ABSTRACT
Poetry attributed to William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke, is of particular interest for a number of reasons. He was a significant figure in the thriving Stuart literary culture. Praised by Victor Stater as “the best-known patron of his generation,” he was generous to musicians and writers, including Ben Jonson, to whom he gave an annual gift of £20 to buy books (see Celovsky ARC 1:18). While we cannot know if he was in fact the “Mr. W. H.” of Shakespeare’s sonnets (Duncan-Jones 55-69), his identity as one of the two “incomparable brethren” to whom Shakespeare’s first folio was dedicated clearly attests to his vital engagement with contemporary theater. As son to Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, and nephew to Sir Philip Sidney, he was a contributing member of the highly literary Sidney family. Scholarship on writings by his cousin Mary Wroth, who bore him two children (Hannay 252; see Bell ARC 2:5), is creating further interest in his poetry: his poetry-writing avatar Amphilanthus plays a principal role in her highly topical romance The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania, as well as in her poetry sequence Pamphilia to Amphilanthus.1 Finally, his political prominence lends his writings additional significance. He served as Lord Chamberlain under James and Lord Steward under Charles, as well as a member of the Privy Council under both kings. He was elected Chancellor of Oxford University. He exerted substantial influence in Parliament, both in the House of Lords and the House of Commons.2 in addition to these factors, a number of his poems, as discussed below, deserve attention for their high quality as well as for the insights they provide into the various forms of sociality that produced them.
