The funeral of Philip Sidney, according to the surviving accounts and pictures of it, had a
réclamefitting a cultural icon: his body having been borne back to England from Holland in a black-sailed pinnace to lie in the Tower of London, it was escorted, in February 1586/7, through the streets of London by a cortège of 700 mourners, including 32 poor men to represent his age, Sir Francis Drake, the Earls of Leicester, Huntingdon, Pembroke, Essex, and a substantial contingent of municipal and military personnel. Sidney's death had, for England and her allies, the sort of symbolic and emotional significance which the twentieth century attached to those of President Kennedy and the Princess of Wales. As Sidney's friends acknowledged, however, he had not been “possessed of any fit stage…
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Citation: Preston, Claire. "Sir Philip Sidney". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 October 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4067, accessed 21 November 2024.]
