PSALMS: Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke

The Psalms composed, revised and revisited by Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, in the period after her brother Philip’s death, and prior to the compilation of the presentation copy prepared for the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Wilton in 1599, are themselves an extended act of reception. The long and complex history of these intriguing and challenging texts begins in the very moment(s) of their creation, as Mary Sidney completed and revised what her illustrious brother had begun, “but hee did warpe, I weav’d this webb to end” (“Even now that Care”, l.27). Despite a significant body of criticism and extensive editorial work, accelerated notably by the catalysts of feminist, historicist, and textual criticism, it seems fair to say that a variety of circumstances have conspired to sequester these remarkable poems, even within the canon of Renaissance literature, where their place now seems relatively secure (Quitslund 2005, 83).