sair sidneySir Philip Sidney was an Elizabethan courtier, statesman, soldier, poet, and patron of scholars and poets, considered the ideal gentleman of his day. After Shakespeare’s sonnets, Sidney’sSir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) was an English poet, scholar, soldier, and courtier, one of the most prominent fures at the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603).