‘The Sidneys of Penshurst and Beyond: Contexts, Connections, Collaborations’ conference took place at Penshurst Place in 2022.

It brought together Sidney scholars from around the world and convened panels to explore how the legacies of the acclaimed Sidney-Herbert family coterie continue to thrive in literary, sociohistorical, and theatrical fields – and beyond.

Proposals for papers were invited to examine the connections between the writings of the Sidney-Herbert family coterie and the world beyond. The conference also explored literary collaborations, such as exchanges between members of the family circles; conversations with writers in Britain, Europe, and beyond; and collaborations across time through critical and creative writings.

An additional area of investigation was the Sidney-Herberts’ material collaborations with scribes, editors, printers, publishers and performers, both in their lifetimes and in their textual afterlives. The Sidneys’ political, economic and diplomatic ties add a spatial-geographical dimension to discussions, so papers were also sought that placed the Sidney-Herbert residences in wider contexts, looking to the City of London, the Court, the Continent and further afield to Arcadia, Tartaria and beyond.

Following a packed 2 day programme of events, including a filmed performance of Lady Mary Wroth’s Love’s Victory, we are delighted to share with you a recording of Mary Ellen Lamb’s paper ‘Scribal Readings of a Verse Exchange between William Herbert, Third Earl of Pembroke and Benjamin Rudyerd’ and copies of the two Pembroke and Rudyerd Poems  which she discusses in the paper.

Details of the performance of Love’s Victory and the release of the filmed recording can be found on the Love’s Victory page.