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England's Cato: the virtues and fortunes of Algernon Sidney

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. G. A. Pocock
J. G. A. Pocock
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University
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Type
Review Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 915 - 935
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

1 Carswell, , Porcupine, p. xiiGoogle Scholar. The tale may be apocryphal, but is characteristic.

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33 For Sidney's letter to the earl of Leicester, dated 12/22 December 1660, see Scott, , Republic, p. 155Google Scholar, and Arthur, Collins, Letters and memorials of state (1746), II, pp. 701–2Google Scholar. The work is Istoria del Concilio di Trento, scritta dal Padre Sforza Pallavicino della Compagnia di Gesu, ove insieme rifiutasi con autorevoli testimonianze un' Istoria falsa divolgata nello slesso argomento sotto nome di Pietro Soaue Polano (In Roma MDCLVI). The copy in the Folger Shakespeare Library has the signature ‘Leycester’ on the title page, and on the reverse the bookplate of the fifth earl (1704). Dr Germaine Warkentin (Victoria College, Toronto) informs me that there exists a Sidney library catalogue in which Pallavicino's book is entered in the hand of the second earl (Algernon's father), which is that in which the signature ‘Leycester’ is written. The probability that the Folger copy is that sent by Sidney from Rome seems strong.

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66 I pass over Sidney's insistence that governments are seldom perfect and may always be improved when circumstances change, because I think Scott's contrast with Harrington here is misconceived. See notes 24 and 25 above.

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