Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1561–1621)

Verse

‘Even now that Care which on thy Crowne attends’

A dedicatory verse epistle to Queen Elizabeth. First published in Whole Workes of Samuel Daniel (London, 1623). Collected Works, I, 102-4.

PeM 1

Copy in: A manuscript of The Psalms of David, i + 145 folio leaves, in contemporary vellum richly gilt, the volume possibly prepared for presentation to Queen Elizabeth. Late 16th century.

Formerly in the library of Walter Aston (1583-1639), Baron Aston of Forfar, of Tixall, Staffordshire, diplomat. Bequeathed by Dr Bent Juel-Jensen (1922-2006), Oxford physician and book collector.

David Vaisey, [no shelfmark], ff. 1r-2v.

The Psalmes of David

Collected Works, Vol. II.

See SiP 72-88.

To the Angell spirit of the most excellent Sir Philip Sidney (‘To thee pure sprite, to thee alone's addres't’)

Collected Works, I, 110-12 (a variant text on pp. 113-15).

See SiP 81.

PeM 2

Copy in: the MS described under PeM 1. Late 16th century.

Facsimile in Noel Kinnamon, ‘The Sidney Psalms: The Penshurst and Tixall Manuscripts’, EMS, 2 (1990), 139-61 (p. 145).

David Vaisey, [no shelfmark], ff. 3r-4v.

The Triumph of Death (‘That gallant Ladie, gloriously bright’)

Collected Works, I, 273-82.

PeM 3

Copy, in an italic hand, headed ‘The Triumph of death translated out of Italian by the Countesse of Pembrooke’. Early 17th century.

In: A folio composite volume of state tracts and miscellaneous papers, in various largely professional hands, 480 leaves, in red morocco gilt.

Edited from this MS in Collected Works. Also in The triumph of death, and other unpublished and uncollected poems by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, 1561-1621, ed. G.F. Waller (Salzburg, 1977), and in ‘The Triumph of Death: A critical edition in modern spelling of The Countess of Pembroke's translation of Petrarch's Trionfo della Morte’, ed. Gavin Alexander, Sidney Journal, 17/1 (Spring 1999), 2-18.

Inner Temple Library, Petyt MS 538, Vol. 43, ff. 286r-9r.

Poems of Uncertain Authorship

The Countesse of Pembrokes meditation & sonnet (‘Out of ye depth of all afflictions smart’)

First published, and attributed to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in Schleuter (2010).

PeM 4

Copy in: A folio verse miscellany, comprising 162 poems in English, in a single hand, 273 pages, in brown morocco gilt. c.late 1640s.

Formerly (before 1686) in the Palatine Library at Heidelberg. Possibly acquired by Charles Louis (1617-80), Elector Palatine, while at the English court of his uncle, Charles I, from 1635 to 1649.

This volume discovered, and announced in the TLS, 23 July 2010, pp. 14-15, by June Schleuter and Paul Schleuter.

Landesbibliothek Kassel, 2o Ms. poet. et roman. 4, pp. 50-4.

Of a little River in Oxfordshire neare Kiddington (‘By silver'd streams sweet murmur, sad delight’)

First published, and attributed to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in Schleuter (2010).

PeM 5

Copy in: the MS described under PeM 4. c.late 1640s.

Edited from this MS in Schleuter.

Landesbibliothek Kassel, 2o Ms. poet. et roman. 4, pp. 54-5.

Of a little spring hard by Kiddington house which droppes out of a Rock (‘Teare-like from aged Rocks incased side’)

First published, and attributed to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in Schleuter (2010).

PeM 6

Copy in: the MS described under PeM 4. c.late 1640s.

Edited from this MS in Schleuter.

Landesbibliothek Kassel, 2o Ms. poet. et roman. 4, pp. 55-6.

Of the River Bankes between Meziers & Liege (‘So huge, so faire so goodly to behold’)

First published, and attributed to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in Schleuter (2010).

PeM 7

Copy in: the MS described under PeM 4. c.late 1640s.

Edited from this MS in Schleuter.

Landesbibliothek Kassel, 2o Ms. poet. et roman. 4, p. 57.

Upon the death of the Countesse of Rutland daughter to Sr Philip Sydney (‘That thou art dead (faire life) & cannot dye’)

First published, and attributed to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in Schleuter (2010).

PeM 8

Copy in: the MS described under PeM 4. c.late 1640s.

Edited from this MS in Schleuter.

Landesbibliothek Kassel, 2o Ms. poet. et roman. 4, pp. 56-7.

Prose

A Discourse of Life and death, written in French by Ph. Mornay. sieur du Plessis Marly

Collected Works, I, 229-54.

See RiE 1.

Letters

Letter(s)

*PeM 10

Autograph letter signed, to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, [c.15 August 1578]. 1578.

In: Composite volume of papers.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 285.

The Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Dudley Papers, Vol. 2, f. 187.

*PeM 11

Autograph letter signed, to the Countess's sister-in-law Barbara, Lady Sidney, from Wilton, 9 September 1590 (altered from 1591). 1591.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, in nine secretary and italic hands, 42 leaves (including blanks), in old marbled boards within modern reversed calf. Late 1580s.

Inscribed names (on front pastedown) ‘John [?]roper’ and (f. 40r) ‘ffraunces [?]ington of the [?]’. Later owned by Benjamin Heywood Bright (1830-84), merchant and author (with a note by him on f. 39r). Sotheby's, 18 June 1844 (Bright sale), lot 240.

