SOURCE: "Sidney the Narrator," in The Old Arcadia, Yale University Press, 1965, pp. 318-31.

In the following excerpt, Lanham explores the complex, shifting, and sometimes ambiguous narration of the Old Arcadia.

An age that cherishes the memory of Henry James can hardly be expected to allow Sidney the narrator to escape unscathed. The spectacle of an author frankly telling a tale in propria persona, commenting on it as it flows from his pen in asides to his "Dear Ladies," obviously regulating the unfolding of the narrative, makes the modern reader as uncomfortable as James felt in the loquacious I've-got-no-secrets company of Trollope. Sidney seems in many places to give the show away, to tell us twice over how we should feel. Myrick comments: "In the original version, where Sidney so often disregards the principles of the Defence, he frequently drops his role of 'maker' and comments upon the story...