painter, Gaspard Poussin, who will gain
more permanent attention and sympathy for them than most poets when he
will inscribe in his canvas, on the representation of a ruined tomb, his
famous "Et in Arcadia ego."[192]

Sidney's heroes, in the meantime, Prince Musidorus and Prince Pyrocles,
the latter disguised as a woman under the name of the amazon Zelmane,
are in love with the Princesses Pamela and Philoclea, daughters of the
King of Arcady. A great many crosses are in the way of the lovers'
happiness. They have to fight helots, lions, bears, enemies from
Corinth. They lose each other, find each other again, and relate their
adventures. The masculine amazon especially does wonders, for she has to
fight not only with the sword, but in argument. She is so pretty in
woman's costume that the old king Basilius, until then wise and
virtuous, falls distractedly in love with her, as imprudent as
Fior-di-Spina in Ariosto; while the queen, whom the disguise does not
deceive, feels an intense passion spring up in her heart for the false
amazon and a terrible jealousy of her own daughter, Philoclea.

Disguises are numerous in this romance; they are also frequent in
Shakespeare's plays and in most of the novels of the time. Parthenia
gives herself out to her admirer, Argalus, as the Queen of Corinth, whom
she resembles, and announces her own death. As pretended queen she
offers her hand to Argalus, to prove him; but he refuses with horror;
she then discovers herself to this paragon of lovers, and gives him his
Parthenia alive and more loving than ever.

When we read now of such disguises, of princes Pyrocles dressed as
women, of Rosalinds dressed as pages, we are tempted to smile at the
vain fancies of the novelists of the Shakespearean era.[193] But it must
not be forgotten that, after all, there was not so much invention in
these fancies, and that living examples were not rare from which writers
might copy. Disguises were abundantly used in fetes and ceremonies, but
they were also utilized in actual life. The manners of the time in this
particular are well illustrated by the earnest entreaties of a certain
ambassador to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, advising her to leave her
palace secretly and travel over the country as his page. The Queen was
in no way shocked, but rather pleased; she did not order the ambassador
to be turned out of her palace, but heard him expound his plan, wishing
she might have followed it. This happened i