For use in class by Emily Buffey

II

2023-10-26 12:39:05 UTC

The Renaissance period involved many forms of imitation and translation in poetic works, and The Sidney Psalter is a prime example of this. While they are working off of a multifaceted and layered source, they add their own interpretation and voice into a longstanding collection of work. They were able to cohesively bring the Psalter into English, as well as include a female interpretation of these works that may have previously been lacking.

III. What was the main attraction of translating the Psalms for Mary Sidney?

2023-10-26 12:39:26 UTC

Sacred Parody- Religious poetry was attempting to rival the popularity of secular poetry. The use of popular forms such as the sonnet in the Sidney Psalter challenged the dominance of love poetry in Renaissance print release.

As a woman writer she was able to use a voice not hers in the creation of poetry. This allowed her to bend the rules and expectations of women's writing.

There was a lack of formal variety in traditional translations of the Psalter, the Sidneys wanted to amend this. They also wished to capture the beauty of the poetry in the English language, hence their reliance on the original Hebrew.

What was the main attraction of translatinf the Psalms for Mary Sidney (and/or women writers more generally)?

2023-10-26 12:40:40 UTC

As women's writing was so stigmatised during the Sixteenth century, women engaging with religious writing and translations would perhaps have been viewed as more palatable and acceptable in the eyes of society.

III.

2023-10-26 12:42:13 UTC

The psalms allowed Mary to voice more roles and outlooks than would have been acceptable for a woman at the time (taking on male voices, speaking from positions of power etc.) Thus her psalms are made all the more distinct from her brothers as they were a rare form of imaginative liberation accessible to women at the time and enabled her literary freedom that would have been ordinary for her brother.

II

2023-10-26 12:43:15 UTC

The project of translating the psalms was unique in the sense that because the psalms were strongly religious, it made protestant religious ideas more accessible to ordinary people and democratized it. This meant that people would feel closer to God through literature in a way that had not been accessible before.

The Psalter as continuing a tradition of imitation in Renaissance poetry

2023-10-26 12:47:59 UTC

We have witnessed throughout the course a particular interest within Renaissance poetry of imitation, as was outlined in the opening lecture, and it is difficult to regard the Sidney Psalter as deviating too significantly from that tradition. While Steinberg rejects the specific use of imitation in discussion of the Psalter as 'exaggerating their distance from the originals' (p. 6), his alternative 'paraphrases' (p. 6) could just as easily be applied to Wyatt's work. Indeed, Wyatt's interest in translating examples of Petrarch's sonnets whilst altering them to more accurately capture the approach of the original reflects the task undertaken by the Sidney siblings.