Sir+Phillip+Sidney+~+Fan+or+Fanatic

Sir Phillip Sidney ~ Fan or Fanatic The Elizabethan Era is historically known as being one of the most prosperous eras in England’s history. Overcoming many obstacles Queen Elizabeth I managed to reunite a country that had been torn apart by religious dispute and violence earning her the love of the people and many devout couturiers. Among these devout couturiers was Sir Phillip Sidney. Brought up during the Elizabethan era Sidney was raised with the same love of his Queen as any good English man. His family’s ties to the court offered him many unique opportunities, such as eventually becoming the royal cupbearer to the crown, as well as the means to a good education. As Sidney became older he grew more and more ardent in his desire to do what was best for his Queen however, this lead to his eventual dismissal from the court after he expressed his opposition to her projected marriage to the Duke of Anjou. While in exile Sidney wrote many of his most famous texts including //The Old Arcadia//, which he never meant to be publically circulated, that seems to be a bitter reflection on his own feelings about his exile and his feelings towards his queen, most of which are dark and twisted leaving readers to wonder about how healthy Sidney’s love for his Queen was. To most people of English heritage Sidney’s borderline obsessive behavior may just seem to be a product of the times however, when reevaluating Sidney’s behavior in a modern day pop culture forum observers may come to a different conclusion. In pop culture today the major league athletes who dominate arenas and the celebrities that reign Hollywood act as modern day royalty. Their subjects or courtiers in today’s world are their public, those millions of people who show up on game day or opening night at the theater. These celebrities, much like the monarchs of old, rely on the continued support of the public in order to remain “in power” or successful. However, sometimes these supporters begin to take their support to an excessive level, they begin to fall in love and become obsessed with these celebrities. These people often become stalkers believing that they have a personal relationship with selected celebrities and sometimes taking this obsession to a dangerous level. In reading //The Old Arcadia// and studying the life of Sir Phillip Sidney I discovered some shocking relationships between the obsessive behavior of modern day stalkers and Sidney’s obsession with Elizabeth. Most comparable was in the late 1970’s and early 80’s popular American actress Jodi Foster was the target of a vicious stalker John W. Hinckley Jr. Hinckley became obsessed with Foster after viewing one of her films and subsequently fabricating a relationship with her in his mind. Hinckley learned that Foster was enrolling in a Yale writing course and signed up for the same one, he gained the actresses phone number and made numerous calls to her, he wrote her poems and even spoke many disturbing messages into a personal tape recorder. Just like Sidney, Hinckley was born into a wealthy family and was given access to a wonderful education. He had an open opportunity to join his older brother in heading his fathers company but after viewing Fosters film “Taxi Driver” he began to slowly drift away from reality and into obsession, a very similar situation occurred in Sidney’s life when it became more and more of a reality that his Queen may wed. When their fantasies failed them in real life these men took to writing in order to express their emotions, Sidney wrote things such as //The Old Arcadia// and Hinckley wrote poems and journals. Even though these men lived more than four hundred years apart many of the same themes are apparent in both men’s works. In one of his poems meant for Foster, Hinckley wrote; “I know a girl who is beyond words; I don't know her well but I know her. I know she knows that I know her and she knows that I love her.” This all about Jodie Foster a woman he barely knew, even more chilling are the multiple comparable passages in Sidney’s //The Old Arcadia//; “how love first took me I did once, using the liberty of versifying, set down in a song, in a dream indeed it was” (121) as well as, “Yet let not sluttery/The sink of filth, be counted housewifery” (101) In both instances these men are speaking about how much they have loved these women from first glance and how they know them so well. Sidney even goes so far as to reference his disdain for the Queen’s predicted marriage by relating marriage to stink and filth. While Hinckley writes about how Foster is in love with him too and knows their love is true. On a darker note Hinckley wrote, “I can put that person at my feet moaning and groaning and pleading with God.”While Sidney wrote; “thought the deathful doom/Of heav’n of earth, of hell, of time and place was come” (123) These passages appear to be more loosely comparable but readers must take into account that they were written over four hundred years apart and in two different places. After taking these things into account these passages seem to be scarily similar. Neither man expected their writings to ever be publicly released. The intent was rather for these works to be an outlet for them and their own private thoughts. They both express an obsessive love with a woman that they cannot have, complete opposition to this woman being with any other man, an unhealthy fascination with death as well as a healthy amount of depression. In the end Hinckley became so obsessed with Foster that he attempted the assassination of President Ronald Regan in order to gain Fosters attention and Sidney enlisted in the British Army in order to grab Elizabeth’s attention however he was shot and eventually died. According to a 1996 study stalking is defined as “generally referring to harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person’s home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects. These accusations may or may not be accompanied by a credible threat of serious harm.” (Dunn 5) John Hinckley did every single thing on the above list in the years he stalked Foster, and even though this model must be thought of on a 1500’s type scale to fit Sidney I believe it still fits. Sidney still showed completely obsessive behavior by wanting a say in every aspect of her life as well as trying to control who she was going to marry. So if anyone was ever to ask me whether I though Sir Philip Sidney was a fan or a fanatic I would have to say hands down fanatic!

Bibliography: Ducan-Jones, Katherine. //Sir Philip Sidney The Major Works//. New York City : Oxford University Press, 1989. Print. Dunn, Jennifer L. //Courting Disaster - Intimate Stalking, Culture and Criminal Justice//. New York City : Walter de Gruyter, Inc., 2002. Print. Linder, Douglass. "//The Trial of John Hinckley// ." Hinckley Monologues & Poems (1982): n. pag. Web. 27 Sep 2010. 

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