#old arcadia

[catchmeifyoucreon]

But Musidorus, that had helped to dress his friend, could not satisfy himself with looking upon him, so did he find his excellent beauty set out with this new change, like a diamond set in a more advantageous sort. Insomuch that he could not choose, but smiling said unto him: "Well," said he, "sweet cousin, since you are framed of such a loving mettle, I pray you, take heed of looking yourself in a glass lest Narcissus's fortune fall unto you. For my part, I promise you, if I were not fully resolved never to submit my heart to these fancies, I were like enough while I dressed you to become a young Pygmalion."

Musidorus to Pyrocles/Cleophila, in The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia by Philip Sidney

[catchmeifyoucreon]

ASSEMBLE! #donutsfordorus #cakeforcleophila

part 10/? of rhiannon gets the weirdest texts

[catchmeifyoucreon]

my supervisor describes the old arcadia in his lecture description as a 'tragicomic-chivalric-pastoral-verse-and-prose-epic-romance'

basically, the old arcadia is the world's first soap opera

[catchmeifyoucreon]

i think what i love most about the old arcadia is that it was written for a young women (mary, countess of pembroke, philip sidney's younger sister) and so it's interested in young women and doesn't necessarily always take itself incredibly seriously

and even now, after so many years, i can imagine myself with the countess of pembroke, laughing at her brother's pathetic but brilliant poetic persona and raptly trying to work out if and how cleophila and philoclea are going to have a happy ending

like, it's dry and witty, but it's also an adventure, a fantasy, playing with the conventions of heroic journeys but also being incredibly down to earth and yet full of the confusions and entanglements of love and romance -- including a girl who finds herself falling in love with another girl, without the words to describe or properly understand it -- with a dash of politics and satire thrown in

also random poetry and songs everywhere

it's just so much fun and also very complicated in a way that, when you pull back and try to explain it all to someone else, makes you wonder what the hell you even just read, and yet

you still want to read more

[catchmeifyoucreon]

also i now have an old arcadia sideblog so i don't end up turning this blog into an old arcadia blog

[catchmeifyoucreon]

Thus did Cleophila wade betwixt small hopes and huge despairs, whilst in the mean time the sweet Philoclea found strange unwonted motions in herself. And yet the poor soul could neither discern what it was, nor whither the vehemency of it tended. She found a burning affection towards Cleophila; an unquiet desire to be with her; and yet she found that the very presence kindled the desire.

Sir Philip Sidney, The Old Arcadia (ed. Katherine Duncan-Jones, page 85)

[catchmeifyoucreon]

okay so i started the old arcadia today

and it was NOT what i was expecting

i am totally not complaining because what i now have is a lot of trans cleophila emotions and also philoclea/cleophila PLEASE HAVE MERCY

[kasiej]

if you consider what it is that moves you, or for what kind of creature you are moved, you shall find the cause so small, the effects so dangerous, yourself so unworthy to run into the one or to be driven by the other, that I doubt not I shall quickly have occasion rather to praise you for having conquered it than to give you an further counsel how to do it.

The Old Arcadia