Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (born Sidney, 27 October 1561 – 25 September 1621) was among the first Englishwomen to gain notice for her poetry and her literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed with her brother
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
and with
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
and
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
among the notable authors of the day in
John Bodenham
John Bodenham (c. 1559–1610), an English anthologist, was the patron of some of the Elizabethan poetry anthologies.
Life
Bodenham was the eldest of the five children of William Bodnam, a London grocer, and Katherine Wanton of York.
He was educ ...
's verse miscellany ''Belvidere''. Her play ''Antonius'' is widely seen as reviving interest in soliloquy based on classical models and as a likely source of
Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late- Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epi ...
's
closet drama
A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage, but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a large group. The contrast between closet drama and classic "stage" dramas dates back to the late eighteenth century. Al ...
''Cleopatra'' (1594) and of Shakespeare's ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (1607). She was also known for translating
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
's "Triumph of Death", for the poetry anthology ''
Triumphs
''Triumphs'' (Italian language, Italian: ''I Trionfi'') is a 14th-century Italian series of poems, written by Petrarch in the Tuscan language. The poem evokes the Roman triumph, Roman ceremony of triumph, where victorious generals and their armies ...
'', and above all for a lyrical,
metrical translation of the Psalms.
Biography
Early life
Mary Sidney was born on 27 October 1561 at
Tickenhill Palace in the parish of
Bewdley
Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the River Sev ...
,
Worcestershire
Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...
. She was one of the seven children – three sons and four daughters – of Sir
Henry Sidney
Sir Henry Sidney (20 July 1529 – 5 May 1586), Lord Deputy of Ireland, was the eldest son of Sir William Sidney of Penshurst, a prominent politician and courtier during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, from both of whom he received ...
and wife
Mary Dudley. Their eldest son was Sir
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
(1554–1586), and their second son
Robert Sidney (1563–1626), who later became Earl of Leicester. As a child, she spent much time at court where her mother was a
gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber and a close confidante of
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
. Like her brother Philip, she received a
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
education which included music, needlework, and Latin, French and Italian. After the death of Sidney's youngest sister, Ambrosia, in 1575, the Queen requested that Mary return to court to join the royal entourage.
Marriage and children
![Herbert arms](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Herbert_arms.svg)
In 1577, Mary Sidney married
Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, KG, KB (in or after 153819 January 1601) was a Welsh nobleman, peer and politician of the Elizabethan era. He was the nephew of Catherine Parr, and brother-in-law of Lady Jane Grey, through his first wif ...
(1538–1601), a close ally of the family. The marriage was arranged by her father in concert with her uncle,
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years.
Dudley's youth was ov ...
. After her marriage, Mary became responsible with her husband for the management of a number of estates which he owned including Ramsbury,
Ivychurch
Ivychurch is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. The village is located on the Romney Marsh, three miles (4.8 km) north-west of New Romney. The parish council consists of five members.< ...
,
Wilton House
Wilton House is an English country house at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire, which has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years. It was built on the site of the medieval Wilton Abbey. Following the dissolution o ...
, and
Baynard's Castle
Baynard's Castle refers to buildings on two neighbouring sites in the City of London, between where Blackfriars station and St Paul's Cathedral now stand. The first was a Norman fortification constructed by Ralph Baynard ( 1086), 1st feudal ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, where it is known that they entertained Queen Elizabeth to dinner. She had four children by her husband:
*
William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke
William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (8 April 158010 April 1630) , of Wilton House in Wiltshire, was an English nobleman, politician and courtier. He served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford and together with King James I founded Pem ...
(1580–1630), was the eldest son and heir.
*Katherine Herbert (1581–1584) died as an infant.
*
Anne Herbert (born 1583 – after 1603) was thought also to have been a writer and a storyteller.
*
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery, (10 October 158423 January 1650) was an English courtier, nobleman, and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I. Philip and his older brother William were ...
(1584–1650), succeeded his brother in 1630. Philip and his older brother William were the "incomparable pair of brethren" to whom the
First Folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...
of Shakespeare's collected works was dedicated in 1623.
Mary Sidney was an aunt to the poet
Mary Wroth
Lady Mary Wroth (née Sidney; 18 October 1587 – 1651/3) was an English noblewoman and a poet of the English Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary family, Lady Wroth was among the first female English writers to have achieved an en ...
, daughter of her brother Robert.
