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Mary Sidney

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Countess of Pembroke, poet, and literary patron

WritersLived 1561 to 1621 · aged 59

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Fame50.0

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Languages18

Peak2010s

In century#816

Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke was among the first Englishwomen to gain notice for her poetry and her literary patronage.

Also inDeutsch

Photos 3

The title page of Sidney's The Tragedy of Antony, her interpretation of the story of Mark Antony and Cleopatra.

First page of As You Like It from the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays; the first performance of the play may have been at Mary Sidney's house at Wilton

In their orbit 7

SpouseHenry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

FatherHenry Sidney

MotherMary Dudley, Lady Sidney

ChildPhilip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke

ChildWilliam Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke

SiblingPhilip Sidney

SiblingRobert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester

Nearby in writers 6

William Shakespeare94.4

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe94.3

About this person

Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke was among the first Englishwomen to gain notice for her poetry and her literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed with her brother Philip Sidney and with Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare among the notable authors of the day in John Bodenham's verse miscellany Belvidere. Her play Antonius is widely seen as reviving interest in soliloquy based on classical models and as a likely source of Samuel Daniel's closet drama Cleopatra (1594) and of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1607). She was also known for translating Petrarch's "Triumph of Death", for the poetry anthology Triumphs, and above all for a lyrical, metrical translation of the Psalms.