Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia

Sir Philip Sidney,

Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia

London : Printed for I. Waterson and R. Young, 1638.

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The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, presents a long prose pastoral romance by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) written towards the end of the 16th century. Here in the Ninth Edition, bound in contemporary full calf and including the initial blank, often missing.

The volume(s) measure about 29 cm. by 20 cm. by 5.5 cm.

Each leaf measures about 280 mm. by 185 mm.

The full title reads as follows:

Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia, written by Sir Philip Sidney Knight. Now the ninth time published, with a twofold supplement of a defect in the third book: the one by Sr W.A. Knight; the other, by Mr Ia. Iohnstoun Scoto-Brit. dedicated to K. Iames, and now annexed to this work, for the readers benefit. Whereunto is also added a sixth booke, by R.B. of Lincolnes Inne, Esq. London : Printed [by Robert Young and Thomas Harper] for I. Waterson and R. Young [and T. Downes], 1638.

The Volume is Complete in All Respects with the supplement to book three bound at page 346.

The volume is paginated as follows: [8], 346, [20], 347-624. The first leaf is blank.

The volume collates as follows: [fleuron]4, A-2E6, 2F5, 2a6, 2b4, 2F6, 2G-3F6.

The volume measures about 29 cm. By 20 cm by 5.5 cm. Each leaf measures about 280 mm. By 185 mm.

Per ESTC S117288: Editor’s note “To the reader” signed: H.S., i.e. Hugh Sanford.

Sir W.A. = William Alexander, Earl of Stirling. Partly in verse.

“A sixth booke to the Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia” by Richard Bellings, originally published separately in 1624, has separate title page with imprint “London, printed for T. D[ownes]. and R. Y[oung].”; pagination and register are continuous.

Johnstoun’s dedication and supplement, [20] p. usually at the end, here at page 346.

In Very Good Condition bound in contemporary blind ruled speckled English calf, with the spine divided into six compartments by five raised bands, with gilt board edges and red speckled leaf edges. Externally the boards and spine are mildly scuffed in general, with chipping and wormholes at the tail of the spine, with lesser chipping to the head, and with the hinges worn, but holding well, as well as the board corners bumped. Internally the leaves are generally clean and well margined, some curling at the edges of the initial blanks. With a damp-stain at the upper margin towards the middle of the volume.

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Of ‘The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.’

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, also known simply as the Arcadia, is a long prose pastoral romance by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) written towards the end of the 16th century. Having finished one version of his text, Sidney later significantly expanded and revised his work. Scholars today often refer to these two major versions as the Old Arcadia and the New Arcadia.

The Arcadia is Sidney’s most ambitious literary work by far, and as significant in its own way as his sonnets. Sidney may have begun an early draft in the late 1570s, when he was in his twenties. His own comments indicate that his purpose was humble; he asserts that he intended only to entertain his sister, Mary Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke. This version is narrated in chronological order, with sets of poems separating the books from each other. It seems likely that Sidney finished this version while staying at Herbert’s estate during a temporary eclipse at court in 1580.

In 1588, Fulke Greville appears to have appealed to Francis Walsingham to prevent an unauthorized publication of parts of the original, as we learn from a letter that also serves as evidence for the circulation of Arcadia in manuscript form:

“Sir this day one Ponsonby a bookbinder in Paul’s Churchyard, came to me, and told me that there was one in hand to print, Sir Philip Sidney’s old Arcadia asking me if it were done with your honour’s con[sent] or any other of his friends/I told him to my knowledge no, then he advised me to give warning of it, either to the Archbishop or Doctor Cosen, who have as he says a copy of it to peruse to that end/Sir I am loath to renew his memory unto you, but yet in this I must presume, for I have sent my Lady your daughter at her request, a correction of that old one done 4 or 5 years since which he left in trust with me whereof there is no more copies, and fitter to be printed than that first which is so common, notwithstanding even that to be amended by a direction set down under his own hand how and why, so as in many respects especially the care of printing it is to be done with more deliberation”

The version of the Arcadia known to the Renaissance and later periods is substantially longer than the Old Arcadia. In the 1580s, Sidney took the frame of the original story, reorganized it, and added episodes, most significantly the story of the just rebel Amphialus. The additions more than double the original story; however, Sidney had not finished the revision at the time of his death in 1586. In 1593 Mary Herbert herself published an edition in which the original version supplements and concludes the part that Sidney revised. Later additions filled in gaps in the story, most notably the fifth edition of 1621, which included Sir William Alexander’s attempt to work over the gap between Sidney’s two versions of the story.

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