I confess it is commonly reported that Sir Philip,[i19] some hours before his death, enjoined a near friend to consign these his works to the flames, whereby posterity had been deprived of much pleasure and profit accruing thereby. What promise his friend returned herein is uncertain; but if he broke his word to be faithful to the public good, posterity will absolve him, without doing any penance, for being guilty of such a {xxxv} meritorious offence, wherewith he hath obliged so many ages. Hear the excellent epigrammatist, Owen, hereon:-- “Ipse tuam moriens, vel conjuge teste, jubebas Arcadiam saevis ignibus esse cibum. Si meruit mortem, quia flammam accendit amoris; Mergi, non Uri debuit iste liber. In librum quaecunque cadat sententia; nullâ Debuit ingenium morte perire tuum.” As the ancient Egyptians presented secrets under their mystical hieroglyphics, so that an easy figure was exhibited to the eye, and a higher notion tendered under it to the judgment, so all the “Arcadia” is a continual grove of morality, shadowing moral and politic results under the plain and easy emblems of lovers, so that the reader may be deceived, but not hurt thereby, when surprised on a sudden to more knowledge than he expected. I will not here endeavour to offer the reader a key to unfold what persons were intended under the fictitious denominations: herein must men shoot at the wild rovers of their own conjectures. And many have forged keys of their own fancies, all pretended to be the right, though unlike one to another. But, besides, it is an injury to impose guesses for truths on any belief; such applications, rather made than meant, are not without reflections on families, as may justly give distaste. I dare confidently aver that the wards of this lock are grown so rusty with time that a modern key will scarce unlock it, seeing in above a hundred years many criticisms of time, place, and person, wherein the life and lustre of this story did consist, are utterly lost, and unknown in our age. Vita Philippi Sidnei. “Qui dignos ipsi vitâ scripsere libellos Illorum vitam scribere non opus est. Sidnei in tumulo est, corpus non vita: Philippi Producit vitam gloria, longa brevem.” --Owen. TESTIMONIES CONCERNING THE AUTHOR {xxxvi} Gulielmus Camdenus de Praelio inter Anglos et Hispanos prope Zutphaniam in Geldriâ. Anno Dom. 1586.