Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Dorothy Sidney Countess of Sunderland
-
Standard Name: Sunderland, Dorothy Sidney,,, Countess of
Birth Name: Dorothy Sidney
Married Name: Dorothy Spencer, Countes of Sunderland
Nickname: Doll
Nickname: Sacharissa
Used Form: Lady Sunderland
While Dorothy, Countess of Sunderland
, has been known historically as the Sacharissa of Edmund Waller
's poetry, she was also a respected and memorable letter writer. Most of her surviving letters date from her later life, and provide her commentary on the political infighting and social atmosphere of the court of Charles II
, as well as information on her own family and friends. In 1666 a friend referred to her writing as that of the most eloquent pen in England.
Savile, Henry, and George Savile, Marquess of Halifax. Savile correspondence. Editor Cooper, William Durrant, Printed for the Camden Society, 1858.
One of her nieces, Dorothy Sidney later Countess of Sunderland
, became a letter-writer and astute social and political commentator on the Restoration years.
Publishing
Mary Berry
She had been invited to edit and publish these letters by their current owner, the Duke of Devonshire
(to whose sisters she was particularly close). At first this work made an intellectual occupation for her...
Publishing
Lady Rachel Russell
This too went through several editions. The third, 1820, added some letters by another outstanding aristocratic letter-writer of this time, Dorothy Sidney, Countess of Sunderland
.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Among the accompanying poems was The Picture Gallery at Penshurst, which again focuses on the portrait of a woman, Lady Dorothea Sidney, later Lady Sunderland
, the Sacharissa of Edmund Waller
's love poetry...