1st Edition
The Ashgate Research Companion to The Sidneys, 1500–1700 Volume 1: Lives
Few families have contributed as much to English history and literature-indeed, to the arts generally-as the Sidney family. This two-volume Ashgate Research Companion assesses the current state of scholarship on family members and their impact, as historical and literary figures, in the period 1500-1700. Volume 1: Lives, begins with an overview of the Sidneys and politics, providing some links to court events, entertainments, literature, and patronage. The volume gives biographies to prominent high-profile Sidney women and men, as well as sections assessing the influence of the family in the areas of the English court, international politics, patronage, religion, public entertainment, the visual arts, and music. The focus of the second volume is the literary contributions of Sir Philip Sidney; Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Lady Mary Wroth; Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester; and William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke.
Biography
Margaret P. Hannay, Professor of English (Emerita) at Siena College, is the author of Mary Sidney, Lady Wroth and Philip's Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke, editor of Silent but for the Word: Tudor Women as Patrons, Translators, and Writers of Religious Works, and editor, with Susanne Woods, of Teaching Tudor and Stuart Women Writers. With Noel J. Kinnamon and Michael G. Brennan, she has edited The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Selected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Domestic Politics and Family Absence: The Correspondence (1588-1621) of Robert Sidney, First Earl of Leicester, and Barbara Gamage Sidney, Countess of Leicester; The Correspondence of Dorothy Percy Sidney, Countess of Leicester; and The Letters (1595-1608) of Rowland Whyte. Michael G. Brennan, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leeds, is the author of Literary Patronage in the English Renaissance: The Pembroke Family, and has edited Lady Mary Wroth's Love's Victory: The Penshurst Manuscript. With Noel Kinnamon he has published A Sidney Chronology: 1554-1654 and has published extensively on Renaissance travel writings, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. With Margaret P. Hannay and Noel J. Kinnamon he has edited The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Selected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; Domestic Politics and Family Absence: The Correspondence (1588-1621) of Robert Sidney, First Earl of Leicester, and Barbara Gamage Sidney, Countess of Leicester; The Correspondence of Dorothy Percy Sidney, Countess of Leicester; and The Letters (1595-1608) of Rowland Whyte. He is also the author of The Sidneys of Penshurst and the Monarchy, 1500-1700. Mary Ellen Lamb is Professor of English (Emerita) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA. She is the author of Gender and Authorship in the Sidney Circle (1990) and The Popular Culture of Shakespeare, Spenser, and Jonson (2006); co-editor of Oral Traditions and Gender in Early Modern Literary Texts (2007) and Staging Early Modern Romance: Prose Fiction, Dramatic Romance, and Shakespeare (2009). She is General Editor of the seven-volume reference library Ashgate Critical Essays on Women Writers in England, 1550-1700 (2009). She has also authored numerous essays on women writers and on Shakespeare in such journals as English Literary Renaissance; Shakespeare Quarterly; Shakespeare Survey; Review of English Studies; and Criticism, as well as in numerous collections. She is currently on the Editorial Board of English Literary Renaissance and is the editor of the Sidney Journal. She is collaborating on an edition of poetry by William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, for the Renaissance English Text Society.
'The Ashgate Research Companion to The Sidneys not only brings the reader up-to-date with current scholarship about the principal members of this talented family, but offers as well new analysis of what is known, new insights into their lives and works, and suggestions for further study. This is an invaluable compendium of current understanding about all major aspects of Sidney research.' Steven W. May, Emory University, USA