Later life
The death of Sidney's husband in 1601 left her with less financial support than she might have expected, though views on its adequacy vary; at the time the majority of an estate was left to the eldest son.
In addition to the arts, Sidney had a range of interests. She had a chemistry laboratory at Wilton House, where she developed medicines and invisible ink. From 1609 to 1615, Mary Sidney probably spent most of her time at
Crosby Hall in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
She travelled with her doctor,
Martin Lister
Martin Lister FRS (12 April 1639 – 2 February 1712) was an English naturalist and physician. His daughters Anne and Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers.
J. D. Woodley, ‘Lister , Susanna (bap. 1670, d. 1738)’, Oxford Dict ...
, to
Spa, Belgium
Spa (; wa, Spå) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative properties. It is situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountains sout ...
in 1616.
Dudley Carleton met her in the company of Helene de Melun, "Countess of Berlaymont", wife of
Florent de Berlaymont
Florent of Berlaymont (c. 1550 – 3 April 1626) was Count of Lalaing and Berlaymont, and Stadtholder of Namur, Artois, Guelders-Zutphen and Luxembourg, in the service of the King of Spain.
He was the youngest son of Charles de Berlaymont and Adr ...
the governor of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
. The two women amused themselves with pistol shooting.
Sir John Throckmorton heard she went on to
Amiens
Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...
. There is conjecture that she married Lister, but no evidence of this.
She died of
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
on 25 September 1621, aged 59, at her
townhouse
A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...
in
Aldersgate Street
Aldersgate is a Ward of the City of London, named after one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City.
The Ward of Aldersgate is traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the suffix denot ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, shortly after King James I had visited her at the newly completed
Houghton House
Houghton House is a ruined mansion house in the parish of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire. It is a Grade I listed building, positioned above the surrounding countryside, and commands excellent views. Built from 1615 to 1621, it is said that the ...
in
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...
. After a grand funeral in
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
, her body was buried in
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury.
The buildi ...
, next to that of her late husband in the Herbert family vault, under the steps leading to the choir stalls, where the mural monument still stands.
Literary career
Wilton House
![1595 Tragedy of Antony](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/1595_Tragedy_of_Antony.jpg)
Mary Sidney turned Wilton House into a "paradise for poets", known as the "
Wilton Circle
The Wilton Circle were an influential group of 16th-century English poets, led by Mary Sidney. They were based at Wilton House, Wiltshire, which was run by the half-brother of Walter Raleigh. Sidney turned Wilton into a "paradise for poets", and th ...
," a salon-type literary group sustained by her hospitality, which included
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
,
Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late- Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epi ...
,
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London.
Early life
Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothin ...
,
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
, and
Sir John Davies
Sir John Davies (16 April 1569 (baptised)8 December 1626) was an English poet, lawyer, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1621. He became Attorney General for Ireland and formulated many of the legal ...
.
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, ...
wrote, "Wilton House was like a college, there were so many learned and ingenious persons. She was the greatest patroness of wit and learning of any lady in her time." Sidney received more dedications than any other woman of non-royal status. By some accounts, King James I visited Wilton on his way to his coronation in 1603 and stayed again at Wilton following the coronation to avoid the plague. She was regarded as a muse by Daniel in his
sonnet
A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
cycle "Delia", an anagram for ideal.
Her brother,
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
, wrote much of his ''
Arcadia
Arcadia may refer to:
Places Australia
* Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
* Arcadia, Queensland
* Arcadia, Victoria
Greece
* Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese
* Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...
'' in her presence, at Wilton House. He also probably began preparing his English lyric version of the
Book of Psalms
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...
at Wilton as well.
Sidney psalter
Philip Sidney had completed translating 43 of the 150 Psalms at the time of his death on a military campaign against the Spanish in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
in 1586. She finished his translation, composing Psalms 44 through to 150 in a dazzling array of verse forms, using the 1560
Geneva Bible
The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespear ...
and commentaries by
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
and
Theodore Beza
Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformatio ...
. Hallett Smith has called the psalter a "School of English Versification" , of 171 poems (Psalm 119 is a gathering of 22 separate ones). A copy of the completed
psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters we ...
was prepared for Queen Elizabeth I in 1599, in anticipation of a royal visit to Wilton, but Elizabeth cancelled her planned visit. This work is usually referred to as
The Sidney Psalms or The Sidney-Pembroke Psalter and regarded as a major influence on the development of English religious lyric poetry in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
John Donne
John Donne ( ; 22 January 1572 – 31 March 1631) was an English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a clergy, cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's ...
wrote a poem celebrating the verse psalter and claiming he could "scarce" call the English Church reformed until its psalter had been modelled after the poetic transcriptions of Philip Sidney and Mary Herbert.
