The Sound of Virtue: Philip Sidney's 'Arcadia' and Elizabethan Politics

Philip Sidney's Arcadia, written in about 1580, is a romance, a love story, a work of wit and enchantment set in an ancient and mythical land. But, as Blair Worden now reveals, it is also a grave and urgent commentary on Elizabethan politics. Under the protective guise of pastoral fiction, says Worden, Sidney produced a searching reflection on the misgovernment of Elizabeth I and on the failings of monarchy as a system of government.

Elizabeth's failure to resist the Catholic advance at home...