Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
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Mary Sidney Herbert, countess of Pembroke (1561–1621) was educated along with her famous brother, the poet Sir Phillip Sidney. Both studied scripture, rhetoric, and languages including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Mary was the middle child of seven in a family of courtiers. Her father served Queen Elizabeth I as Lord Deputy of Ireland; her mother was a close friend of the Queen,for whom she cared during Elizabeth I’s severe bout of smallpox in 1568, leaving the Queen heavily scarred and afterwards reclusive. Prior to marriage, Mary Sidney Herbert also served at the court of Queen Elizabeth I starting at age 13. At age 15, she became the third wife of Henry Herbert, second earl of Pembroke. As his wife, she raised four children at Wilton House, near Salisbury, while pursuing her own writing and supporting many of the artists of her time. Mary Sidney Herbert died from smallpox in 1621 and is buried next to her husband in Salisbury Cathedral.
Mary Sidney Herbert both translated works from French and wrote original religious poetry. From French, she translated Robert Garnier’s tragedy
She and Sir Phillip collaborated on a translation of the Psalms, which she finished on her own after his death in 1586. He had completed 1–43 and she finished the remaining 107 as adaptations of the original poems (rather than metrical translations) using a huge range of English poetic techniques and weaving in contemporary political and cultural concerns. Her work strongly influenced the religious poets of the 17th century such as John Donne and William Herbert (no relation). Poet John Donne praised the Sydnean Pslams
, as poems that tell us why and teach us how to sing
. The volume of Psalms was presented to Queen Elizabeth in 1601, but it was not printed.
Here are the first four stanzas of her Psalm 52:
Herbert was the first woman in England who received fame as a poet. In her time, she was more well known for her translations, likely because translation was viewed as a more suitable form of literary production for women. Most of her poetry went largely unpublished despite its quality, although it did circulate extensively in manuscript, as John Donne’s comment indicates. Her renown as a poet was assisted by her high status and favor at court.
Mary Sidney Herbert frequently invited poets and writers to the family’s estate. She established the first Continental style literary salon in England—an elite space dedicated to the promotion and discussion of literature and writers whom she and her husband supported as patrons. However, there is no evidence that she was involved with the theater or with William Shakespeare. Her sons, however, were the brothers to whom Shakespeare’s First Folio was dedicated when it was published in 1623.
In addition to inspiring and supervising the publication of her brother’s prose romance—the full title of which is
She was a dedicatee of a large number of literary works in the period, including Aemelia Lanyer’s 1611 poem,