PHILIP SIDNEY

A pesar de su corta vida, la memoria de Philip Sidney ha pervivido durante varios siglos como la de una de las figuras más destacadas del Renacimiento inglés. Soldado, cortesano y hombre de letras, en su persona aunaba todos los requisitos del ideal del perfecto caballero renacentista. A raiz de la publicacion de su biografia en 1652, tuvo lugar una especie de mitificacion de su persona que le convirtio en modelo moral, politico y religioso.La Defensa de la poesia de Sidney responde a la preocupacion renacentista por el estatus de la literatura, su funcion estetica, didactica y social y su relacion con otras producciones artisticas, asi como con las diversas disciplinas del conocimiento. Su Defensa se circunscribe, ademas, en unas particulares condiciones politicas, culturales, religiosas y sociales que la dotan de forma y contenido. La guerra contra la poesia encuentra en Sidney al mejor y mas dotado de sus defensores y la teoria literaria inglesa contara a partir de entonces con un texto clave en su historia.

For more than 200 years after its first publication in 1593, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia was the most read, best-selling story in the language - the great English popular classic and one of the most influential. As much a work of entertainment and wit as of instruction, it affords the best insight we have into the tastes and standards of the Elizabethans. Sidney became to his contemporaries the beau idéal of the Renaissance courtier and his Arcadia embodies the highest literary aspirations of the age. Here we have a gladiatorial display of rhetoric which outshines anything achieved in English before and possibly since. Though there has been much scholarly study of Sidney over recent years, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, in the traditional form in which it was read down the centuries, is not available anywhere else. The text is accompanied by a full introduction and notes.

In the verdant realm of Arcadia, where nymphs dance and shepherds sing, a tale of unrequited love unfolds. Double Sestina - Ye Goatherd Gods, a masterpiece by Sir Philip Sidney, weaves a tapestry of longing and despair.As the goatherd Strephon pines for the unattainable Urania, his heartstrings are plucked with each verse. The sestina form, with its intricate pattern of repeating words, echoes the relentless torment of his unfulfilled desire. Through Sidneys lyrical prose, we witness the depths of Strephons anguish and the bittersweet beauty of his unyielding love.