Sir Philip Sidney: The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

This book is blasphemy. It speaks ill of the lord. I will use my magical powers to ensure that Sir Philip Sydney is killed

Great read!

I found this to be a very good edition. However, I don't think the annotations are as thorough and as in depth as those of the same editor in her Arden Edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Also I don't find the arrangement of notes and background material as serviceable as in the Arden Edition of The Sonnets.

Sidney ' s Defense of Poetry should be read today. He is a master of Poetry himself. How good it would be if today we thought art was to for creating a better person.

This review relates to the volume: -Sir Philip Sidney: MajorWorks-. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by KatherineDuncan-Jones. Oxford World's Classics. 2002. 416 pp.This volume contains the works: A dialogue between twoshepherds...Wilton/ Two Songs for an Accession Day Tilt/Philisides, the shepherd good and true/ Sing, neighbours,sing/ The Lady of the May/ Certain Sonnets (32 sonnets)/The lad Philisides/ The Old Arcadia (Complete)--FourEclogues, as well as, "What tongue can her perfections tell",and "Since nature's works be good"/Lamon's Tale/Astrophiland Stella (Complete, a sequence of 108 sonnets with11 numbered songs interspersed!)/ The Defense of Poesy/4 poems from -The New Arcadia-/ Sidney's poetic versionsof Psalms 6, 13, 23, 29, 38/ Letters (15)/ and 4 Appendices(Henry Goldwell, "Shows Performed, 1581"/ Edmund Molyneux,"A historical remembrance of the Sidneys"/Anon., "Themanner of Sir Philip Sidney's Death"/ Three elegies onSidney from -The Phoenix Nest-, 1593/ Extract from FulkeGreville, 16 October 1586)/ and excellent Notes to theworks from pp. 332 - 408.Sir Philip Sidney was born on 30 November 1554 and died on17 October 1586, from complications of a battle wound, at theage of 31.Perhaps the two best insights into Sidney are supplied byKatherine Duncan-Jones in her "Introduction" -- the firstis a quote by the modern critic, Theodore Spencer, whosaid: "Once the poet has set himself the task of writingan amorous complaint, that deep melancholy which laybeneath the surface of glamour of Elizabethan existence,and which was so characteristic of Sidney himself, beginsto fill the conventional form with more than a conventionalweight. It surges through the magical adagio of the lines;they have the depth of reverberation, like the sound ofgongs beaten under water, which is sometimes characteristicof Sidney as of no other Elizabethan, not even Shakespeare."["Introduction," p. xi]. The other quote follows somecritical introduction by the editor herself: "Tellingly,Sidney's own persona, Philisides, is described on his firstappearance as diabled by unhappiness: "Another young shepherdnamed Philisides...had all this time lain upon the groundat the foot of a cypress tree, leaning upon his elbow, withso deep a melancholy that his senses carried to his mind nodelight from any of their objects."But these poems rarely dwell in melancholy. The slighthindrance, sometimes, is Sidney's versification itself.The reader may find it slightly stilted and a bit toopoetically "artificial" to meet the rhythm or the rhyme.However, the glories far outweigh the slights. A furtherhelp to understanding Sidney might come from applyingdeeper SYMBOLISM and interpretation to his works, innames and themes. There is this left to end:Love makes the earth water to drink,Love to earth makes water sink;And if dumb things [without speech] be so wittyShall a heavenly grace want pity?[from: -Astrophil and Stella-.] -- Robert Kilgore.

Dead white guy. Talking about conquering a woman so he can overcome his sexual desires (ya know, the thing God looks down upon). Over it.

You think he's dull but Astrophil and Stella is actually rather cleverly written.That said..... AVOID the Defense of Poesie at all costs. Mind-numbingly dull and insipid. The voice of the Defense's author is so stupid and annoying that it is hard to believe it is the same author who wrote the 7th sonnet (a work of art and genius) in Astrophil and Stella. Defense's author clearly doesn't understand poetry at all. Sonnet 7, on the other hand, has an ambitious and witty aesthetic project that allows the reader several glimpses at the complexity of the poet's design.

Philip Sidney, nephew of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (and Elizabeth's favourite) has become for us, as for at least some of his contemporaries, the epitome of the Renaissance courtier. However he is a far more complex and ambiguous figure than that (see, for example, the excellent Stewart biography  Sir Philip Sidney: A Double Life ). This excellent collection, edited and introduced by Duncan-Jones, herself a renowned Sidneian, is a superb introduction to the contradictions of this immensely intelligent, cultured, and yet slippery man.This contains his early writings, the eclogues from the 'Old' Arcadia, the full Defense of Poetry, the full Astrophil and Stella, prose excerpts from the 'new' Arcadia, and a handful of psalms. It is rounded off with a few of Sidney's own letters (about 15 or so) and a short appendix which includes some very (very) brief writings about Sidney's death.Duncan-Jones is unobstrusive in her commentary but the serious student will need to consult other secondary literature. The letters are fascinating and this section could have been much longer as it's difficult to get an affordable copy of Sidney's correspondance.However, the full Defense and Astrophil make this a bargain at the price. For the Sidney student, do also get the Oxford 'old' Arcadia with this ( The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Old Arcadia) (Oxford World's Classics) , as the intersections between the epic/pastoral romance of that,and the Petrarchan Astrophil really do need to be read in conjunction. Sir Philip Sidney: A Double LifeThe Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (The Old Arcadia) (Oxford World's Classics)

book in good condition and my dog only had a tiny bite of it as it landed on the door mat.

Wonderful works. Very helpful.

Great selection of work