mary herbert, countess of pembroke (née sidney; 27 october 1561 – 25 september 1621) was one of the first english women to achieve a major reputation for her poetry and literary patronage. by the age of 39, she was listed with her brother philip sidney, edmund spenser and william shakespeare as one of the notable authors of her time in the verse miscellany, "belvidere," by john bodenham. the influence of her play "antonius" is widely recognized; it stimulated a revived interest in the soliloquy based on classical models and was a likely source, among others, for both the closet drama "cleopatra" (1594) by samuel daniel and shakespeare's "antony and cleopatra" (1607). sidney was also known for her translation of petrarch's "triumph of death," from the poetry anthology "triumphs", but it is her lyric translation of the psalms that has secured her poetic reputation.