Arcadia. Sir Philip Sidney
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“Then, I say, indeed methought the lilies grew pale for envy, the roses methought blushed to see sweeter roses in her cheeks, and the apples methought fell down from the trees to pay homage to the apples of her breast. The clouds gave place that the heavens might more freely smile upon her—at least the clouds of my thoughts quite vanished—and my sight (then more clear and forcible than ever) was so fixed there that (I imagine) I stood like a well-wrought image with some life in show but none in practice.
“And so I had been like enough to have stayed a long time, but that Gynecia stepped between my sight and the only Philoclea, and the change of object made me recover my senses, so that I could with reasonably good manner receive a salutation from her and the princess Pamela. I did them no further reverence than one princess uses to another, but when I came to the never-enough praised Philoclea, I could not but fall down on my knees, taking by force her hand and kissing it (I must confess) with more than womanly ardency.
“ ‘Divine lady,’ said I, ‘let not the world, nor these great princesses, marvel to see me (contrary to my manner) do this special honor to you, since all men and women owe this to the perfection of your beauty.’ She blushed like a fair morning in May at this my singular behavior and caused me to rise.
“ ‘Noble lady,’ said she, ‘it is no marvel to see your judgment much mistaken in my beauty, since you begin with so great an error as to do more honor unto me than them to whom I myself owe all service.’
“ ‘Rather,’ answered I, with a bowed down countenance, ‘that shows the power of your beauty, which forced me to do such an error, if it were an error.’
“ ‘You are so well acquainted,’ she said sweetly, and most sweetly smiling, ‘with your own beauty that it makes you easily fall into the discourse of mine.’
“ ‘Beauty in me?’ said I, truly sighing. ‘Alas, if there be any, it is in my eyes, which your blessed presence has imparted unto them.’
“But then, as I think Basilius wished her to do, ‘Well,’ said she, ‘I must confess, I have heard that it is a great happiness to be praised by those who are most praiseworthy. And well I find that you are an invincible Amazon, since you will overcome, though in a wrong matter. If my beauty is anything, then let it obtain thus much of you, that you will remain some while in this company to ease your own travel and our solitariness.’
“ ‘First, let me die,’ said I, ‘before any word spoken by such a mouth should come in vain.’
“And thus my stay among them was concluded with some other words of entertainment, and I was led among them to the lodge—truly a place for pleasantness, not unfit to flatter solitariness. It sits upon such an imperceptible rising of the ground that you come to a pretty height almost before you perceive that you are ascending. It gives lordship over a good, large circuit, which according to the nature of the country is diversified between hills and dales, woods and plains. One place is clear, another more darksome. It seems a pleasant picture of nature, with lovely lightsomeness and artificial shadows.
“The lodge is of a yellow stone, built in the form of a star, having round about a garden framed in like points; and beyond the garden, riding paths are cut out, each answering the angle of the lodge. At the end of one of them is the other lodge, smaller but of similar fashion, where the gracious Pamela lives. The main lodge seems like a fair comet, whose tail stretches itself to a star of less greatness.
pantoffle of Pallas] slipper of Athena.
gravity … piece of reverence] solemn behavior … bow or curtsey.
Chapter 14
Basilius and Gynecia Fall for Zelmane
Pyrocles describes the waterworks at Basilius’ lodge, then how old Basilius sought Zelmane’s favors. His pursuit of Philoclea is further complicated when Gynecia realizes “Zelmane” is a man and falls in love with him. Pyrocles promises to bring the family to his arbor so Musidorus can observe them. (1593 ed. 28.20)
“Gynecia herself brought me to my lodging,” continued Pyrocles. “Anon I was invited and brought down to sup with them in the garden, a place equally fair in natural ornaments and artificial inventions. There in a banqueting house among certain pleasant trees whose heads seemed curled with the wrappings about of vine branches, the table was set near an excellent waterwork. It cast water in a most cunning manner, and by the shining of the sun on it made a perfect rainbow. It was not more pleasant to the eye than to the mind, so visibly to see a proof of the heavenly Iris.18
“There were birds, also made so finely that they not only deceived the sight with their figure, but the hearing with their songs, which the watery instruments did make their throats deliver. The round table was fastened to the floor on which we sat, but then was divided from the surrounding buildings by a device that Basilius at first turned to make me sport. Then the table and we about the table turned round by means of water that ran under and carried it about like a mill.
“But alas, what pleasure did it to me, to make many times the full circle round about, since Philoclea, also seated, was carried still in equal distance from me? Only my eyes could overtake her, and when the table was stayed and we began to feed, they drank much more eagerly of her beauty than my mouth did of any other liquor. And so was my common sense deceived (being chiefly bent to her) that, as I drank wine and withal stole a look on her, me seemed I tasted her deliciousness. But alas, the one thirst was much more inflamed than the other quenched.
“Sometimes my eyes would lay themselves open to receive all the darts Philoclea did throw; sometimes they would close up with admiration, as if with a contrary fancy they would preserve the riches of that sight, or cast my lids as curtains over the image of beauty her presence had painted in them. True it is that my reason, now grown a servant to passion, often told its master that it should use its delight more moderately. But passion, that of a rebel had become a prince, disdained almost to allow reason the place of a counselor, so that my senses’ delights were too strong for any other resolution. I did even loose the reins unto them, hoping that, since they thought I was a woman, my looking would pass either unmarked or unsuspected.
“Now thus I had well played (as methought) my first act, assuring myself that under my disguise I should find opportunity to reveal myself to Philoclea, the owner of my heart. But who would think it possible (though I feel it true) that in almost eight weeks’ space I have lived here, having no more company than her parents—and I being familiar as being a woman and watchful as being a lover—yet could I never find opportunity to have one minute’s leisure for private conference. The cause of this is as strange as the effects are to me miserable. And (alas) this it is:
“At the first sight that Basilius had of me (I think Cupid had headed his arrows with my misfortune), he took me to be such as I profess and was stricken with great affection towards me. This affection has since grown into such a doting love that (till I was fain to get this place sometimes to retire unto freely) I was even choked with his tediousness.
“You never saw a young lover dance up and down more lively than this man of four score years. He appeared in fine apparel, as if he would make me in love with a cloak. And he could go verse for verse with the sharpest-witted lover in Arcadia. Do you not think that this is a salad of wormwood, while my eyes feed upon the ambrosia of Philoclea’s beauty?
“But this is not all. No, this is not the worst! For he, (good man) was easy enough to deal with. But (as I think), love and mischief, having made a wager which should have most power in me, set Gynecia also on such a fire toward me as will never (I fear) be quenched but with my destruction. For she is a woman of excellent wit, and of strong-working thoughts. I know not whether she suspected