The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia written by Sir Philip Sidney Knight. The Thirteenth Edition. With his Life and Death; a brief Table of the principal Heads, and some other new additions. by Sidney, Sir Philip - 1674

The Thirteenth edition. Printed for George Calvert, at the Golden-Ball in Little-Britain. London. 1674. Small folio. Copper engraved frontispiece portrait, Title, [32], 545, 549-576, 541-564, 601-624, [2], [18], [4]. (Despite erratic pagination, complete and correct). Contemporary full calf boards, spine re-laid at a later date. Spine in six compartments, with raised bands, leather label with gilt lettering, gilt coquille motifs. Nicely patinaed, binding shows commensurate wear for age. Corners rubbed. Joints cracked to upper compartment at head of spine. Frontispiece and title a little darkened. Historic paper repair to edges of p269 and p271, both slightly cropped to margin, text unaffected. Occasional light toning/spotting, but firm crisp and bright. Engraved headpieces and tailpieces. Wing S3770; ESTC R21446

This edition contains Philip Sidney's dedication to "My Dear Lady and Sister, the Countess of Pembroke"; "The Life and Death of Sir Philip Sidney"; In Obitum Epigrams; "P. Heylyn's Cosmograph of Arcadia in Greece"; "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" in five books; "A sixth book to the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" [by Richard Bellings, originally published separately in 1624, has separate dated title page]; "Certain Sonnets Written by Sir Philip Sidney Never before Printed"; "The Defence of Poesie"; "Astrophel and Stella"; "Her Most Excellent Majestie…" [The Lady of May]; Dedication to Prince K. James the Sixth; "A Supplement to the Third Book of Arcadia [by James Johnstoun]"; "A Remedie for Love"; "An Alphabetical Table".

"Haunted as it is by the fact that it was not finished" [Elizabeth Dipple] Sidney wrote his original manuscript pastoral romance between 1577 and 1580, and addressed it to his sister Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. Known as the Old Arcadia, it remained unpublished until the early twentieth century.

In the 1580's Sidney began a revision and enlargement of his original Old Arcadia. He had not finished his revision by his death in 1586. After his death it was prepared for publication firstly in 1590 by his friend Fulke Greville, and three years later by Mary Herbert herself. Her additions complement the narrative with the last two books of the Old Arcadia. Further additions were appended in the second edition of 1598. "A sixth book to the Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia" by Richard Bellings, was originally published separately in 1624. Arcadia has remained an important literary influence throughout history. Charles I quoted lines from "Pamela's Prayer" as he was executed. Sidney invented the name Pamela in this work for his heroine, used later by Richardson. Influences can be seen in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, Taming of the Shrew and The Winter's Tale.

Sir Philip Sidney (1554 – 1586) Elizabethan poet, courtier, soldier, was just 31 when he died from a wound he suffered at the Battle of Zutphen, in the Netherlands, where he was fighting in the service of Queen Elizabeth. In 1583 he married Frances Walsingham, the 16 year old daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's spymaster. Sidney's, and Mary Herbert's, niece Mary Wroth published The Countess of Montgomery's Urania in 1621, in her own way echoing continuing Sidney's unfinished work, ending, as did Sidney's New Arcadia, in mid sentence.