that will follow Virtue." This Discourse Gosson dedicated "To the
right noble Gentleman, Master Philip Sidney, Esquire." Sidney
himself wrote verse, he was companion with the poets, and counted
Edmund Spenser among his friends. Gosson's pamphlet was only one
expression of the narrow form of Puritan opinion that had been
misled into attacks on poetry and music as feeders of idle appetite
that withdrew men from the life of duty. To show the fallacy in
such opinion, Philip Sidney wrote in 1581 this piece, which was
first printed in 1595, nine years after his death, as a separate
publication, entitled "An Apologie for Poetrie." Three years
afterwards it was added, with other pieces, to the third edition of
his "Arcadia," and then entitled "The Defence of Poesie." In
sixteen subsequent editions it continued to appear as "The Defence
of Poesie." The same title was used in the separate editions of
1752 and 1810. Professor Edward Arber re-issued in 1869 the text of
the first edition of 1595, and restored the original title, which
probably was that given to the piece by its author. One name is as
good as the other, but as the word "apology" has somewhat changed
its sense in current English, it may be well to go on calling the
work "The Defence of Poesie."

In 1583 Sidney was knighted, and soon afterwards in the same year he
married Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham. Sonnets
written by him according to old fashion, and addressed to a lady in
accordance with a form of courtesy that in the same old fashion had
always been held to exclude personal suit--personal suit was
private, and not public--have led to grave misapprehension among
some critics. They supposed that he desired marriage with Penelope
Devereux, who was forced by her family in 1580--then eighteen years
old--into a hateful marriage with Lord Rich. It may be enough to