Although the psalms were not printed in her lifetime, they were extensively distributed in manuscript. There are 17 manuscripts extant today. A later engraving of Herbert shows her holding them. Her literary influence can be seen in literary patronage, in publishing her brother's works and in her own verse forms, dramas, and translations. Contemporary poets who commended Herbert's psalms include Samuel Daniel, Sir John Davies, John Donne,
Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London.
Early life
Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost nothin ...
,
Sir John Harington,
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
,
Emilia Lanier
Emilia Lanier (also Aemilia or Amelia Lanyer, 1569–1645), ''née'' Aemilia Bassano, was an English poet and the first woman in England to assert herself as a professional poet, through her volume ''Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum'' (''Hail, God, King ...
and
Thomas Moffet. The importance of these is evident in the devotional lyrics of
Barnabe Barnes
Barnabe Barnes (c. 1571 – 1609) was an English poet. He is known for his Petrarchan love sonnets and for his combative personality, involving feuds with other writers and culminating in an alleged attempted murder.
Early life
The third son ...
,
Nicholas Breton
Nicholas Breton (also Britton or Brittaine) (c. 1545/53 – c. 1625/6) was a poet and prose writer of the English Renaissance.
Life
Nicholas belonged to an old family settled at Layer Breton, Essex. His father, William Breton, a London merchant ...
,
Henry Constable
Henry Constable (1562 – 9 October 1613) was an English poet, known particularly for ''Diana'', one of the first English sonnet sequences. In 1591 he converted to Catholicism, and lived in exile on the continent for some years. He returned to E ...
, Francis Davison,
Giles Fletcher
Giles Fletcher (also known as Giles Fletcher, The Younger) (1586? – Alderton, Suffolk, 1623) was an English cleric and poet chiefly known for his long allegorical poem ''Christ's Victory and Triumph'' (1610).
Life
Fletcher was the younge ...
, and
Abraham Fraunce
Abraham Fraunce (c. 1558/1560 – c. 1592/1593) was an English poet.
Life
A native of Shropshire, he was born between 1558 and 1560. His name appears in a list of pupils of Shrewsbury School in January 1571, and he joined St John's College, Camb ...
. Their influence on the later religious poetry of Donne,
George Herbert
George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was an English poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as "one of the foremost British devoti ...
,
Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan (17 April 1621 – 23 April 1695) was a Welsh metaphysical poet, author and translator writing in English, and a medical physician. His religious poetry appeared in ''Silex Scintillans'' in 1650, with a second part in 1655.''Oxfor ...
, and
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
has been critically recognized since Louis Martz placed it at the start of a developing tradition of 17th-century devotional lyricism.
Sidney was instrumental in bringing her brother's ''
An Apology for Poetry
''An Apology for Poetry'' (or ''The Defence of Poesy'') is a work of literary criticism by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney. It was written in approximately 1580 and first published in 1595, after his death.
It is generally believed that he was ...
'' or ''Defence of Poesy'' into print. She circulated the Sidney–Pembroke Psalter in manuscript at about the same time. This suggests a common purpose in their design. Both argued, in formally different ways, for the ethical recuperation of poetry as an instrument for moral instruction — particularly religious instruction. Sidney also took on editing and publishing her brother's ''Arcadia'', which he claimed to have written in her presence as ''The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia''.
Other works
Sydney's closet drama ''Antonius'' is a translation of a French play, ''Marc-Antoine'' (1578) by
Robert Garnier
Robert Garnier (1544 – 20 September 1590) was a French poet and dramatist. He published his first work while still a law-student at Toulouse, where he won a prize (1565) in the Académie des Jeux Floraux. It was a collection of lyrical pi ...
. Mary is known to have translated two other works: ''A Discourse of Life and Death'' by
Philippe de Mornay
Philippe de Mornay (5 November 1549 – 11 November 1623), seigneur du Plessis Marly, usually known as Du-Plessis-Mornay or Mornay Du Plessis, was a French Protestant writer and member of the anti-monarchist '' Monarchomaques''.
Biography
H ...
