Philip Sidney, Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford, tennis court, quarrel, 1579
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answers Edward De Vere, the Earl of Oxford’s poem “Weare I a kinge I could commande content”, might be construed as having been written in lieu of physical combat if the details of their infamous tennis court quarrel of August 1579 are allowed to contextualise the debate. Marotti associates this incident with the answer-poem and notices that “class antagonism surfaces [here] as it did in their famous Tennis Court quarrel”.
71
Even if the poem is not actually Sidney’s it is easy to see why it has been attributed to him since it lends itself readily to being construed as continuing the dispute.
72
In his biography of his friend, Fulke Greville recounts how Sidney followed the protocol for inaugurating a duel exactly; having been called a puppy by Oxford, Sidney gave him “a lie impossible”, retorting that “puppies are gotten by dogs and children by men”. In response to being given the lie Oxford failed to take up the opportunity to issue a challenge, and Sidney was forced to send “a gentleman of worth” to remind him of his obligation to respond which “stirred a resolution in his lordship to send Sir Philip a challenge”.
73
At this point the Queen intervened and Greville recollects her displeasure at Sidney’s coercing Oxford to issue a challenge to duel and the way she exploited their different social status in order to defuse the situation. He writes,
The Queen, who saw that by the loss or disgrace of either she could gain nothing, presently undertakes Sir Philip, and […] lays before him the difference in degree
70 Latham (1929), pp.159-60.
71 Marotti (1995), p.163.
72 Authorship of the answer is attributed to Sidney in The Dr. Farmer Chetham MS., ed. A. B. Grosart (Manchester: Printed for the Chetham Society, 1873), pt. 1, pp.93-4. Marotti (1995) appears to accept the attribution, pp.162-3. William A. Ringler Jr., however, includes the answer among works wrongly attributed to Sidney, Poems of Sir Philip Sidney (OUP, 1962), pp.352-3. May keeps an open mind, although he points out that Folger Library MS. V.a.89 (f. 6) ascribes both pieces to Oxford, ‘The Authorship of ‘My Mind to me a Kingdom is’’, RES, n.s. 26 (1975), 385-94 (p.388, n.3).
73 The Prose Works of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, ed. John Gouws (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp.39-40. Subsequent references for this text are given in parentheses following quotations.
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