In memoriam Philip Sidney

Abraham Fraunce’s Amintas Dale (1591) is a generic hybrid, half mythography and half mythological poetry. The mythographical elements likely date back to a draft mythography that Fraunce had begun at some point before 1588, and which he later drew on to create a work celebrating the fifth anniversary of Sir Philip Sidney’s death. Drawing on symbol theory, France conceives of fables as free-ranging poetic metaphors, which thinly veil their meaning, but are accessible to any intelligent reader. As part of a living tradition of poetry, fables are a form of communication that contemporary writers can draw on and contribute to. In Amintas Dale, Fraunce does just that, by extending Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the late sixteenth century, and weaving Sir Philip Sidney into the mythological narrative.