Mary Sidney - Life and Work

Life and Work

Mary Sidney was highly educated in the humanist tradition. In the 16th century, noblewomen were educated to enable them to have a good understanding of theological issues and the classics, to interpret original texts and, if necessary, to deputize for their husbands. Her education enabled her to translate Petrarch's "Triumph of Death" and several other European works. She had a keen interest in chemistry and set up a chemistry laboratory at Wilton House, run by Walter Raleigh's half-brother. She also had an interest in making medicines.

She was interested in musical codes and invisible ink. She turned Wilton into a "paradise for poets", known as "The Wilton Circle" which included Edmund Spenser, Michael Drayton, Sir John Davies and Samuel Daniel, a salon-type literary group sustained by the Countess's hospitality. Her aim shared with her brother Sir Philip Sidney was to strengthen and classicise the English language and to support "true" religion, which, in their view, combined Calvinism, the principles of Castiglione, and acts of charity. She was herself a Calvinist theologian and her public persona (at least) was pious, virtuous and learned. She was regarded a muse by Samuel Daniel in his poem "Delia" (an anagram for ideal).

Mary Sidney was said to inspire creativity in all those around her, including her circle, relatives and servants. Philip Sidney wrote much of his "Arcadia" for her, and in her presence, at Wilton House. Before his death, Philip Sidney was engaged in preparing a new English version of the Book of Psalms (because the translations under Edward VI were deficient). He had completed 43 of the 150 Psalms at the time of his death during a military campaign against the Spanish in the Netherlands in 1586. She finished Philip's translation of the Psalms, composing Psalms 44-150 in a dazzling array of verse forms, using the 1560 Geneva Bible and commentaries by John Calvin and Theodore Beza. As a competent theologian, she was unafraid to disagree with Calvin on minor points. A copy of the completed Psalms was presented to Elizabeth I of England in 1599. This work is usually referred to as "The Sidney Psalms" or "The Sidneian Psalms" and is regarded as an important influence on the development of English poetry in the late 16th and early 17th century. John Donne wrote a poem celebrating them. The Psalms were drawn from previous English translations rather than original Hebrew texts and are therefore properly called "metaphrases" rather than translations. Like Philip's, Mary Sidney's versions display a vivid imagination and vigorous phrasing. Mary also took on the task of editing and publishing Philip Sidney's "Arcadia" as The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia, one of the most widely read books in English for the next 200 years.

Mary's husband died in 1600 leaving her, John Aubrey reported, with less financial support than she might have expected (through views on its adequacy vary). Her husband's will required that she did not remarry. Thereafter, her time was spent managing Wilton and the other Pembroke estates, on behalf of her son, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, who entirely took over her role of literary patronage. After James I visited her at Wilton in 1603 and was entertained by Shakespeare's company "The King's Men", Mary moved out of Wilton as Dowager Countess and rented homes in London. Though it is certain that the King's Men attended Wilton, whether William Shakespeare was with them remains unconfirmed. However, it is reported that there was at Wilton at one time, a letter in which the Mary Sidney urged her son to attend Wilton, as "we have the man Shakespeare with us".

From 1609 to 1615 she was probably based at Crosby Hall, now relocated as a private residence relocated to Chelsea, London. She may have secretly married her doctor, Sir Matthew Lister, and she travelled to Spa on the Continent with him, where she relaxed by shooting pistols and played cards. She built a Bedfordshire hunting lodge with fine vistas, Houghton House, now ruined near Milton Keynes), which John Bunyan refers to in his works, as the "House Beautiful".

She died of smallpox at her house in Aldersgate Street, London, shortly after King James I visited her at Houghton Hall. After a grand funeral in St Paul's Cathedral, her body was buried next to that of the Earl, in the family vault, under the steps leading to the choirstalls in Salisbury Cathedral. A plaque on the wall nearby remembers her.