The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Old Arcadia)

Philip Sidney was in his early twenties when he wrote his `Old'' Arcadia for the amusement of his younger sister, the Countess of Pembroke. The book, which he called `a trifle, and that triflingly handled'', reflects their youthful vitality. The `Old'' Arcadia tells a romantic story in a manner comparable to that of Shakespeare''s early comedies. It is divided into five `Acts'', and abounds in lively speeches, dialogues, and quasi-dramatic tableaux. As a vehicle for Sidney''s prophetic ideas about English versification, the `Old'' Arcadia also includes over seventy poems in a wide variety of metres and genres. In clarity, symmetry, and coherence the `Old'' version is greatly superior both to the ambitious but unfinished `New'' Arcadia and the amalgamated, `composite'' version, a hybrid monster which Sidney himself never envisaged.