Robert+and+William

First wife Barbara Gamage and six of their twelve children, including Lady Mary Wroth (second from the right) Sarah Blount, his second wife
 * SIR ROBERT SIDNEY (1563-1626)**

While Robert was on the continent, he got a letter from his father telling him that he encouraged him to be like his elder brother. Philip was nine years older than Robert, and Robert always seemed to be in his shadow, but he also looked up to him a great deal and was upset by his death. It is speculated that Robert never wrote a eulogy for Philip because he was too close to the situation and never felt comfortable to write one. However, much of his work can be seen as a tribute to his brother in that it greatly emulates his style and subject matter. In fact, several of Robert’s poems (Song 17, for example) directly reference Astrophil and Stella. Further, Sonnet 26 references Philip’s death, which Robert would have been able to vividly recall because he was with Philip while he was dying. Comparing Robert’s Song 6 to Song viii of Astrophil and Stella is especially interesting because they both give the woman of the poem a voice. Supposedly, Robert was also a very talented musician, and in a letter that Philip wrote to him he said, “Now sweet brother, take a delight to keep and increase your music, you will not believe what a want I find of it in my Melancholy times.” This has been interpreted in several ways. First, that Philip himself was unsuccessful in music (which has been determined as unlikely) or that Philip simply enjoyed that solace of music when say or lastly that Philip recognized Robert’s talents and missed his music specifically. Generally, music was an important part of the Sidney family, and Robert’s eldest daughter supposedly also had great skill and is commemorated for it in a portrait painted at Penshurst. It is also speculated that Robert’s Song 12 is supposed to go to the tune of a French song “Ou etes vous allees mes belles Amours.” Song 6 also recalls the ballad tradition of pre-Reformation and pre-Renaissance England. The fact that Robert was so familiar with Philip’s work also makes it very evident when Robert differs from Philip in his poetry. He sometimes seems to “consciously differentiate himself.” The biggest difference between the work of the two brothers deals with how they handle the Neoplatonic philosophy of love. Some characteristics of Neoplactonic love are that it “acknowledges love’s heavenly origin,” and involves seeing eternal Beauty. Both of the brothers adhere to these ideas in their work. However, Neoplatonic love also means that love transcends the body, and while Robert follows with this idea, Philip does not submit to it. This is clear in the conflict of love and sexual desire that pervades Astrophil and Stella. Ficino, an Italian author who wrote about Neoplatonic love, greatly influences the brothers. He claimed that beauty involved the soul, body, and voice, as perceived by the mind, sight, and hearing. These ideas are found in Robert’s work especially. Perhaps the fact that Robert married as a young man of 20 while Philip remained unmarried much longer provides some insight into their different views of love. After Barbara’s father died, she was the sole heir of his fortune and was expected to marry. Though Barbara had several suitors throughout her life, she had never showed much interest in them, and supposedly she was around the age of 22 when she finally married Robert. There is some indecision as to whether or not this was an arranged marriage, or if they have been in love and known each other prior to the engagement. There is a possibility that they met while Robert was staying with either his father or his brother or that it was simply an arranged marriage. Either way, the couple seemed to truly love each other and had a happy marriage. For much of the 1590s Robert was away from his family in Flushing in the Low Counties, but he wrote many loving letters to his wife and often wanted her to visit him. Their love never seemed to fade, but Barbara died in May of 1621 at Penshurst. Robert then remarried, but after his death he was buried next to his first wife. Song 6 could allude to the periods of Robert’s absence from Barbara when he was away in Flushing. Further, the diction of his letters of his letters to Barbara matches some of the diction in his poems, suggesting that his wife was the inspiration.
 * Philip and Robert: **
 * Neoplatonic Love: **
 * Robert and Barbara: **

Mary Fitton, William's mistress. He went to jail after impregnating her and refusing to marry her Lady Mary Wroth, William's cousin, had an affair and two children with her
 * WILLIAM HERBERT (1580-1630)**

King James. William was supposedly one of his favorites.


 * Shakespeare's Dedication on his sonnets:**

TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF. THESE.INSUING.SONNETS. Mr.W.H. ALL.HAPPINESSE. AND.THAT.ETERNITIE. PROMISED. BY. OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET. WISHETH. THE.WELL-WISHING. ADVENTURER.IN. SETTING. FORTH.

T.T

Thine, by thy beauty being false to me.

 * Timeline:**

1564: Shakespeare was born 1580: William Herbert was born 1597: Mary may have commissioned Shakespeare to write 17 sonnets for William’s 17th birthday 1600: William has an affair with Mary Fitton and is sent to Fleet prison for impregnating her and refusing to marry her 1601: William is released from prison and barred from court, and becomes the 3rd Earl of Pembroke 1604: William marries Mary Talbot; they don’t have any children 1603: Queen Elizabeth dies, James I takes the throne 1609: Shakespeare’s Sonnets published 1611: William becomes a privy councilor 1614: Believed to be when William began his affair with Lady Mary Wroth, they had two illegitimate children, Catherine and William 1615 – 1625: William is Lord Chamberlain 1626 – 1630: William is Lord Steward 1616: Shakespeare died 1630: William Herbert died

- Genevieve Rupp, Hannah Ledford, Brian Matia