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.

      S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9

      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

      2 3 4 5

      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

       Preface

       Some Common Namesi

       Introductioni

       Charles Stanley Ross and Joel B. Davis

       A Note on This Edition

       Select Bibliography and Biography

       Maps

       Book 1

       Book 2

       Book 3

       Book 4

       Book 5

       Adapting Arcadia’s Poems to Music

       Edward Plough

       Family Tree

       Pronunciation Guide to Proper Names

       About the Editors

       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