ABSTRACT
During the liberalisation of publishing that marked the Commonwealth period, The Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney by Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke (1554-1628) was published, in 1652. The title may not have been Greville's - one manuscript describes it as A Dedication to Sir Philip Sidney, and the text itself suggests that it was intended as a preface to some of Greville's own works, the two tragedies Mustapha and Alam and what is now known as A Treatise of Monarchy. A Dedication was probably composed around 1610 (Sidney died in 1586) at a time when he was in enforced retirement from public life; so there is an implied comparison between the reigns of Elizabeth
and James, to James's disadvantage, which may be one reason why it was never published in the author's lifetime, particularly once he was back in favour after 1614. Greville was always cautious.
