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her hands kept time to her voice's music. As for the houses of the country (for many houses came under their eye), they were all scattered, no two being one by the other, and yet not so far off as that it barred mutual succour; a shew, as it were, of an accompanable 1 solitariness, and of a civil wildness. 'I pray you,' said Musidorus (then first unsealing his long-silent lips), 'what countries be these we pass through, which are so divers in shew, the one wanting no store, the other having no store but of want? ’

'The country,' answered Claius, 'where you were cast ashore and now are past through, is Laconia: not so poor by the barrenness of the soil (though in itself not passing fertile) as by a civil war, which being these two years within the bowels of that estate between the gentlemen and the peasants (by them named Helots), hath in this sort, as it were, disfigured the face of nature, and made it so unhospital as now you have found it; the towns neither of the one side nor the other willingly opening their gates to strangers, nor strangers willingly entering for fear of being mistaken.

2

'But this country (where now you set your foot) is Arcadia.'

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VERSE NOT ESSENTIAL TO POETRY.

(From An Apology for Poetry.)

The greatest part of poets have apparelled their poetical inventions in that numbrous kind of writing which is called verse: indeed but apparelled, verse being but an ornament, and no cause to poetry: sith there have been many most excellent poets that never versified, and now swarm many versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets. For Xenophon, who did imitate so excellently as to give us effigiem justi imperii,1 the portraiture of a just empire, under the name of Cyrus (as Cicero saith of him), made therein an absolute heroical poem.

So did Heliodorus in his sugared invention of that picture of love in Theagines and Chariclea, and yet both these writ in prose: which I speak to shew that it is not riming and versing that maketh a poet, no more than a long gown maketh an advocate: who, though he pleaded in armour, should be an advocate, and no soldier. But it is that feigning notable images of virtues, vices, or what else, with that delightful teaching which must be the right describing note to know a poet by: although indeed the senate of poets hath chosen verse as their fittest raiment, meaning as in matter they passed all in all, so in manner to go beyond them: not speaking (table-talk fashion, or like men in a dream) words as they chanceably fall from the mouth, but poising each syllable of each word by just proportion according to the dignity of the subject.

1 The portrait or likeness of a perfect empire or government.

NOTES.

Numbrous kind of writing: writing in numbers, the stress of voice falling regularly after a certain number of syllables.

Verse being but an ornament, and no cause to poetry. This is one of the most remarkable instances of sagacious criticism in Sidney's book.

Sith, since.

See Dunbar, The Golden
Targe, 101, note, pp. 51-2.
Xenophon (about 444 B.C.--about 357
B.C.) was a distinguished Greek
author. His most famous work is
the Anabasis, a history of the expe-
dition of Cyrus the younger against
his brother, Artaxerxes, and of the
retreat of the Greek part of his
army, in which Xenophon himself
played a prominent part (401-399
B.C.).

Therein. Xenophon's Cyropædia, giving
an account of the upbringing, train-
ing, education of Cyrus, the founder
of the Persian monarchy, is written
in prose form.
It is a political
romance of no more historical value
than More's Utopia. Sidney refers
to Cicero, Epist. ad Quint. fra-
trem, I., i. 8: Cyrus ille a Xeno-
phonte non ad historiæ fidem
scriptus, sed ad effigiem justi
imperii.'

Heliodorus, the best of the Greek

writers of romance, lived about the end of the fourth century A.D. He became Bishop of Tricca in Thessaly. Theagines and Chariclea, hero and heroine of Heliodorus's romance Ethiopica. Jaques Amyot received an abbey from Francis I. of France for translating this 'sugared invention.'

Both these: Xenophon and Helio-
dorus.

Writ: long a common form, for which
we now say 'wrote.'
Riming. So spelt in orig. Later,

'rime' came to be written 'rhyme.'
Now-a-days we are returning to
'rime.'

No (more than, &c.): double negative for denial.

Should (be an (advocate). We should say 'would.'

the Soldier. Very loose sentence, author being led off by the rela tives, first 'which,' and then 'who.'

Both sentences and paragraphs are open to improvement.

ROBERT GREENE.-1560?-1592.

ROBERT GREENE was born at Norwich, and educated at Cambridge (B.A., St John's College, 1578). After a tour in Spain and Italy, he returned to Cambridge, and took his M.A. degree at Clare Hall, 1583. He next went to London, where he became an author of plays, and a penner of love pamphlets,' or tales, and 'soon grew famous in that quality.' He led a most dissolute life, and his death was the issue of an illness resulting from a surfeit at a 'fatal banquet of pickleherring' and Rhenish wine.

Greene was a voluminous author. He wrote many plays, which were eagerly sought after by rival managers; but only five of them have come down to us. His novels, which are now forgotten, were in his own time even more popular than his plays. His songs, madrigals, odes, sonnets, roundelays, &c., which are his best productions, were scattered through his novels.

THE DESCRIPTION OF SILVESTRO'S LADY.

(From Morando, the Tritameron of Love.)

Her stature like the tall straight cedar trees,
Whose stately bulks do fame the Arabian groves;
A pace like princely Juno when she braved
The Queen of love 'fore Paris in the vale;
A front beset with love and courtesy ;
A face like modest Pallas when she blushed
A seely shepherd should be beauty's judge;
A lip sweet ruby-red, graced with delight;
A cheek wherein for interchange of hue
A wrangling strife 'twixt lily and the rose;
Her eyes two twinkling stars in winter nights,
When chilling frost doth clear the azured sky;
Her hair of golden hue doth dim the beams
That proud Apollo giveth from his coach.

A foot like Thetis when she tripped the sands
To steal Neptunus' favour with her steps;
A piece despite of beauty framed,

To shew what Nature's lineage could afford.

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NOTES.

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(see quotation from Shakspeare in notes to next extract).

14. Apollo, the Sun-god.

20. Thetis, a sea divinity, one of the Nereids, wife of Peleus, and mother of Achilles.

21. Neptūnus' favour. Neptune (Poseidon), the god of the sea, desisted from his suit for the hand of Thetis when her mother declared that the son of Thetis would be more illustrious than his father.

22. A later condensed version gives this

line complete: 'In fine, a piece,' &c. 23. The condensed version reads: 'To see what Nature's cunning could afford.'

THE SHEPHERD'S WIFE'S SONG.

(From The Mourning Garment.)

Ah, what is love? It is a pretty thing,
As sweet unto a shepherd as a king;
And sweeter too,

For kings have cares that wait upon a crown,
And cares can make the sweetest love to frown:

Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires do gain,
What lady would not love a shepherd swain?

5

His flocks are folded, he comes home at night,
As merry as a king in his delight;

10

And merrier too,

For kings bethink them what the state require,
Where shepherds careless carol by the fire:

Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires do gain,
What lady would not love a shepherd swain?

15

He kisseth first, then sits as blithe to eat
His cream and curds, as doth the king his meat ;
And blither too,

For kings have often fears when they do sup,
Where shepherds dread no poison in their cup:
Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires do gain,
What lady would not love a shepherd swain?.

Upon his couch of straw he sleeps as sound,
As doth the king upon his beds of down;

More sounder too,

For cares cause kings full oft their sleep to spill,
Where weary shepherds lie and snort their fill:

20

35

Ah then, ah then,

If country loves such sweet desires do gain,
What lady would not love a shepherd swain?

40

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