chastisement for my vnexcusable folly: if this low bondage be
fittest to my ouerhigh desires: if the pride of my not inough
humble heart be thus to be broken, O Lord I yeeld vnto thy will,
and joyfully embrace what sorrow thou will haue mee suffer. Onely
thus much let me craue of thee, (let my crauing, O Lord, be
accepted of thee, since euen that proceeds from thee,) let me
craue, euen by the noblest title, which in my greatest affliction I
may give myself, that I am thy creature, and by thy goodness (which
is thyselfe) that thou wilt suffer some beame of thy Majestie so to
shine into my minde, that it may still depend confidently on thee.
Let calamitie be the exercise, but not the ouerthrow or my vertue;
let their power preuaile, but preuaile not to destruction; let my
greatnesse be their pray; let my paine bee the sweetnesse of there
reuenge: let them, (if so it seeme good vnto thee) vexe me with
more and more punishment. But, O Lord, let neuer their wickednesse
haue such a hand, but that I may cary a pure minde in a pure body.
(And pausing a while.) And O most gracious Lord, (said she) what
euer become of me, preserve the vertuous Musidorus.[76]

The "Arcadia" combines the elements of both the chivalric and the
pastoral romance. Sidney's familiarity with the legends of Arthur,
together with his own gallantry and love of adventure, peculiarly
adapted him to describe martial scenes. But the chivalry of Sir Philip
is not more apparent where he describes the shock of arms than where,
with such exquisite delicacy, he writes of women. The student of
English fiction would fain linger long over the pages which describe
the loves of Pamela and Philoclea. For when these pages are laid aside,
it is long before he may again meet with the poetry, the manly and
womanly sentiment, and the pure yet stirring passion which adorn the
romance of Elizabeth's Philip. Three centuries have passed away since