Together with her brother she wrote a version of the Psalms, and on her own account a poem in celebration of Queen Elizabeth. As a centre of intellectual thought and literary life, Mary Sidney, when, in 1576, she became the wife of Henry Earl of Pembroke, and mistress of his establishment at Wilton, may be compared with Lady Holland or Lady Blessington. Poets and statesmen gathered at her hospitable board, for at Wilton Place a stately magnificence was maintained. Had the Countess of Pembroke been merely a lady of rank, she would not have left her mark on an age when there were so many illustrious names. But her cultivation of mind made her the fit companion of the greatest intellects of the day. It is no small thing to have entertained Shakespeare, to have had Ben Jonson as a familiar guest, besides lesser poets such as Massinger and Daniel, a poet laureate of Elizabethan days, who was a great admirer of her talents. Sir Philip Sidney was much attached to his distinguished sister, to whom he dedicated his “Arcadia.” It was a grief to both that in after-life they were so much separated. Dr. Donne, another poet, but more eminent as a divine, was a friend whom Mary Sidney much esteemed. It was less for what she did than for what she was that Mary Sidney is celebrated. Her great nobility of character made her pre-eminent, and her influence on her contemporaries was very marked.
There was no affectation of ignorance among the learned women of the sixteenth century. Learning among women was held in esteem. It was not thought unfeminine to speak good Latin, write correct Greek, or translate from Hebrew. Unusual and extraordinary it was undoubtedly deemed for women to show fine scholarship, but it was an unusual and extraordinary merit. The absurd notion that the acquisition of knowledge, or intellectual ability, are things to be ashamed of, was one of the base products of eighteenth-century sentimentalism.
When we think of the great difficulties in the way of learning in the sixteenth century, we cannot but wonder at the assiduity and patience of the scholars of that period, both men and women. There were no primers, exercise-books, or well-printed dictionaries of the classical languages into English. Grammars were scarce, and were sometimes composed by the tutors for their pupils. There were no carefully prepared passages for translation with notes and explanations. The scholar had to go straight to the original, and ferret out the meaning unaided. Latin was the common medium of communication between scholars and the polite world generally. At a time when every one with any pretensions to education understood Latin, the standard of good scholarship must have been fairly high, and when we find the daughters of Sir Anthony Coke and Sir Thomas More, and other ladies, commended for their pure Latin, we feel that the encomium was well deserved, as a moderate degree of proficiency would not have attracted notice.
The learned ladies of the sixteenth century possessed the advantage of having their attention concentrated on a few subjects. French and Italian were commonly learned by the daughters of the nobility, and these comparatively easy studies were facilitated by the constant application to the classics. Music ranked with dancing and ornamental needlework as an accomplishment. It was a fashionable study for both sexes among the highest classes. Italy then was to England, in musical matters, what Germany has since become; but there were also English composers, among whom Henry VIII. himself was included. Vocal music was extremely popular, instrumental music being in a comparatively elementary stage. The English in the sixteenth century seem to have been a very music-loving people; Erasmus says, “The most accomplished in the skill of music of any people;” and the degree to which it was practised at court in the time of Henry VIII. may be guessed from the fact that singing at sight was then a common accomplishment among the courtiers. Counterpoint was studied by those who aspired to be connoisseurs; but musical literature was very scanty, and the repertorium available for the lute and the mandoline, the clavichord, or the virginals, must soon have been exhausted.
There was less arithmetic, history, and geography taught than is now imparted in board schools to the poorest. The curriculum for a lady of rank did not include many things which have now become matters of common knowledge among the children of the working classes. On the other hand, the education, if narrow according to modern ideas, was thorough, and without the stimulus of college life, of competitive examinations, without the prospect of rewards and honours in the shape of degrees, the attainments of women in the sixteenth century in the subjects to which they had access, were of a high order, and their knowledge of the classics was more intimate and exact than that produced by the higher education of the nineteenth century.
Learning was necessarily confined to women of position and wealth, who could afford the luxury of private tutors and the equally great luxury of books. There were, doubtless, here and there families of lower rank whose daughters would have borne favourable comparison with the titled ladies who are so conspicuous. But wide diffusion of knowledge and a high standard of education among women generally, if it existed, did not excite notice among contemporary writers as did the studious habits of the upper classes. Udall, the master of Eton in Queen Mary’s reign, speaks with admiration of—
“the great number of noble women at that time in England, not only given to the study of human sciences and strange tongues, but also so thoroughly expert in Holy Scriptures that they were able to compare with the best writers, as well in enditeing and penning of godly and fruitful treatises to the instruction and edifying of realmes in the knowledge of God, as also in translating good books out of Latin or Greek into English for the use and commodity of such as are rude and ignorant of the said tongues. It was now no news in England to see young damsels in noble houses and in the courts of princes, instead of cards and other instruments of idle trifling, to have continually in their hands either psalms, homilies, and other devout meditations, or else Paul’s Epistles or some book of Holy Scripture matters, and as familiarly both to read and reason thereof in Greek, Latin, French, or Italian as in English. It was now a common thing to see young virgins so trained in the study of good letters that they willingly set all other vain pastimes at naught for learning sake. It was now no news at all to see Queens and ladies of most high estate and progeny, instead of courtly dalliance, to embrace virtuous exercises of reading and writing, and with most earnest study both early and late to apply themselves to the acquiring of knowledge, as well in all other liberal artes and disciplines, as also most especially of God and his holy word.”
Erasmus, in one of his discourses, gives us a glimpse of the view taken by the Church of female scholarship. He introduces a conversation between an abbot and a learned woman. The abbot contends that women would never be kept in subjection if they were learned. They would become wiser than men. “Therefore it is a wicked mischievous thing to revive the ancient custom of educating them.”[40]
Taken in conjunction with a remark of Erasmus in one of his letters, it is doubtful whether after all he did not deem learning wasted on women. Describing Sir Thomas More, he says, “He is wise with the wise, and jests with fools—with women especially, and his wife among them.”