The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Old Arcadia)
Author : Sir Philip Sidney
Publisher : Oxford Paperbacks
Release Date : 2008-07-10
ISBN 10 : 0199549842
Pages : 432 pages
Rating : 4.5/5 (199 downloads)
Download The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Old Arcadia) PDF Format Full Free by Sir Philip Sidney and published by Oxford Paperbacks. This book was released on 2008-07-10 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.