Mary Sidney

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, and her literary relations with her time, form a study interesting in proportion to its difficulty. As the daughter of Sir Henry Sidney, and the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, she was in close touch with the chief statesmen as well as with the chief writers of the late sixteenth century. As an author on her own account - a fair poet and an excellent translator - she also challenges our at tention. More than all, however, she is significant because of her attitude toward letters and scholarship. Admirably cultivated herself, she set a high value, apparently, on culture, and especially on creative power, in others. Finally, she possessed the rank and wealth essential in her age to the successful patron of literature.