Thomas More and Bacon,

"Et le milor Cydne qui cygne doux-chantant
Va les flots orgueilleux de Tamise flatant;
Ce fleuve gros d'honneur emporte sa faconde
Dans le sein de Thetis et Thetis par le monde."[237]

[Illustration: "HOW THE TWO PRINCESSES PAMELA AND HER SISTER PHILOCLEA
WENT TO BATH THEMSELVES ... AND WHAT AFTER HAPNED."]

Besides this, Sidney's romance received in France an homage very rare
at that epoch: it was translated. A Frenchman possessing a knowledge of
the English language was then an extraordinary phenomenon. As late as
the year 1665, no less a paper than the "Journal des Scavans" printed a
statement to the following effect: "The Royal Society of London
publishes constantly a number of excellent works But whereas most of
them are written in the English language, we have been unable till now
to review them in our pages. But we have at last found an English
interpreter through whose offices it will be henceforth possible for us
to enrich our publication with the best things appearing in England." As
for Sidney, not only was he translated, but what is not less strange,
the fact provoked in France one of the most violent literary quarrels of
the time. Two translations of the "Arcadia," now entirely forgotten,
were published simultaneously, both in three volumes, both adorned with
engravings.[238] As soon as a volume appeared, each of the translators
profited by the occasion to write a new preface, and to repeat that his
rival was a mere plagiarist and did not know a word of English. The
other replied offering to prove such a rare knowledge; had it been a
question of Chinese or of Hindustani they could not have boasted more
noisily of their unique acquaintance with so mysterious an idiom. Each
appealed to his patroness, who was, in either case, no ordinary woman:
the one had dedicated his work to Diane de Chateaumorand (D'Urfe's
Diane), who had indeed the right to judge of Arcadias; the other invoked
the authority of the Queen-mother, Marie de Medicis, by whose express
command he had carried on his work.

Baudoin, who had been the first to turn the "Arcadia" into French,
published it in 1624, prefixing to it this remark, flattering to
Sidney's memory, but which shows how very little his language was known
in France: "Merely the desire of understanding so rare a book caused me
to go to England, where I remained for two years in order to gain a
knowledge of it."

[Illustration: "TH