersed. His Defence of Poesie, written in reply to Gosson (q.v.), is in simple and vigorous English. Sidney also made a translation of the Psalms.

Poems edited by Grosart, Apologie by Arber and others, Astrophel by Gray, Arber, and others. Life by Fulke Greville (1652), cd. by Sir E. Brydges (1816). Arcadia (facsimile), by Somner. Lives by J. A. Symonds, Fox Bourne, and others.