ABSTRACT
“To the Angell spirit …” is one of just four known original poems by Mary Sidney. 1 The bulk of her writing fell within the parameters of translation and religious paraphrase which were considered culturally acceptable literary activities for women during her time. However, her verse-paraphrases of Psalms 44–150, which completed a project initially conceived and begun by her brother Philip Sidney would be more rightly termed “imitations” in the classical sense, as they surpass the literalism of her translations of Robert Garnier s Antonie and Philippe de Mornay s Discourse of Life and Death. In Mary Sidney’s verse-translations of the Psalms, she conflated the voice of the psalmist with her own by adding original comparisons and elaborations which reconstructed the matter of the Psalms in a style and context that would illuminate the issues of her contemporary society as well as have personal application to her own spiritual welfare. For her imagery she drew from her public experiences as a woman of responsibility, influence, and power (first as daughter to Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland, and as a youthful lady-in-waiting at Elizabeth’s court, and then as wife to the earl of Pembroke). She also drew upon her private perceptions as a woman and a mother to transform her paraphrases of the Psalms into individual exercises in meditation. 2
