The Puritans took gloomy views of life: they accounted amusements, dress, and splendor as things of the world; and would even sweep away poetry as idle, and even wicked.

Sir Philip came to its defence with the spirit of a courtier and a poet, and the work in which he upholds it is his best, far better in style and sense than his Arcadia.

It is one of the curiosities of literature, in itself, and in its representation of such a social condition as could require a defence of poetry.

His _Astrophel and Stella_ is a collection of amatory poems, disclosing his passion for Lady Rich, the sister of the Earl of Essex.

Although something must be allowed to the license of the age, in language at least, yet still the _Astrophel and Stella_ cannot be commended for its morality.