“This steady counsel”: Fulke Greville’s Transformation of Sidney in A Dedication

Abstract:This article offers a rereading of Fulke Greville’s A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney, arguing that Greville’s text, resisting a motif in earlier commemoration literature of Sidney’s life that painted him as militaristic, violent, and bold, displays instead a Sidney who is devoted to irenic counsel, caution, and an emphasis on peacekeeping. Building on recent studies of Greville’s life and work that have illustrated his preoccupation with political counsel, it illustrates how Greville uses his biography of Sidney to develop an implicit argument not only for the worthiness of counselors in general, but for the specific value of an aversion to military conflict. Finally, this article examines Greville’s choice to depict Sidney in this fashion in the contexts of both Caroline foreign policy— an issue of pressing concern during the period in which Greville composed A Dedication—as well as Greville’s understanding of his own political career as “Concellor to King James.”