This MS (the ‘Bright MS’) described in Ringler, pp. 538-9.

Edited in Collected Works, I, p. 286. Facsimile in W.W. Greg et al., English Literary Autographs, 1550-1650, 3vols (Oxford, 1925-32), No. XLII(a).

British Library, Add. MS 15232, f. 1.

PeM 12

Copy of a letter by the Countess of Pembroke, to Sir Edward Wotton, 1594. 1594.

In: A volume of state papers and correspondence, including original letters by Francis Bacon.

Volume IV of the papers of Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), political intelligencer, subsequently among the collections of Thomas Tenison (1636-1715), Archbishop of Canterbury.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 286-7.

Lambeth Palace Library, MS 650, f. 346r.

*PeM 13

A brief letter by the Countess of Pembroke, in the hand of an amanuensis, with her autograph subscription and signature, to John Thynne, 1 October 1595. 1595.

In: A folio composite volume of papers.

Edited, with a facsimile, in Steven W. May, ‘Two Unpublished Letters by Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke’, EMS, 9 (2000), 88-97.

The Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Thynne Papers, Vol. VI, f. 311r.

*PeM 14

Letter in the hand of an amanuensis, with the Countess of Pembroke's autograph signature, to Julius Caesar, from Wilton, 1 June 1596. 1596.

In: A folio composite volume of state letters. Comprising papers of Sir Julius Caesar (1558-1636), Master of the Rolls.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 287.

British Library, Add. MS 12506, f. 235r .

*PeM 15

Autograph letter signed by the Countess of Pembroke and by her husband Henry Herbert, and on his behalf, to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, [1596?]. 1596?.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 288, and also in Margaret P. Hannay, ‘Unpublished Letters by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke’, Spenser Studies, 6 (1986), 165-90 (pp. 166-7), with a facsimile. A facsimile also in Sotheby's sale catalogue 21 July 1983, lot 7 (on p. 8).

Princeton, RTC01 Box 13, fl. 3.

*PeM 16

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cecil, from Wilton, 29 September 1597. 1597.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 290.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Cecil Papers 55/81.

*PeM 17

Autograph letter signed, to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 16 August 1597. 1597.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 288-9.

National Archives, Kew, SP 12/264/85.

*PeM 18

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Cecil, August 1597. 1597.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 289-90.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Cecil Papers 55/6.

*PeM 19

Autograph letter signed, to Queen Elizabeth, 1601. 1601.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 290-2.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Cecil Papers 90/147.

*PeM 20

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Robert Sidney, from Cardiff Castle, 3 August 1602. 1602.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 292-3.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Cecil Papers 94/106.

*PeM 21

Letter by the Countess of Pembroke, in the hand of an amanuensis, with her autograph signature, to Sir Julius Caesar, from Windsor, 4 July 1603. 1603.

In: A folio volume of state letters and papers.

Papers of Sir Julius Caesar (1558-1636), Master of the Rolls.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 293-4, and also in Margaret P. Hannay, ‘Unpublished Letters by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke’, Spenser Studies, 6 (1986), 165-90 (pp. 170-2).

British Library, Add. MS 12503, ff. 150r, 153v.

*PeM 22

Letter by the Countess of Pembroke, in the hand of an amanuensis, with her autograph signature and postscript, to Sir Julius Caesar, from Burham, 8 July 1603. 1603.

In: the MS described under PeM 21.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 294-5, and also in Margaret P. Hannay, ‘Unpublished Letters by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke’, Spenser Studies, 6 (1986), 165-90 (p. 172). Facsimile in W. W. Greg et al., English Literary Autographs, 1550-1650, 3 vols (Oxford, 1925-32), No. XLII(b-c).

British Library, Add. MS 12503, f. 151r, 152v.

*PeM 23

Autograph letter signed, to Sir Julius Caesar, 14 July 1603. 1603.

In: the MS described under PeM 21.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 295, and also in Margaret P. Hannay, ‘Unpublished Letters by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke’, Spenser Studies, 6 (1986), 165-90 (p. 173).

British Library, Add. MS 12503, ff. 39r, 40v.

*PeM 24

Letter by the Countess of Pembroke, with her autograph signature, to Sir Julius Caesar, from Greenwich, 6 September 1603. 1603.

In: the MS described under PeM 21.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 295-6, and also in Margaret P. Hannay, ‘Unpublished Letters by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke’, Spenser Studies, 6 (1986), 165-90 (pp. 174-5).

British Library, Add. MS 12503, ff. 42r, 45v.

*PeM 25

Letter by the Countess of Pembroke, in the hand of an amanuensis, with her autograph subscription and signature, to Sir John Thynne, 27 September 1603. 1603.

In: A folio composite volume of papers.

Edited, with a facsimile, in Steven W. May, ‘Two Unpublished Letters by Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke’, EMS, 9 (2000), 88-97.

The Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Thynne Papers, Vol. VII, f. 280r.

*PeM 26

Autograph letter signed, to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, from the Savoy, 29 September 1604. 1604.

In: A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in various hands. Papers of the Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury.

Formerly in the College of Arms, MS Talbot L.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 296-7 (No. XV), and also in Margaret P. Hannay, ‘Unpublished Letters by Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke’, Spenser Studies, 6 (1986), 165-90 (pp. 183-4).

Lambeth Palace Library, MS 3202, f. 259r.

*PeM 27

Autograph letter signed, to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, from Ditchley, 27 July 1607. 1607.

Edited in Collected Works, II, 297-8.

The Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House, Cecil Papers 122/43.