pursuit of his affections; the strange
continuance of Klaius and Strephons desire; lastly the sonne of Pyrocles
named Pyrophilus, and Melidora the faire daughter of Pamela by
Musidorus, who even at their birth entred into admirable fortunes, may
awake some other spirit to exercise his pen in that wherwith mine is
already dulled." From generation to generation the tale might as we see,
have been continued for ages: so numerous were the wonderful adventures
still to be told.

The style of the book is scarcely less fanciful than the stories it
tells. It is only now and again that the charming prose of the "Apologie
for Poetrie" is to be found in the "Arcadia." Sidney wished to remain
faithful to his theories, and he believed it possible to write a poem in
prose.[208] Here and there some speeches, passionate like those of
Gynecia, or noble like Pamela's prayer, some brilliant repartee, a few
observations of exquisite charm are lasting beauties, always in their
place in all kinds of writing. Thus we meet the witty Sidney of the
"Apologie" in the description of a spaniel, coming out of a river, who
shakes off the water from his coat "as great men doe their friends;"
Sidney, the poet and lover, appears in the description of Philoclea
entering the water "with a prettie kind of shrugging ... like the
twinkling of the fairest among the fixed stars;" or in this expression
in reference to the fair hair of one of his heroines: "her haire--alas
too poore a word, why should I not rather call them her beams!"[209]

But, by the side of these graceful flowers, how many others are faded!
What concessions to contemporary taste for tinsel and excessive
ornament! Sidney forgets the rules of enduring beauty, and with the
excuse that he will never be printed, he only seeks to please his one
reader. To charm the Countess, his sister, like most women of his time,
it was necessary to put his phrases in full dress, to place ruffs on his
periods, and to make them walk according to the rules followed in
courtly pageants. When, in spite of Sidney's earnest desire, his book
was published after his death, people were enraptured with his
ingeniously dressed out phrases. Lyly might shake with envy without
having however the right to complain, for Sidney did not imitate him.
Sidney never liked euphuism, quite the contrary, he formally condemns it
in his "Apologie": "Now for similitudes in certain printed discourses I
think all herberists, all stories of