The Sound of Virtue Philip Sidney's "Arcadia" and Elizabethan Politics Blair Worden

Written around 1580, Philip Sidney's "Arcadia" is a romance and a love story, set in an ancient and mythical land. But, as Blair Worden now reveals, it is also a commentary on Elizabethan politics. Under the guise of pastoral fiction, Sidney produced a reflection on the misgovernment of Elizabeth I and on the failings of monarchy as a system of government. Blair Worden reconstructs the events amidst which the "Arcadia" was composed. The Queen's failure to resist the Catholic advance at home and abroad, and her apparent resolve to marry the Catholic heir to the French throne, seemed likely to bring tyranny and persecution to England. It provoked a radical political dissent which historians and literary critics have missed, and of which the Arcadia" is an expression. "The Sound of Virtue" combines the close analysis of a literary text with the reconstruction of its historical context. It offers an approach to the relationship between the history and literature of the Renaissance.