Arcadia. Sir Philip Sidney
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Renaissance and Medieval Studies
Series Editor: Charles Ross, Purdue University
The Renaissance and Medieval Studies series focuses on editions, comparative studies, translations, and reprints of primary texts of the Renaissance and earlier in Italy, England, and France. The series also offers an outlet for electronic distribution of supplementary material for each printed volume from art history, film, and the history of the book. For more information, please visit the series Web page at http://www.parlorpress.com/renaissance.html or contact Parlor Press at [email protected].
Books in the Series
Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. A Restoration in Contemporary English of the Complete 1593 Edition of The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Charles Stanley Ross and Joel B. Davis, with an Essay on Musical Settings for the Poems by Edward Abe Plough (2017).
Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur. A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript by Dorsey Armstrong (2009).
Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Charles Stanley Ross (2004).
Arcadia
Sir Philip Sidney
A Restoration in Contemporary English of the Complete 1593 Edition of The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Charles Stanley Ross and Joel B. Davis, with an Essay on Musical Settings for the Poems by Edward Abe Plough.
Parlor Press
Anderson, South Carolina
www.parlorpress.com
Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, USA
© 2017 by Parlor Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sidney, Philip, 1554-1586 author. | Ross, Charles Stanley editor. |
Davis, Joel B. editor. | Plough, Edward Abe author of essay.
Title: Arcadia / Sir Philip Sidney ; a restoration in contemporary English of
the complete 1593 edition of The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Charles
Stanley Ross and Joel B. Davis ; with an essay on musical settings for
the poems by Edward Abe Plough.
Description: Anderson, South Carolina : Parlor Press, 2017. | Series:
Renaissance and medieval studies | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020707 (print) | LCCN 2017031225 (ebook) | ISBN
9781602358607 (pdf) | ISBN 9781602358614 (epub) | ISBN 9781602358621 (
ibook) | ISBN 9781602358638 (mobi) | ISBN 9781602358584 (pbk. : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781602358591 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Pastoral literature, English.
Classification: LCC PR2342 (ebook) | LCC PR2342 .A5 2017 (print) | DDC
823/.3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020707
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Renaissance and Medieval Studies
Series Editor: Charles Stanley Ross
Interior design by David Blakesley
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, cloth and eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email [email protected].
Contents
Charles Stanley Ross and Joel B. Davis
Select Bibliography and Biography
Adapting Arcadia’s Poems to Music
Pronunciation Guide to Proper Names
Note on Typography and Illustrations
Preface
Very little is known about Shakespeare between his marriage in 1582, when he was eighteen, and his emergence as an actor and playwright in 1592. But if he was anywhere near London, he knew about the courtier and war hero Philip Sidney, who died on October 17, 1586, three weeks after a bullet hit his thigh as he charged a supply line of Spanish troops bringing gunpowder to Zutphen in the Netherlands. His London funeral on February 16, 1587, just before that of Mary, Queen of Scots, was unmatched in lavishness for a non-royal until 1962, when Winston Churchill died.
Three years later, England’s war hero was recognized as an author when his name appeared on the title page of The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia. Shakespeare read every word, as can be seen in his earliest plays by the way he imitates Sidney’s obsession with tears and water drops, at times in a baroque or metaphysical manner—“Tears, drown yourselves” (Arcadia 3.34); “And every drop cries vengeance” (3HenryVI 1.4.148). In 1591, Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella appeared in a defective edition (the title character’s named should be spelled “Astrophil”) that obscured the story of a lover who suffers for stealing a kiss. Shakespeare again followed Sidney’s lead. He wrote a sequence of sonnets and, imitating his model, did not bother to provide a single narrative to connect the friend, the rival poet, and the dark lady. He also borrowed Sidney’s paradoxes—that Stella’s