, published with ''Antonius'' in 1592, and
Petrarch
Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists.
Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited w ...
's ''The Triumph of Death,'' circulated in manuscript. Her original poems include the pastoral "A Dialogue betweene Two Shepheards, Thenot and Piers, in praise of Astrea," and two dedicatory addresses, one to Elizabeth I and one to her own brother Philip, contained in the Tixall manuscript copy of her verse psalter. An elegy for Philip, "The dolefull lay of Clorinda", was published in ''Colin Clouts Come Home Againe'' (1595) and attributed to Spenser and to Mary Herbert, but Pamela Coren attributes it to Spenser, though also saying that Mary's poetic reputation does not suffer from loss of the attribution.
By at least 1591, the Pembrokes were providing patronage to a
playing company
Play is a range of intrinsically motivated activities done for recreational pleasure and enjoyment. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other higher-functio ...
,
Pembroke's Men
The Earl of Pembroke's Men was an Elizabethan era playing company, or troupe of actors, in English Renaissance theatre. They functioned under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Early and equivocal mentions of a Pembroke's company ...
, one of the early companies to perform works of Shakespeare. According to one account, Shakespeare's company "The King's Men" performed at Wilton at this time.
June and Paul Schlueter published an article in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' of 23 July 2010 describing a manuscript of newly discovered works by Mary Sidney Herbert.
Her poetic
epitaph
An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...
, ascribed to
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
but more likely to have been written in an earlier form by the poets
William Browne and her son William, summarizes how she was regarded in her own day:
Underneath this sable hearse,
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.
Death, ere thou hast slain another
Fair and learned and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.
Her literary talents and aforementioned family connections to Shakespeare has caused her to be nominated as one of the many claimants named as the true author of the works of William Shakespeare in the
Shakespeare authorship question
Image:ShakespeareCandidates1.jpg, alt=Portraits of Shakespeare and four proposed alternative authors, Oxford, Bacon, Derby, and Marlowe (clockwise from top left, Shakespeare centre) have each been proposed as the true author.
poly 1 1 105 1 1 ...
.
[Williams, Robin P. ''Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?'' Wilton Circle Press, 2006.]
In popular culture
Mary Sidney appears as a character in
Deborah Harkness
Deborah Harkness (born 1965) is an American scholar and novelist, best known as an historian and as the author of the All Souls Trilogy, which consists of ''The New York Times'' best-selling novel ''A Discovery of Witches'' and its sequels '' ...
's novel "
Shadow of Night
''Shadow of Night'' is a 2012 historical-fantasy novel by American scholar Deborah Harkness, the second book in the ''All Souls'' trilogy. As the sequel to the 2011 bestseller, ''A Discovery of Witches'', it follows the story of Diana Bishop, a hi ...
", which is the second instalment of her "All Souls" trilogy. Sidney is portrayed by
Amanda Hale
Amanda Hale (born 2 October 1982) is a British actress.
Early life
Hale is one of four children born to Irish immigrant parents in northwest London. Her cousin is scientist Martin Glennie. She had been due to go to Oxford University to study ...
in the second season of the
television adaptation of the book.
Ancestry
Related pages
*
Philip Sidney
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek language, Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philip ...
*
Isabella Whitney
Isabella Whitney (most likely born between 1546 and 1548, died after 1624); fl. 1566–1600) was arguably the first female poet and professional woman writer in England. More specifically, Whitney is credited with being the first Englishwoman to h ...
*
Sidney Psalms
*
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for ''The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of ...
*
Samuel Daniel
Samuel Daniel (1562–1619) was an English poet, playwright and historian in the late- Elizabethan and early- Jacobean eras. He was an innovator in a wide range of literary genres. His best-known works are the sonnet cycle ''Delia'', the epi ...
Notes
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"The Works of Mary (Sidney) Herbert" (for some of the original texts and Psalms) luminarium.org; accessed 27 March 2014.
Project Continua: Biography of Mary Sidney
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidney, Mary
1561 births
1621 deaths
16th-century English nobility
16th-century English poets
16th-century English women writers
16th-century English writers
17th-century English poets
17th-century English women writers
17th-century English writers
Deaths from smallpox
Pembroke, Mary Sidney
English women poets
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
Infectious disease deaths in England
People from Bewdley
People from Houghton Conquest
Renaissance writers
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
Translators of the Bible into English
Translators to English
Burials at Salisbury Cathedral
Female Bible Translators