The New Arcadia, which was the version that became famous throughout the Renaissance world and inspired generations of writers in later periods, is substantially longer than the Old Arcadia. In the 1580s, Sidney took the frame of the original story, reorganised the text, adding several episodes, most notably the story of the just rebel Amphialus. The additions more than double the original version, though Sidney had not finished the revision at the time of his untimely death in 1586.
The New Arcadia is a romance that combines pastoral elements with a mood derived from the Hellenistic model of Heliodorus. A highly idealised version of the shepherd’s life narrates stories of jousts, political treachery, kidnappings, battles and abductions of fair maidens, with stories nested within each other, offering many digressions.
In 1593 Mary Herbert herself published an edition in which the original version supplements and concludes the part that Sidney revised. Later additions filled in gaps in the story, most notably the fifth edition of 1621, which included Sir William Alexander’s attempt to work over the gap between Sidney’s two versions of the story. Other continuations and developments of Sidney’s story were published separately. The hybrid editions did not efface the difference between the highly artificial, Hellenised revised portion and the straightforward conclusion Sidney wrote originally. Nevertheless, it was in this form that Sidney’s work entered history and achieved its lasting fame. William Shakespeare borrowed from The Arcadia for plot features in King Lear, Hamlet and The Winter’s Tale, whilst other dramatists such as Samuel Daniel, James Shirley, John Day and Beaumont and Fletcher used elements in their own dramas.