Mary Sidney

Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke was among the first Englishwomen to gain major repute for her poetry and literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed along with her brother Philip Sidney and with Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare among the notable authors of the day in John Bodenham's verse miscellany Belvidere. Her play Antonius is widely recognized as reviving interest in soliloquy based on classical models and as one likely source of Samuel Daniel's closet drama Cleopatra (1594) and of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1607). She was also known for translating Petrarch's "Triumph of Death," for the poetry anthology Triumphs, and above all for a lyrical translation of the Psalms.