(2) Being mortally wounded, and receiving a cup of
water, he handed it (according to a tradition which is not
unquestionable) to a dying soldier. (3) His series of sonnets record his
love for Penelope Devereux, sister to the Earl of Essex, who married
Lord Rich. She had at one time been promised to Sidney. He wrote the
sonnets towards 1581: in 1583 he married another lady, daughter of Sir
Francis Walsingham. It has been said that Shelley was wont to make some
self-parade in connexion with Sir Philip Sidney, giving it to be
understood that he was himself a descendant of the hero--which was not
true, although the Sidney blood came into a different line of the
family. Of this story I have not found any tangible confirmation.
1. 8. _Lucan, by his death approved._ Lucan, the author of the
_Pharsalia_, was condemned under Nero as being an accomplice in the
conspiracy of Piso: he caused his veins to be opened, and died
magnanimously, aged about twenty-six, A.D. 65. Shelley, in one instance,
went so far as to pronounce Lucan superior to Vergil.
+Stanza 46,+ 11. 1, 2. _And many more, whose names on earth are dark,
But whose transmitted effluence cannot die_, &c.
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