Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works

by Sidney, Philip; Duncan-Jones, Katherine

• ISBN13: 9780192840806
• ISBN10: 0192840800
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This authoritative edition brings together a unique combination of Sidney's poetry and prose--all the major writing, complemented by letters and elegies--that reveals the essence of his work and thinking. Born in 1554, Sir Philip Sidney was hailed as the perfect Renaissance patron, soldier, lover, and courtier, but it was only after his untimely death at the age of thirty-one that his literary accomplishments were truly recognized. This collection ranges more widely through Sidney's works than any previous volume and includes substantial parts of both versions of the Arcadia, The Defence of Poesy and the whole of the sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella. Supplementary texts, such as his letters and the numerous elegies which appeared after his death, help to illustrate the whole spectrum of his achievements, and the admiration he inspired in his contemporaries.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Acknowledgements	xix
Chronology	xxi
Note on the Text	xxv
A dialogue between two shepherds, uttered in a pastoral show at Wilton	1	(1)
Two songs for an Accession Day Tilt	2	(1)
`Philisides, the shepherd good and true'	2	(1)
`Sing, neighbours, sing; hear you not say'	3	(2)
The Lady of May	5	(9)
Certain Sonnets	14	(24)
`The lad Philisides'	38	(4)
The Old Arcadia	42	(97)
The First Eclogues	42	(29)
The Second Eclogues	71	(26)
The Third Eclogues	97	(17)
The Fourth Eclogues	114	(20)
`What tongue can her perfections tell'	134	(3)
`Since nature's works be good, and death doth serve'	137	(2)
Lamon's Tale	139	(14)
Astrophil and Stella	153	(59)
The Defence of Poesy	212	(40)
The New Arcadia	252	(22)
`The pitiful story of the Paphlagonian unkind king'	253	(5)
`The Iberian jousts'	258	(3)
`Temptations to love and marriage'	261	(5)
`The aunt's atheism refuted by the niece's divinity'	266	(8)
Psalms	274	(5)
VI	274	(1)
XIII	275	(1)
XXIII	275	(1)
XXIX	276	(1)
XXXVIII	277	(2)
Letters	279	(20)
To Sir William Cecil, 26 February 1569	279	(1)
To Hubert Languet, 4 February 1574	279	(2)
To the Count of Hanau, 12 June 1575	281	(1)
To the Earl of Sussex, 16 December 1577	281	(1)
To Hubert Languet, 1 March 1578	282	(2)
To Edmund Molyneux, 31 May 1578	284	(1)
To Robert Sidney [undated]	284	(3)
To Edward Denny, 22 May 1580	287	(3)
To the Earl of Leicester, 2 August 1580	290	(1)
To Robert Sidney, 18 October 1580	291	(3)
To William Temple, 23 May 1584	294	(1)
To Sir Francis Walsingham, 24 March 1586	295	(1)
To Justus Lipsius, 14 September 1586	296	(1)
To Sir Francis Walsingham, 22 September 1586	297	(1)
To Johan Wyer, 16 October 1586	297	(2)
Appendices	299	(31)
A. Henry Goldwell, A brief declaration of the shows performed before the Queen's Majesty and the French ambassadors, 1581	299	(12)
B. Edmund Molyneux, `A historical remembrance of the Sidneys'	311	(4)
C. Anon, `The manner of Sir Philip Sidney's death'	315	(4)
D. Three elegies on Sidney from The Phoenix Nest, 1593.	319	(10)
E. Extract from Fulke Greville, The Life of Sir Philip Sidney, 1633.	329	(1)
Abbreviations	330	(2)
Notes	332	(77)
Further Reading	409	(2)
Selective Glossary	411	(1)
Index of First Lines	412