1. Mary Sidney was known for translating Petrarch's "Triumph of Death", for the poetry anthology Triumphs, and above all for a lyrical, metrical translation of the Psalms.
19 Facts About Mary Sidney
1. 2.
In 1577, Mary Sidney married Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, a close ally of the family.
3.
Mary Sidney was an aunt to the poet Mary Wroth, daughter of her brother Robert.
4.
Mary Sidney had a chemistry laboratory at Wilton House, where she developed medicines and invisible ink.
5.
From 1609 to 1615, Mary Sidney probably spent most of her time at Crosby Hall in London.
6.
Mary Sidney travelled with her doctor, Matthew Lister, to Spa, Belgium in 1616.
7.
Mary Sidney turned Wilton House into a "paradise for poets", known as the "Wilton Circle," a salon-type literary group sustained by her hospitality, which included Edmund Spenser, Samuel Daniel, Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson, and Sir John Davies.
8.
Mary Sidney was the greatest patroness of wit and learning of any lady in her time.
9.
Mary Sidney received more dedications than any other woman of non-royal status.
10.
Mary Sidney was regarded as a muse by Daniel in his sonnet cycle "Delia", an anagram for ideal.
11.
Mary Sidney probably began preparing his English lyric version of the Book of Psalms at Wilton as well.
12.
Philip Mary Sidney had completed translating 43 of the 150 Psalms at the time of his death on a military campaign against the Spanish in the Netherlands in 1586.
13.
Mary Sidney finished his translation, composing Psalms 44 through to 150 in a dazzling array of verse forms, using the 1560 Geneva Bible and commentaries by John Calvin and Theodore Beza.
14.
Mary Sidney was instrumental in bringing her brother's An Apology for Poetry or Defence of Poesy into print.
15.
Mary Sidney took on editing and publishing her brother's Arcadia, which he claimed to have written in her presence as The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia.
16.
Mary Sidney's closet drama Antonius is a translation of a French play, Marc-Antoine by Robert Garnier.
17.
Mary Sidney is known to have translated two other works: A Discourse of Life and Death by Philippe de Mornay, published with Antonius in 1592, and Petrarch's The Triumph of Death, circulated in manuscript.
18.
Mary Sidney appears as a character in Deborah Harkness's novel Shadow of Night, which is the second instalment of her All Souls trilogy.
19.
Mary Sidney is portrayed by Amanda Hale in the second season of the television adaptation of the book.