There was a modernised edition of the _Arcadia_ published in 1725, under the title, “Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, Moderniz’d by Mrs Stanley, London, Printed in the Year MDCCXXV”; and there were extracts from the book, like the abstract entitled, “The Famous History of Heroick Acts or the Honour of Chivalry,” London, 1701; and two versions of the episode of Argalus and Parthenia, the first, “The Unfortunate Lovers: the History of Argalus and Parthenia” (fourth edition, 1715), and “The History of Argalus and Parthenia. Being A Choice Flower Gathered out of Sir Philip Sidney’s Rare Garden,” c. 1770 and 1780. Dr Grosart included all the poems occurring in the _Arcadia_ in his edition of “The Complete Poems of Sir Philip Sidney,” in three volumes, in 1877. Students of our old texts owe an immense debt to Dr Sommer for the pains and industry lavished on his sumptuous facsimile editions of Caxton’s _Malory_ and Sidney’s _Arcadia_, in both of which the comparison of all the extant readings has been carried out with microscopic thoroughness, and done once for all. E. A. B. _January_ 1907. THE LIFE OF Sir PHILIP SIDNEY, Kt. {xxvii} [_From the Dublin edition, 1739._] This Marcellus of the English nation, Sir Philip Sidney, the short-lived ornament of his noble family, hath deserved, and, without dispute or envy, enjoyed, the most exalted praises of his own, and of succeeding ages. The poets of his time, especially Spenser, reverenced him, not only as a patron, but a master; and he was almost the only person in any age, I will not except Mecaenas, that could teach the best rules of poetry, and most freely reward the performances of poets. He was a man of a sweet nature, of excellent behaviour, of much, and, withal, of well-digested learning, so that rarely wit, courage, breeding, and other additional accomplishments of conversation, have met in so high a degree in any single person.[i03] Sir Henry Sidney, his father, was a man of excellent natural wit, large heart, sweet conversation; and such a governor as sought not to make an end of the state in himself, but to plant his own ends in the prosperity of his country. Witness his sound establishments, both in Wales and Ireland, where his memory is worthily grateful unto this day.