target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_fceec759-73e8-5698-91a9-555cd1c3e8bb"/> Idea] “the Platonic … Ideal, the ‘fore conceit’ of an arist’s work … but Musidorus’ … is a real woman, Pamela” (Ringler 394).
manly] “The required elision throws the emphasis on ‘man’—Musidorus, even though disguised, appears as a man and can express his love for a woman; Pyrocles, disguised as a woman, cannot” (Ringler 394). Professor Ringler concludes that it is possible to scan Sidney’s quantitative lines so that the eye perceives how the syllables fit the Latin meter; nonetheless “when read aloud many of his lines do not sound like verse to English ears.” He adds that “it must be remembered that all . . . the measured poems are described as being sung, … so that by the tune of the music the poet or listener ‘should straight know how every word should be measured’” (392-393). The editors have more freely than usual modernized this poem from here on.
greater] Pamela and Philoclea.
puppet] impersonator, an inferior actor.
to estates which still be adherent] “which always accompany high position” (Ringler 395).
The laurel or bay leaf is a sign of renown; myrrh is an aromatic gum, a balm of sweetness; the evergreen leaf of the myrtle is a sign of love; the willow of unrequited love; and the cypress of mourning. The boy is Cupid, god of love.
fig … hurtful] Secret murderers were said to use poisoned figs.
style] “The pastoral traditionally requires the low style” (Ringler 494).
clouted] patched. The 1593 edition reads “doubted.”
Epirus lies north-west of the Peloponnesus and south of Macedonia, while the island of Aeolus (Aeles’ land) is further west, between Sicily and Sardinia (Ringler 495).
keels or “kayles, a game similar to ninepins”; green “was the color of lovers, and May games were decried for the acts of immorality that often accompanied them”; quintain refers to “tilting at a post, formerly an exclusively knightly exercise, had by Elizabethan times become a village game” (Ringler 495).
lease of] contract that gave them rights to.
maid refers to Urania; a micher is a truant; the bias is the nipple, an image drawn from bowling balls, which were give an irregularity “that they might move in a particular curve”; and peeper means “chirper and looker” (Ringler 495).
a sprat new stomach brings] a small sea-fish renews one’s appetite.
think] No one, including himself, suspected he loved Urania.
“The sun enters the zodiacal sign of Leo about 21 July, so about two months have passed since Strephon first saw Urania” (Ringler 495).
Barley-Break] a game, like tag, for mixed couples. “In the country game of barley-break the two couples at either end of the field attempt to change partners without being caught by the couple in the middle (called hell). The couple in the middle must hold hands while chasing the others, and if they catch any one member of an opposing couple before they meet as partners, that pair must take their place in hell” (Ringler 495).
fremd] stranger. Each of the three men and women hold hands at first. The moral suggests that most couples part in order to reach their future partner, but they might do better remaining with their friends.
Here by the luck of the draw (lot) Geron (old man) is paired with Cosma (ornament). Nous (mind or heart) is paired with Pas (the whole, or “all men” in New Testament Greek), who is more interested in Cosma but believes he can only win her by capturing old Geron first. Strephon is at first happily matched with Urania, before she is obliged by the game to pursue old Geron and he to pursue worldly Cosma. Although Sidney’s Astrophil denounces “allegory’s curious frame,” Sidney often animated personifications (one definition of allegory) and knew how to hint at the supernatural (the function of another kind of allegory).
“In the first game Pas and Nous catch old Geron as he attempts to reach Urania, but tumble over him in the process” (Ringler 496).
“In the second game Geron and Urania take their place in hell and Strephon is supposed to run to Nous; but
