The elder is named Pamela; by many men not deemed inferior to her sister: for my part, when I marked them both, methought there was (if at least such perfections may receive the word of more) more sweetness in Philoclea, but more majesty in Pamela: methought love played in Philocleas eyes, and threatened in Pamelas; methought Philocleas beauty only persuaded, but so persuaded as all hearts must yield: Pamelas beauty used violence, and such violence as no heart could resist.
What the narrator is describing here are two princesses, the elder and younger daughters of the Duke of Arcadia, Basilius, and his wife, Gynecia. What is most interesting here at this stage, however, may be the names of the two young women. Philoclea will be discussed below, but what most people likely do not know—even those actually named Pamela—is that Philip Sidney invented the name Pamela and its first appearance as a name is in this work. Fifty years later the popularity of Pamela as a name would really take off with the publication of Samuel Richardson’s scandalous novel, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded.
"Now farewell, dear cousin, from me, no more Pyrocles nor Daiphantus now, but Zelmane: Zelmane is my name, Zelmane is my title, Zelmane is the only hope of my advancement."
Having been introduced to two princesses, now allow the for the introduction of two princes: Pyrocles and Musidorus. The history of this work is complicated and somewhat confusing. It exists in two different forms except that the second form was not completed before the author’s death. The second form expands greatly upon the original and is also notable for alterations. One of the alterations is not just unfortunate, but inexplicable. For the mechanics of plot, the two princes mentioned here take on disguises in order to get closer to the two princesses. Musidorus chooses to present himself as poor shepherd in his attempt to wile his way into the affections of Pamela while Pyrocles takes a far more radical and interesting approach with Philoclea. His quote above is his way of explaining why he is now presenting himself as a woman named Zelmane. Except that in the original version, he adopted the name Cleophila. It is strange and unfortunate that this was changed to Zelmane because it was originally an amusing play on words: Philoclea is an invented name derived from the Greek words for “love of glory” whereas Cleophila changes the order so that it means “glory of love.”
For Basilius having past over the night more happy in contemplation than action, having had his spirits subsumed with the sweet imagination of embracing the most desired Zelmane, doubting lest the cave’s darkness might deceived him in the day’s approach, thought it now season to return to his wedlock-bed, remembering the promises he had made to Zelmane to observe true orders toward Gynecia.
And here’s the rub. Having disguised himself so convincingly as the female Zelmane, an unforeseen conflict arises for Pyrocles: Philoclea’s dad, the King of Arcadia, has fallen in love with his female persona. But wait, there’s more! In his original and true male form of Pyrocles, guess who has fallen for him? That’s right, Gynecia, the wife of Basilius. This creates a sitcom-like subplot in which a dark cave becomes the secret place of assignation where Basilius beds with Zelmane and Gynecia beds with Pyrocles except that the whole time it is really just Basilius and Gynecia doing it in the silent darkness.
