Two seventeenth century manuscripts relating to Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, author(s) unknown.

Two seventeenth century manuscripts relating to Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia:

• (MS. Eng. e. 2016) fair copy of a verse satire relating to the English Civil War, entitled 'A draught of Sr. Philip Sidneys Arcadia'. There is no external evidence of authorship, dating or provenance. Marginal references to the Arcadia on fols. 4-7 refer to one of the editions published between 1621 and 1638.
• (MS. Eng. e. 2017) Fair copy of an index to the Arcadia, entitled 'Sr. Philip Sydneys exact Characters wherein hee is both painter & poet...'. The index is in two parts: one presents brief moralised summaries of the narrative; the other is an index of names, 'A Clavis opening the names and referring to the Charrecters'. The references given in the manuscript are to one of the editions of Arcadia published between 1621 and 1638. There is no external evidence of authorship, dating or provenance, although the hand is similar to that of the 'Draught' and the paper on which the index is written bears a similar watermark.

Bequeathed to the Library, together with MSS. Eng. b. 2002; c. 2026, fols. 9-34, by John Buxton in 1989.

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A description is available in the Library, where there is also a card index to unpublished catalogues.

For a description of the 'Draught', MS. Eng. e. 2016, and a reprint of the text, see John Buxton 'A draught of...Arcadia', Historical essays 1600-1750, presented to David Ogg, eds. H.E. Bell and R.L. Ollard (1963), pp. 60-7. Buxton also refers to the index, MS. Eng. e. 2017, ibid., p. 30.

English literature | 16th century

English poetry | 16th century

Pastoral poetry, English

Sidney | Sir | Philip | 1554-1586 | Knight | Soldier, statesman, and poet

Great Britain | History | Civil War, 1642-1649