They are the lights by which the youth of the
country should array themselves. They were the patterns and idols of
their country at home; they were the illustrators of its dignity
abroad. 'Surrey,' says Camden, 'was the first nobleman that illustrated
his high birth with the beauty of learning. He was acknowledged to be
the gallantest man, the politest lover, and the completest gentleman of
his time.' And as to Wyat, his friend Surrey most amiably testifies of
him, that his person was majestic and beautiful, his visage 'stern and
mild;' that he sung, and played the lute with remarkable sweetness;
spoke foreign languages with grace and fluency, and possessed an
inexhaustible fund of wit. And see what a high commendation is passed
upon these illustrious friends: 'They were the two chieftains, who,
having travelled into Italy, and there tasted the sweet and stately
measures and style of the Italian poetry, greatly polished our rude and
homely manner of vulgar poetry from what it had been before, and
therefore may be justly called the reformers of our English poetry and
style.' And Sir Philip Sidney, who has left us such monuments of
elegant thought, and generous sentiment, and who illustrated his
chivalrous spirit so gloriously in the field.
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