Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
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Standard Name: Pembroke, Mary Sidney Herbert,,, Countess of
Birth Name: Mary Sidney
Married Name: Mary Herbert
Titled: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Titled: Countess of Pembroke
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, http://U of A HSS.
x
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.
The acclaim that Petrarch won in his lifetime shifted smoothly into a high reputation after his death. The first English author to refer to him was Chaucer
.
Nicholl, Charles. “On the Sixth Day”. London Review of Books, Vol.
41
, No. 3, pp. 23-6.
24
He was a vital inspiration to...
Intertextuality and Influence
Jane Porter
JP
's original dedication invoked the memory of Sir Philip Sidney
, who did not disdain to write a romance and who consigned his excellent Work to the Affection of a Sister
Porter, Jane. Thaddeus of Warsaw. T. N. Longman and O. Rees.
prelims
(thus recognising...
Textual Features
Elizabeth Richardson
She titled this Instructions for my children, or any other Christian, Directing to the performance of our duties, towardes God and man. Her source, she says, is the Bible,
Leigh, Dorothy et al. Women’s Writing in Stuart England. Editor Brown, Sylvia, Sutton.
151
and her principle...
Textual Production
Carol Rumens
Since this year, 2007, CR
has been picking a Poem of the Week for the Guardian newspaper, which prints the poem along with her commentary and analysis. Rumens like to pay attention to context and...
Birth
Sir Philip Sidney
SPS
, poet, fiction-writer, critic, and elder brother of Mary, Countess of Pembroke
, was born at Penshurst Place, near Tonbridge in Kent, the eldest in his family of seven children.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Family and Intimate relationships
Sir Philip Sidney
His mother, Lady Mary Sidney
, was a duke's daughter and sister of two brothers who became earls (one of them, Robert Dudley
, the Earl of Leicester and the favourite of Queen Elizabeth
)...
Occupation
Sir Philip Sidney
In this role he was remarkably versatile: high romance in the Arcadia (written between 1578 and 1582), religious feeling and metrical experiment in the psalms which he began translating with his sister, sophisticated criticism in...
Textual Features
Alice Sutcliffe
After the dedication follow acrostics by AS
on the names of her two dedicatees and on that of the Lord Chamberlain, Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery (who was the husband of Lady Anne Clifford
Textual Production
Emma Jane Worboise
EJW
also wrote novels which respond in similar manner to Charlotte Yonge
's Heartsease; or, The Brother's Wife and Elizabeth Sewell
's Amy Herbert. In each of these (titled respectively Hearts-ease in the Family...
Family and Intimate relationships
Lady Mary Wroth
LMW
's aunt and godmother, Mary, Countess of Pembroke
, was a significant figure in her life. Pembroke wrote to the younger Mary's mother in 1590 sending my blessing to my pretey [sic] Daughter.
Waller, Gary F. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: A Critical Study of Her Writings and Literary Milieu. University of Salzburg, http://BLC.
21
Publishing
Lady Mary Wroth
It was hastily produced, incomplete, with sonnet-sequences attached. Urania occupied 558 tightly-printed pages. The elaborate pictorial title-page engraved by Simon Pass
mentions the names of LMW
's writing uncle
and aunt
together with her own...
Textual Features
Lady Mary Wroth
The play concerns four pairs of lovers persecuted by Cupid and Venus; each pair represents a different kind of love. Again Wroth based many of her characters on actual people, with names thinly disguised. The...
