Born: 27 October 1561, United Kingdom
Died: 25 September 1621
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Mary Herbert
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, was a distinguished Englishwoman known for her poetry and literary support.
By the age of 39, she gained recognition alongside her brother, Philip Sidney, as well as renowned authors Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare, listed in John Bodenham’s Belvidere collection.
Mary Herbert’s play, “Antonius,” is credited with revitalizing soliloquies based on classical models and influencing Samuel Daniel’s “Cleopatra” (1594) and Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” (1607). She was also known for her translation of Petrarch’s “Triumph of Death,” contributions to the poetry anthology “Triumphs,” and her metrical translation of the Psalms.
Mary Sidney transformed Wilton House into the “Wilton Circle,” hosting literary figures like Edmund Spenser, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, and Sir John Davies. Her patronage earned her the reputation of the greatest supporter of wit and learning in her time.
Her literary influence extended to editing her brother’s “Arcadia” and advocating for the ethical use of poetry for religious instruction.
Mary Herbert’s contributions to English literature, combined with her ties to Shakespeare, have led to her consideration in the Shakespeare authorship question.
The following is excerpted from The Learned Lady in England 1650-1760 by Myra Reynolds, published in 1920.
The one lady of Elizabethan days whose fame justly exceeds that of any of her predecessors is Mary Sidney (1561-1621), sister of Sir Philip Sidney. At sixteen she married Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, and the twenty-four years of her married life were passed at his estate, Wilton House, in Wiltshire. Her brother Philip was often at Wilton and her more important literary accomplishments are closely bound up with his work. It was at Wilton that he wrote The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia which he dedicated to his “dear ladie and sister.” The brother and sister translated together the whole book of Psalms into English verse. Psalms 44-150 are attributed to Lady Pembroke. In 1592 she published two translations from the French, Du Plessis Mournay’s Le Excellent Discours de la Vie et de la Mort; and Robert Garnier’s Marc Antonie, a tragedy. Before 1600 she had also translated The Triumph of Death from the Italian. In 1593 she brought out her brother’s Arcadia on which she had done most careful editorial work. She had also a taste for science. Aubrey, in his Brief Lives, says of her: “She was a great chymist, and spent yearly a great deale in that study. She kept for her laborator in the house Adrian Gilbert (vulgarly called Dr. Gilbert), half brother to Sir Walter Ralegh, who was a great chymist in those dayes…. She also gave an honourable pension to Dr. Thomas Mouffett, who hath writ a booke De insectis. Also one… Boston, a good chymist… who did undoe himself by studying the philosopher’s stone.”
But while Lady Pembroke takes undoubtedly a high rank as translator and editor, her fame does not rest chiefly on this work. When Nicholas Breton compared her to the Duchess of Urbino he brought forward her essential claim to distinction, which is that she understood, valued, and befriended the literati of her day. Aubrey says: “In her time Wilton House was like a College, there were so many learned and ingeniose persons. She was the greatest patronesse of witt and learning of any lady in her time.” The most extravagant eulogies were addressed to her from girlhood to old age. No such chorus of praise had been accorded any other woman except the queen. But it must be noted that this adulation is mainly for Lady Pembroke as the patroness of letters. Only incidentally are her own scholastic attainments commended. It was as a lover of wit and learning, as a dispenser of favors, that Lady Pembroke, the typical great lady of Elizabethan days, expressed her interest in learning, rather than as herself a scholar; and it was as an intelligent and open-handed patroness that she received highest recognition.