Arcadia. Sir Philip Sidney
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fit to be swept away than read to any purpose. For my part, in truth, as the cruel fathers among the Greeks would cast out the babes they did not want to foster, I could well find in my heart to cast out in some desert of forgetfulness this child, which I am loathe to claim. But you desired me to write it, and your desire is an absolute commandment to my heart.
Now it is done only for you, only to you. If you keep it to yourself or to such friends who will weigh errors in the balance of good will, I hope it will be pardoned for the father’s sake. Perhaps it will be made much of, though in itself it has some deformities. Indeed, it is not fit for severer eyes, being but a trifle, and that triflingly handled.
Your dear self can best witness how it was written on loose sheets of paper, most of it in your presence, the rest by sheets sent unto you as fast as they were done. In sum, a young head, not so well stayed as I would it were (and shall be when God wills), having many fancies begotten in it, would have grown a monster if it had not been in some way delivered. More sorry might I be that those fancies came in than that they got out.
This work’s chief safety will be not to walk abroad, and its chief protection that it bears the livery of your name—which, if much good will does not deceive me, is worthy to be the sanctuary for a greater offender. This I say because I know your virtue, and this I say, that it may ever be so—or, to say it better, because it will ever be so.
Read it, then, at your idle times, and blame not the follies your good judgment will find in it, but laugh at them. If you look for no better stuff than you would when looking for mirrors or feathers in a haberdasher’s shop, you will continue to love the writer, who loves you exceedingly and prays most heartily that you may long live to be a principal ornament to the family of the Sidneys.
To the Reader
The disfigured face, gentle reader, with which this work not long since appeared to the common view, moved the noble lady (to whose honor it was consecrated and to whose protection committed) to take in hand the wiping away those spots by which its beauties were unworthily blemished.
As often in repairing a ruinous house, the mending of some old part occasions the making of some new, so here her honorable labor, begun in correcting faults, ended in supplying defects. Her view of what was ill done guided her to consider what was not done.
Those unfurnished with the means to discern are entreated not to define with what advice the lady entered her task and what success completed it. The rest (it is hoped) will favorably censure. They shall for their better satisfaction understand that though they do not find here the perfection of Arcadia or as much as was intended, yet they will find the conclusion, and that no further than the author’s own writing, or known determinations, could direct.
Whoever does not see the reason for this must consider that there may be reasons they do not see, albeit I dare affirm such a person either sees (or some wiser judgments than his own may hear) that Sir Philip Sidney’s writings can no more be perfected without Sir Philip Sidney, than Apelles’ pictures without Apelles. There are those who think the contrary. And no wonder. Arcadia was never free from the encumbrance of such cattle. These people say that to them, the pastures are not pleasant. And as for the flowers, such as they light on they take no delight in, and most of them grow out of their reach. Poor souls! What talk they of flowers? They need roses, not flowers, to transform them from asses, and if they do not find them here, they shall do well to go feed elsewhere. Any place will be better for them, for outside the boundaries of Arcadia nothing grows more plentifully than lettuce suitable to their lips.
If it be true that likeness is a great cause of liking, and that contraries infer contrary consequences, then is it true that a worthless reader can never worthily esteem of so worthy a writing. And it is equally true that the noble, the wise, the virtuous, the courteous, and as many as have any acquaintance with true learning and knowledge will with all love and dearness entertain this book, as well for its affinity with themselves, as that it is the child of such a father. For although it does not exactly and in every lineament represent him, yet considering that the father’s untimely death prevented the timely birth of the child, this book may happily seem a thankworthy labor. The great unlikeness is not in deformity but in what is missing, although such defects are few and small and do not affect the principal parts.
However it is, it is now by more than one interest The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia: done, as it was, for her; as it is, by her. Neither shall these pains be the last (if no unexpected accident cut off her determination) which the everlasting love of her excellent brother will make her consecrate to his memory.
H. S.1
Hugh Sanford, secretary to the Second Earl of Pembroke, Henry Herbert, b. 1534, married Mary Sidney in 1577.
Book 1
Chapter 1
Shipwreck and Loss
Young Strephon and wise Claius, two shepherds, reach the coast of Laconia (in Greece) across from Cythera (the island of Venus, goddess of love), where they muse on their memories of Urania (“heavenly spirit”). Now they see Musidorus (“gift of the muses”) floating in the sea, clinging to a casket. As soon as he revives, Musidorus seeks to rescue his friend Pyrocles (“fiery glory”), who floats on a broken mast, waving his sword. Pirates foil the rescue. Another ship besets the pirates.
It was in the time of year when the earth puts on her new apparel against the approach of her lover, and the sun, running a most even course, becomes an indifferent arbiter between the night and the day, that the hopeless shepherd Strephon came to the sands across from the island of Cythera. Viewing the place with a heavy kind of delight and sometimes casting his eyes isleward, he called unto him his friendly rival, the pastor Claius, setting down in his darkened countenance a doleful copy of what he would speak.
“My Claius,” said he, “hither we are come to pay the rent for which we are called by over-busy remembrance. Remembrance, restless remembrance, claims not only this duty of us, but will have us forget ourselves.
“I pray you, when we were amid our flock and that of other shepherds, some running after their sheep strayed beyond their bounds, some delighting their eyes with seeing them nibble upon the short and sweet grass, some medicining their sick ewes, some setting a bell for an ensign of a sheepish squadron, some (with more leisure) inventing games to exercise their bodies and sport their wits, did remembrance grant us any holiday? When have we had time for amusements or devotion, nay, for necessary food or natural rest but that remembrance forced our thoughts to work upon this place where we last graced our eyes upon Urania’s ever-flourishing beauty (alas, that the word last should so long last)? Did not remembrance cry within us, ‘Ah, you base-minded wretches, are your thoughts so deeply mired in the trade of ordinary worldlings (to gain what some paltry wool may yield you) that you let so much time pass without knowing perfectly Urania’s estate, especially in so troublesome a season? You left the shore unsaluted from which you may see to the island where she dwells. You left unkissed those steps on which Urania printed the farewell of all beauty.
“Well, then, remembrance commanded; we obeyed. And here we find that as our remembrance came to us always clothed in the form of this place, so this place gives new heat to the fever of our languishing remembrance. Yonder, my Claius, Urania alighted (the very horse, methought, bewailed to be so disburdened). And as for thee, poor Claius, when thou wentst to help her down, I saw reverence and desire so divide thee that thou didst blush and quake at one instant, and instead of bearing her, thou wert ready to fall thyself.
“There she sat, vouchsafing2 my cloak under her, making it gorgeous.
“At yonder rising of the ground she turned and looked back toward her wonted abode with much sorrow in her eyes because of her parting, but her eyes were so naturally cheerful that even sorrow seemed to smile. She turned and spoke to all of us, opening the cherry of her lips, and Lord, how greedily my ears fed upon the sweet words she uttered. She laid her hand over your eyes when she saw the