Bibliographic Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature - Henry Watson Kent

The Arcadia was begun in 1580, and when finished, probably before 1583, was circulated in manuscript copies amongst the author's friends. That he did not wish to have it printed is evident from his affectionate dedication to his sister, where he says:

"HEre now haue you (moſt deare, and moſt worthy to be moſt deare Lady) this idle worke of mine: which I fear (like the Spiders webbe) will be thought fitter to be ſwept away, than worn to any other purpoſe. For my part, in very trueth (as the cruell fathers among the Greekes, were woont to doo to the babes they would not foſter) I could well find in my harte, to caſt out in ſome deſert of forgetfulnes this child, which I am loath to father. But you deſired me to doo it, and your deſire, to my hart is an abſolute commandement. Now, it is done onelie for you, onely to you: if you keepe it to yourſelfe, or to ſuch friendes, who will weigh errors in the ballaunce of good will, I hope, for the fathers ſake, it will be pardoned, perchance made much of, though in itſelfe it haue deformities. For indeede, for ſeuerer eyes it is not, being but a trifle, and that triflinglie handled. Your deare ſelfe can best witnes the maner, being done in looſe ſheetes of paper, moſt of it in your preſence, the reſt, by ſheetes ſent vnto you, as faſt as they were done.... But his chiefe ſafetie ſhal be the not walking abroad; & his chiefe protection, the bearing the liuerye of your name; which (if much good will do not deceaue me) is worthy to be a ſanctuary for a greater offender."

And again later, when he lay dying, reflecting, as he did, that all things in his former life had "been vain, vain, vain," he requested that the Arcadia should be burned. But he counted without the public, who in the person of a publisher took steps to make it common property the very year of Sidney's death. We have this from a letter written to Sir Francis Walsingham, Sidney's father-in-law, by Sir Foulk Greville, first Lord Brooke, who in his self-written epitaph styled himself "servant to Queen Elizabeth, councillor to King James, and friend to Sir Philip Sidney":

"S^r, this day, one ponsonby, a booke-bynder in poles church-yard, came to me and told me that ther was one in hand to print S^r Philip Sydney's old arcadia, asking me yf it were done with your honors consent, or any other of his frendes? I told him, to my knowledge, no: then he aduysed me to give warninge of it, either to the archbishope or doctor Cosen, who haue, as he says, a copy to peruse to that end.

"S^r, I am loth to renew his memory unto you, but yeat in this I must presume; for I haue sent my lady, your daughter, at her request, a correction of that old one, don 4 or 5 years sinse, which he left in trust with me; wherof there is no more copies, and fitter to be reprinted than the first which is so common: notwithstanding, even that to how and why; so as in many respects, espetially the care of printing of it; so as to be don with more deliberation."

Ponsonby obtained a license to print the book, under the hand of the Archbishop of Canterbury, August 23, 1588, but not with the full consent and sympathy of the family, owing, we will hope, to a sentiment of proper respect for the poet's wishes. There was so much dissatisfaction with Ponsonby's "adventuring" that Collier thinks the book may have been called in or suppressed, a fact which would account for its great rarity. The hesitancy, however, seems to have been overcome in course of time, for the Countess herself edited the work for a later edition of Ponsonby's publishing.

No mark or name of a printer is given in our copy, and Collier, when he gave it as his opinion that Richard Field did the work, seemed to have been unaware of the existence of the variation in the imprint, which occurs in the copy belonging to Trinity College Library, Cambridge, London, Iohn Windet for william Ponsonbie. Probably several had a hand in the printing. Only a close examination of the few existing copies could show whether or not they were all issued at the same time. We shall never know by name the "overseer of the print," who assumed the responsibility of arranging the poem, as is told in a note on the verso of the title-page:

"The diuiſion and ſumming up of the Chapters was not of Sir Philip Sidneis dooing, but aduentured by the ouerſeer of the print, for the more eaſe of the Readers. He therfore ſubmits himſelfe to their judgement, and if his labour anſwere not the worthines of the booke, deſireth pardon for it. As alſo if any defect be found in the Eclogues, which although they were of Sir Phillip Sidneis writing, yet were not peruſed by him, but left till the worke had bene finiſhed, that then choiſe ſhould haue bene made, which ſhould haue bene taken, and in what manner brought in. At this time they haue bene choſen and diſposed as the ouer-ſeer thought beſt."