number of representative sonnets, which reproduce the original whole at least in outline, adding to these two specimens from the Astrophel and Stella songs, eleven in number, which were originally printed after the sonnets, but were interspersed among them in the Arcadia of 1598. The two sonnets beginning 'Thou blind man's mark, thou fool's self-chosen snare,' and 'Leave me, O Love which reachest but to dust,' which a recent editor has arbitrarily placed for the first time at the end of Astrophel and Stella, have been here carefully distinguished from that series. In some ways, in spite of their grand flow of verse and phrase, they are inferior to the majority of the Astrophel and Stella sonnets in workmanship, and also slightly different from them in plan. Sidney was probably not inclined to assign to them finally so conspicuous a place, and they were first published with other miscellaneous sonnets in the Arcadia of 1598. But that they were written towards the close of the Stella episode, perhaps about the time of the poet's marriage with Frances Walsingham, is certainly very likely, and their consonance with all that we know of that philosophical and high-minded Sidney in whom Elizabeth found an unwelcome counsellor, and Languet saw the hope of the Protestant cause in Europe, makes it justifiable to regard them as fit successors to any selection from Astrophel and Stella, and especially as closely connected with the 107th sonnet. Of the rest of Sidney's poetry it is not necessary to say very much. The Stella poems brought him his contemporary fame, and upon them and the Apology for Poetry his claim to live in English letters must always rest. His other poems have the youthful faults which mar even Astrophel and Stella, only in far greater abundance. Mere 'thin diet of dainty words,' ingenuity unrelieved by a single touch of true feeling, the stock phrases and themes common to the hundred-and-one second-rate rhymers of the day, this is all that the voluminous verse of the Arcadia, with the exception of a few passages here and there, has to offer. The two songs quoted below from the 'Certain Sonnets-never before printed,' of 1595, belong to the great lyrical growth of the time, and are specimens of Sidney's freest and most spontaneous manner. One of them, the passionate dirge beginning ‘Ring out ye bells, let mourning shews be spread,' has a swing and force which ought long ago to have rescued it from oblivion. MARY A. WARD. ASTROPHEL AND STELLA. I. Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, That she, dear she, might take some pleasure of my pain,— Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain,— I sought fit words to paint the blackest face of woe; Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain, Fool, said my Muse to me, look in thy heart, and write. 5. It is most true that eyes are form'd to serve It is most true, what we call Cupid's dart An image is, which for ourselves we carve, And, fools, adore in temple of our heart, Till that good god make church and churchmen starve: Whereof this beauty can be but a shade, Which, elements with mortal mixture breed: True, that on earth we are but pilgrims made, 18. With what sharp checks I in myself am shent And by just 'counts myself a bankrupt know Of all those goods which heaven to me hath lent; And, which is worse, no good excuse can show, My youth doth waste, my knowledge brings forth toys; 23. The curious wits, seeing dull pensiveness 26. Though dusty wits dare scorn Astrology, To have for no cause birthright in the sky And know great causes great effects procure; 30. Whether the Turkish new moon minded be 31. With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies! Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess? 32. Morpheus, the lively son of deadly Sleep, A prophet oft, and oft an history, A poet eke, as humours fly or creep; Since thou in me so sure a power dost keep, But by thy work my Stella I descry, Teaching blind eyes both how to smile and weep; |