SOURCE: “When Rooted Moisture Failes: Sidney's Pastoral Elegy (OA 75) and the Radical Humour,” in English Language Notes, Vol. 15, No. 1, September 1977, pp. 7–10.

In the following essay, Turner discusses the “rooted moisture” mentioned in elegy 75 in the Old Arcadia, and says the concept, which is derived from the Greek philosopher Aristotle, describes the “natural humidity” that is the basis of natural life.

In the “Fourth Eclogues” of the Old Arcadia, the shepherd Agelastus leads his companions “in bewailing” the “general loss” of Basilius to the Arcadians.¹ Ringler points out that this elegy (OA 75) and Spenser's November ecloque “are the earliest examples of formal pastoral elegy in English.”² Unlike Spenser's Colin, however, Agelastus maintains the naturalistic decorum of the classical form and is brought, finally, to bewail the helplessness of mankind before the natural processes which end in death:

O Phisicke's power, which (some say) hath refrayned           Approach of death, alas...