The southern enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1854-1870, 1854-11-17
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% arg Sysaey,
COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE

I
name famous, and to have added dignity
and ornament to the most illustrious blood,
enjoyed also the proud distinction of being
sister to Sir Philip Sydney, who loved her
to idolatry, and delighted to dwell on her
merits. She was daughter to Sir Henry
! Syndey, the wise and worthy Deputy of
Ireland, and President of Wales, and Mary,
eldest daughter of John Dudley, Duke Of
Northumberland, and was born in the year
1850.
In 1876 she beca'ne the wife Of Henry
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who had been
twice before married. She seems to have
regarded with equal Indifference the magni-
ticence of Elizabeth's and the intrigues Of
James courts and to havo devoted herself
entirely to the exercise of private virtues, and
the retired enjoyment of literary leisure
With regard to such characters the absence
of detraction is sufficient evidence of moral
merit, for in her time the practice of domes-
| tic virtues by her sex was too universal to
challenge particular praise, and j. is the con-
duct of the worthless, therefore, that has
been chiefly recorded. She had received
the learned education which was then be-
slowed on women Of her rank, but attained
to a proficiency which had before been sci.
dom reached by any. She had left the re-
putation of having been mistress even of the
Hebrew tongue, and a translation by her.
from the original text, of several Of the
Psalms is said to remain, in manuscript, in
the library at Wilton. Possessing, with a
powerful mind, much richness and variety of
fancy, she fell almost naturally into the prac-
tice of poetical composition OF which she be-
came passionately fond but her prose, of
which few specimens remain, is better than
her verse, more ornamental aud graceful
metaphorical, and yet more simple and intel
! lhlgibie. The following passage, in which q
fine moral sentiment is clothed in such di-
versity of thought, and delivered with so
much force and elegancy of expression, is
scarcely to be equalled among the works OF
the best prose writer's of her time.
1T seems to me strange, and a thing
much to be marvelled. that the laborer, to
repose himself, hasteneth as it were the
course of the sun that the mariner rows with
all force to attain the port, and with joy
ful erie salutes the deserted land that the
traveller is never quiet nor content till he
is at the end of his voyage; and that we,
mean while, tied in this world to perpet-
ual taske; tossed with continual tempest /;
tried with rough and cumbersome way
yet cannot see the end of our labor but with
griefe, nor behold our port but with horror
and trembling. This life is but Pencil
ope's web, wherein we are always doing and
undoing; a sea opened to all winds, which
sometimes within and sometimes without
never arouse to torment us; a wearier Jour
ney through extreme heat and colds; over
high mountains, steepe rocks, and theevish
deserts; and SO we term it, weaving this
web, in&rowing at this oare, in passing this
miserable way; yes loe, when death comes
to end our worke; when death stretches out
her armes and pulls us into the port; when,
after so many dangerous passages, and 10TH
some lodgings she would conduct US to our
true home and resting place; in stead of re-
jogging at the end of our labor; of taking
comfort ut the sight of our land; of singing
at the approach of our happy mansion; we
would fame, who would believe iti retake
our worl1e in hande; we would again hoist
sale to tho winds. and willingly undertake
our journey anew. No more then remem-
Der we our pains: our shiprecks are forgot
ten we feare no more the travailcs or the
thieves; eontrariwise, we apprebend death
as an extreme paine we doubt it as a roeke !;
we file it as a theefe we do as little children.
who all the day comp!aine, and when the
medicine is brought them are no longer
sicke; as they who all the wceke long runne
up and downe the streetes with paine of the
teeth, and seeing the barber comemg to pull
them out. feel no more paine. We feaye
more the cure than the disease; thesurgcon
than the paine. We have more sense OF the
medicines bitterness, soon gone, than of a
bitter languishing, long continued more
feeling of death, the end Of our miseries, than
the endless miserie Of our life. We feare
that we ought to hope for, and wish for that
j we ought TO fear"
! She died at her house in Aldersgate street
on the twenty fifth Of Sept 1921. Ben
Johnson has immortalized her name and his
own by this epitaph - ss9
I4. "Underneath the marble hoArse
i Lies the subject ofall verse -
Il ~ Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother: "a
4 death, ere thou hast sain another
/ Wise and fair, and good, rs she,
s. Time all thorw dart at thee"
x t{ Ss4 $780, .-<sD>-.----- Ss
IN sleep what difference is thore between
4 solomon and q fool.