Mary Sidney Herbert Countess of Pembroke

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Mary Sidney wrote with a generation of Protestant women models behind her.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
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But her reputation, even her literary existence, has been eclipsed by the almost mythic fame of her brother Philip. He was older, publicly known, and universally admired even before his death. He published nothing; his writings reached the wider world by passing through the hands of his sister and of their friend Fulke Greville . Her writings encompass wholly independent texts, collaborations with Philip, and her revisions of work by him. The dates at which she wrote them are mostly debatable. But unlike any other Elizabethan noblewoman, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, published her non-religious works as well as her religious. Her work in translation (not only the psalms); and in lyric poetry and heroic drama (perhaps in pastoral romance as well) helped shape the mainstream literary tradition.
  • BirthName: Mary
    She was given this name after an elder sister who had died, as well as after her godmother.
    Sidney
  • Married: Herbert Countess of Pembroke
  • Titled:

Milestones

27 October 1561

Mary Sidney (later Countess of Pembroke) was born at Tickenhall, near Bewdley in Worcestershire.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
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23 August 1588

Mary Sidney 's publisher, William Ponsonby , entered The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (by her brother Philip ) in the Stationers' Register .
The title refers to the fact that the work was addressed to her and not to any claim to authorship.
Sidney, Sir Philip. “Introduction”. The Countesse of Pembroke’s Arcadia, edited by Victor Skretkowicz, Clarendon Press, 1987.
lvi

1590

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke , Fulke Greville , and others published the first printing of the Arcadia by her late brother Philip , perhaps with her editing, up to midway in book three.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
71

26 November 1590

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke , seems to have finished translating and adapting, from the French of Robert Garnier , a Senecan tragedy, Antonius.
Waller, Gary F. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: A Critical Study of Her Writings and Literary Milieu. University of Salzburg, 1979, http://BLC.
20, 107

3 May 1592

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke 's translated tragedy Antonius and her A Discourse of Life and Death were entered in the Stationers' Register by William Ponsonby .
Waller, Gary F. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: A Critical Study of Her Writings and Literary Milieu. University of Salzburg, 1979, http://BLC.
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1593

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke , published a further-revised and expanded version of her brother 's Arcadia.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
71

By 1594

Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke , had completed at least a draft of the metrical translation of the psalms begun by her brother Philip .
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
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“Introduction”. The Psalms of Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke, edited by John C. A. Rathmell, translated by. Sir Philip Sidney and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, New York University Press, 1963, p. xi - xxxii.
xxvi-xxvii

1599

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke , presented a fine copy of the psalms written by herself and her brother to Queen Elizabeth , with a dedication to her.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
95

25 September 1621

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke , died of smallpox in Aldersgate Street, London.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
205

1823

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke 's metrical psalms, written in the sixteenth century, were first printed, in a limited edition, as by her brother Philip .
Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 1985.
898

1877

Ruskin showed his admiration of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke 's psalms (not thinking them hers, but all Philip Sidney 's) by publishing a selection as Rock Honeycomb.
“Introduction”. The Psalms of Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke, edited by John C. A. Rathmell, translated by. Sir Philip Sidney and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, New York University Press, 1963, p. xi - xxxii.
xxiv

1963

Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke 's psalms, written in the sixteenth century, were edited, with her part in them (larger than her brother 's) recognized for the first time.
Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of. “Introduction”. The Triumph of Death, edited by Gary F. Waller, University of Salzburg, 1977, pp. 1-64.
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Biography

Birth and Family

27 October 1561

Mary Sidney (later Countess of Pembroke) was born at Tickenhall, near Bewdley in Worcestershire.
Hannay, Margaret P. Philip’s Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke. Oxford University Press, 1990, http://U of A HSS.
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