Recent Studies of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1999–2020)

This essay surveys criticism on Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, from 1999 until 2020. Work in this area has continued to expand over the past two decades along with broader establishment of the field of early modern women’s writing. Shifting away from biographically centered analyses, recent scholarship has demonstrated the formal and stylistic innovation, rich intertextuality, and material history of Pembroke’s writings, as well as Pembroke’s literary influence and the creative significance of her editorial work. Pembroke’s writings also foreground important issues related to form, genre, and textual transmission in the early modern context, including musical performance. The essay concludes by outlining some areas for further work. Pembroke’s engagement with transnational networks warrants further exploration, as does the question of how Pembroke scholarship might further contribute to field-changing conversations about race in premodern studies. Digital scholarship has the potential to further illuminate the complex circulation and reception history of Pembroke’s writings; future scholarly and pedagogical work on Pembroke will likely also be shaped by online tools and modalities expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies that have demonstrated how Pembroke’s writings complicate established categories of gender, form, and authorial and editorial practice are also opening up important avenues for further study in relation to book history, the new formalism, and gender and queer studies. [M.H., K.L., C.D.]