ould have
been better pleased if your face had worn a more cheerful look when you
sat for the painting."[173] When Languet died, Sidney described his
sentiments for him in a touching poem, inserted in his "Arcadia"; it was
sung by the shepherd Philisides, who represents the author himself and
whose name is a contraction of the words Philip Sidney:

"I sate me downe; for see to goe ne could,
And sang unto my sheepe lest stray they should.
The song I sang old Lan[g]uet had me taught,
Lan[g]uet, the shepeard best swift Ister knew,
For clearkly reed, and hating what is naught,
For faithfull heart, cleane hands and mouth as true.
With his sweet skill my skillesse youth he drew,
To have a feeling taste of him that sits
Beyond the heaven, farre more beyond our wits ...
With old true tales he wont mine cares to fill,
How shepeards did of yore, how now they thrive ...
He liked me, but pitied lustfull youth:
His good strong staffe my slipperie yeares upbore:
He still hop'd well because I loved truth."[174]

In 1575, when twenty-one years old, Sidney returned to shine at court,
where his uncle Leicester, the Queen's favourite was to make all things
easy for him. He assisted that year at the fetes given in Elizabeth's
honour at Kenilworth, in those famous gardens "though not so goodly,"
writes a witness of the festivities, "as Paradis, for want of the fayr
rivers, yet better a great deal by the lack of so unhappy a tree."[175]
Then Sidney accompanied the Queen to Chartley, and these ceremonies mark
a great epoch in his existence. While Elizabeth listened to the
compliments of her entertainers, Sidney's eyes were fixed on a child. A
sentiment, the full strength of which he was to feel only in after time,
sprang up in his heart for Penelope Devereux, the twelve-year-old
daughter of the Earl of Essex, who was as beautiful as Dante's Beatrice.
He began to visit at her father's house frequently; it seemed as if a
marriage would ensue; Essex himself was favourable to it, but for some
cause or other Sidney did not press his suit; and while his friend
Languet strongly advised him to marry, he was answering him in the
leisurely style of one who believes himself heart-whole: "Respecting her
of whom I readily acknowledge how unworthy I am, I have written you my
reasons long since, briefly indeed, but yet as well as I was able."[176]
He was soon to write in a very differe