ABSTRACT
In 1575, when she was 15, Mary Sidney entered an arranged marriage with the 50-yearold William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. He was a humanist, patron of the arts, and one of the wealthiest aristocrats in England.1 Her marriage apparently offered her a fair degree of freedom. Various references to her husband suggest that she may even have been the dominant one in the pair.2 Two years after the wedding, young Mary followed her husband to the Pembroke residence at Wilton, the ‘little court in the depths of the country.’ From this post Mary Herbert played a prominent role in the cultural life of England for nearly a quarter of a century. Under her direction, Wilton became a literary centre, comparable to continental literary salons. Friends, literary acquaintances, and prospective protégés visited and sometimes stayed at Wilton to present their work, circulate manuscripts, partake in discussions, and even to watch theatrical performances.3 The milieu included wellknown authors like Daniel, Spenser, Ralegh, Jonson, and John Davies of Hereford, but also minor writers like Abraham Fraunce, Nicholas Breton, Gervase Babington, and Samuel Brandon. Lady Herbert patronized these and other men, though the number of authors to whom she paid more than a token fee has been exaggerated. After the death of her brother, Sir Philip Sidney, she devoted much time to editing and publishing their work. Her own literary accomplishments include several translations-Mornay’s treatise Discourse of Life and Death, Garnier’s play Antonie, Petrarch’s Triumph of Death; a versification of the Psalms, to which her brother Philip had also contributed; and a few original poems-‘A Dialogue between two shepheards,’ ‘The Dolefull Lay of Clorinda,’ ‘To the Angel spirit,’ and ‘Even now that Care.’4
