Extracts from Psalm 119 by Mary Sidney Herbert
Psalm 119 is a remarkable poetic work. It contains 176 verses which are arranged in 22 groups, each octave beginning with a separate letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Mary Sidney …
Course: Penshurst Place and the Sidney Family of Writers
Penshurst Palace Literature: “Love’s Victory”
In this article, we will read Act 5 Scene 1 of Love’s Victory to find out how Musella and Philisses react when their love is threatened by an arranged marriage. …
Summary of Week 3
This week we ventured into the relatively unfamiliar territory of household theatre and the Sidney writers’ composition of drama, with several of you drawing comparisons to Austen’s depiction of household …
Plot summary of “Love’s Victory”
You have already looked at Venus and Cupid and at one of the songs in from Lady Mary Wroth’s play “Love’s Victory”. This article gives you a sense of the …
The Tragedy of Antony -Cleopatra’s scene with her children
Here, we study a scene from Mary Sidney Herbert’s translation “The Tragedy of Antony” by reading it and making notes. She based her translation on the 1585 edition of the …
Summary of Week 2
Thank you all for your comments on the activities we have covered this week on the Sidneys and love, a theme that has covered poetry and drama. The topic provoked …
Design a costume for Venus or Cupid
Design a costume for Venus and/or Cupid in Wroth’s play. Draw, paint or create a collage of pre-drawn clothes, hairstyles, or create a digital image. You can set your design …
Summary of Week 1
Thank you all for your comments, It is exciting to see so much curiosity about the Sidneys, their writing, and the historical contexts from which they wrote. It is also …
First Impressions: The Sidneys and Penshurst
Now that you have spent some time examining the work of the Sidney family, please share your thoughts by posting to the comments section below. How important do you think …
Venus and Cupid – the Gods of Love
How were Venus and Cupid envisaged when the Sidneys were writing? Read this short introduction by Alison Findlay and look at the paintings in the related files below (as pdfs) …
Iphigenia’s speech of self-sacrifice
In this step you will see how Iphigenia responds to the demand on her life. Read through Iphigenia’s speech below in which she willingly embraces the role of sacrifice to …
Additional Resources
We hope you have enjoyed learning about the men and women of the Sidney family, about their writing and family home and church in Penshurst. You can find out more …
Cousins in Love: Penshurst Mount Poems
In this step we will find out how Lady Mary Wroth’s writings about love, including the sonnnets you have just read, are intimately bound up with her real-life romance with …
William Herbert
In this step, we find out more about William Herbert and his writing from Professor Mary Ellen Lamb, who is currently editing his poetry. In addition to his Penshurst Mount …
Petrarch and the Sidneys: An interview with Professor Gary Waller
How did the Sidney writers makes use of the Petrarchan tradition? Watch this interview in which Professor Gary Waller (State University of New York) explains. Take note of phrases or …
These articles are from the online course:
Penshurst Place and the Sidney Family of Writers