. Old love stories retold. oMr. Pollard, with great probability, accountsfor Lord Richs place in the story. Surely, ifthis conjecture be correct, it must have seemedthe bitterest of ironies for the two lovers that themarriage of Stellas mother to her lovers uncleshould thus destroy the happiness of their or not Philip and Penelope had beenformally engaged during this interval, it is cer-tain that he and she saw much of each other atthe houses of mutual relatives and friends, andthat they were still seeing each other in the sum-mer and the late autumn of 1580. Though thelove up ti
. Old love stories retold. oMr. Pollard, with great probability, accountsfor Lord Richs place in the story. Surely, ifthis conjecture be correct, it must have seemedthe bitterest of ironies for the two lovers that themarriage of Stellas mother to her lovers uncleshould thus destroy the happiness of their or not Philip and Penelope had beenformally engaged during this interval, it is cer-tain that he and she saw much of each other atthe houses of mutual relatives and friends, andthat they were still seeing each other in the sum-mer and the late autumn of 1580. Though thelove up till then seems to have been mainly, if notentirely, on Sidneys side, and Penelopes atti-tude rather that of a coquette, attracted but stillunwon, there seems no reason for thinking thatLord Rich was as yet a factor in her future; and,indeed, her forced marriage with him may havecome to her with no less shock of cruel surprisethan it appears to have come with to Sidney him-self. Judging by one of Sidneys songs, his first[52]. Portrait of Sidney in ArmorFrom Original Engraving Sir Philip Sidney & Lady Devereuxanger seems to have been directed against Penel-ope herself, and one may add that a man ofSidneys calibre would hardly inveigh against awoman in the fashion of this stanza without herhaving given him the excuse of at least greathopes of her love: Ring out your belles, let mourning shewes be spread;For Love is dead: All Love is dead, infectedWith plague of deep disdaine: Worth, as nought worth, rejected,And Faith faire scorne doth gaine. From so ungratefull fancie, From such a femall franzie, From them that use men thus, Good Lord, deliver us! Before writing the last stanza of the poem,however, which reads like a postscript, Sidneyappears to have realized the truth: that Stellawas not unfaithful to him, but that she, ratherthan he, was the victim: Alas, I lie: rage hath this crrour bred;Love is not dead; Love is not dead, but sleepethIn her unmatched mind, Where she his counse
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Keywords: ., bookauthorlegallie, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1904
