ever, this poem remains, so far as
literary merit goes, one of the best Quarles ever wrote. He scarcely
ever reached again this terseness and vivacity of style, and this
_entrain_. Having for once shut himself out of the church, and not for
long, he wanted it seems to do the best with his time, and if he was
sinning, at least to enjoy his sin.

[Illustration: ARGALUS AND PARTHENIA READING A BOOK IN THEIR GARDEN,
1656.]

His contemporaries enjoyed it greatly; "Argalus and Parthenia" went
through an extraordinary number of editions;[224] some of them were very
fine, and were even illustrated with cuts. We give an example of them
showing the newly married couple sitting in their garden to read a
story:

"Upon a day as they were closely seated,
Her ears attending whilst his lips repeated
A story treating the renown'd adventures
And famous acts of great Alcides, enters
A messenger whose countenance did bewray
A haste too serious to admit delay."

Is there any necessity for reminding the reader of the cause of the
messenger's haste? Is it possible that such world-famous adventures can
be now forgotten? The messenger was sent by King Basilius, who was
sorely pressed by his arch-enemy Amphialus. The young hero rushes to the
rescue of the Arcadian king, but he is piteously slain in a duel with
Amphialus. Then Parthenia dresses herself as a knight, and fights her
husband's conqueror. With more verisimilitude than is usually the case,
she too is piteously slain. And this is the end of Argalus and
Parthenia.

But there was still more than this, and like Lyly, Sidney had direct
imitators who copied him in prose, and tried to fashion novels after his
model. All the peculiarities of his style and of his way, or rather
want, of composition, are to be found minutely reproduced in: "The
countesse of Mountgomeries Urania; written by the Rt. Hon. the Lady Mary
Wroath, daughter of the Rt. noble Robert earle of Leicester, and neece
to the ever famous and renowned S^r Phillips Sidney Kt. and to y^e most
excelent Lady Mary Countesse of Pembroke late deceased."[225] This
pedigree-shaped title is enough in itself to show what we may expect
from the performance. It is a complete and pious imitation of Sidney's
manner, especially of his defects, for they were more easily attained.
Thus we have those repetitions of the same words which were so pleasant
to Sidney's ear, and Lady Mary Wroth has a felicity of her o