I've been unable to find a gloss on Sidney's phrase "Herculea proles" at
the end of the Defense of Poesy that explains the source of the phrase.
Does anyone know where Sidney got it? I've also been unable to locate a
reason for it in the Hercules myth(s). Why would a nobleman who supports
poetry be described as a descendent of Hercules? The quotation is bracketed
by quotations from Horace (with allusion to Maecenas) and Virgil:
"Thus doing, your name shall flourish in the printers' shops; thus doing,
you shall be of kin to many a poetical preface; thus doing, you shall be
most fair, most rich, most wise, most all, you shall dwell upon
superlatives; thus doing, though you be libertino patre natus, you shall
suddenly grow Herculea proles, si quid mea carmina possunt...."
Is it simply the poet's power to immortalize a patron as if the patron were
a Herculean hero?
Many thanks!
-John Buchtel
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John A. Buchtel Curator of Collections
University of Virginia Rare Book School
Department of English W Phone: 434/924-8851
H Phone: 434/973-5742 www.rarebookschool.org
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