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. Two young princes, Pyrocles and
Musidorus, disguise themselves as an Amazon and a
shepherd to gain access to the Arcadian Princesses, who
have been taken into semi-imprisonment by their father
to avoid the dangers foretold by an oracle. 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.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford
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