Hi Roger,
'Busses': I'd be inclined to go with 'buzzes' and with the pun on 'Busses'
as Bill says, meaning 'full of himself.'
As for 'about one pitch': here Sidney seems to me to be saying that Buys
affects the same inclination/attitude to God as he does to other men, i.e.
that he does not kneel in reverential fear before God (which would cause
him to look *up*, at a different 'pitch'; this Buys, rather, would stare
God levelly in the face).
For the final sentence, it seems to me to be more of the same: the bond
between ('conjunction with') fellow-fearers is strong, because they join
through their faith in God. The bond between men who combine for the sake
of one another is not so happy. It may be worth noting that Grey says
similar things to Walsingham in his correspondence in 1580-82.
andrew
> Dear all,
>
> In editing the Sidney letters, I've come up (again) against a notorious
> passage, of which everyone who's mentioned it in books has assumed the
> limpidity but which no one explains in detail. I, unfortunately, have to.
> Sidney has been talking about his taking command of the Zeeland Regiment, the
> largest in the combined forces, and about Count Hohenlohe's initial
> opposition to it. Here is the quotation (from a letter to Wm Davison, 24
> February 1586):
>
>> The Count Morrice shewd him selfe constantli kind
>> toward me therein, but master Paul Bus
>> hath to many Busses is his hed,
>> such as yow shall fynd he will be to God
>> and man about one pitch. happy is the
>> coniunction with them that ioin in the fear
>> of God.
>
> Wallace translates "Busses" as "(buzzes)", presumably referring to the OED
> version of "whims, fancies", though this has a later start date. Paul Buys
> (1531-94) was a confidant of Orange, a religious moderate, staunchly
> pro-English, but personally rebarbative and quick to fall out with Leicester.
> I am trying to get the precise meaning of a) "too many *busses* in his head",
> and b) "be(ing) to God and man *about one pitch*"; also the degree (or lack
> of it) of irony in the final sentence.
>
> [One possibility is that Buys, who as a moderate had warned the Dutch leaders
> against Leicester’s increasing alliance with the Calvinist element, was being
> criticised by Sidney (his uncle's defender) for his moderate stance: the
> cryptic phrase “he will be to God and man about one pitch” might then refer
> to a perceived lack of Calvinist awe. But the Busses are then still crucial.]
>
> Any help gratefully received.
>
> Roger Kuin
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