ABSTRACT
Mary Sidney (1561-1621) was a member of one of the most illustrious families of the English Renaissance.1 It was not that the Sidneys were particularly wealthy or aristocratic in comparison with other Elizabethan and Jacobean nobles, but that in the field of culture and intellect they were recognized as pre-eminent. Mary's siblings included Sir Philip Sidney, who was idealized as the exemplary courtier, excelling in martial, diplomatic and literary skills, and Robert Sidney, who was a less well-known poet and the father of Lady Mary Wroth whose play, Love's Victory, is included in this collection. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mary Sidney herself was a renowned patron of the arts, and an accomplished editor, translator and author in her own right. She was educated with her brothers at Penshurst, the Sidney home, where she learned the French, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages which were to provide a basis for the numerous translations she would undertake in adult life. As a Renaissance noblewoman, however, she was expected above all to make a successful marriage, and in 1575, a year after attending Elizabeth I's court, she became the bride of Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. She was 15 years old; he was 50.
