2.7: Mary Sidney Herbert Spenser and Her "Doleful Lay"

Mary Sidney Herbert Spenser, best known as Mary Sidney Herbert or the Countess of Pembroke, was a prolific writer during Elizabethan times. She knew how to navigate the complexities of being a woman writer during her time. As shown in this brief biography of Herbert, she made many important contributions to English literature including translations from French and Italian to put emphasis on English as a language. She also experimented with the pastoral tradition in her elegies, created metric translations of biblical psalms, and subverted the genre of the lay as she does in the poem we are reading and discussing. Here is a brief overview of her life and familial connections:

Book Minute: Mary Sidney Herbert, The Countess of Pembroke

Video produced by Museum of the Bible, all rights reserved. It is not openly licensed but freely available to all. This version has auto-captioning, which may have errors. Click the CC button at the bottom of this alternate version to access accurate captions: Book Minute: Mary Sidney Herbert, The Countess of Pembroke with corrected captions.

 Please carefully read "The Doleful Lay of Clorinda" and consider the following questions as you read:

1. As we saw in “The Lay of Sir Launfal,” Lays are generally considered a genre which focuses on chivalry and romance. How does Mary Sidney Herbert subvert this genre in her poem?
2. In “Doleful Lay,” Mary Sidney Herbert names the speaker who is clearly a woman. How did she give Clorinda a distinctively female gendered voice?
3. How does Mary Sidney Herbert use nature imagery in “Doleful Lay?” To what degree, if any, is it idealized and/or allegorized?

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