that "her star waned when she was discovered to have been fair". There is no hint in her biography that she was acquainted with Shakespeare. She had some literary connections; William Kempe, who was a clown in Shakespeare's company, dedicated his Nine Daies Wonder (1600) to "Mistress Anne Fitton", Maid of Honor to Elizabeth. This may have been an error as Mary, rather than her sister Anne, was Maid of Honor to Queen Elizabeth I. There is a sonnet addressed to Mary Fitton in Anthony Munday's volume, A Womans Woorth defended against all the Men in the World. Fitton correspondence Letters written to Mary Fitton's sister Anne Newdigate were preserved in the Newdigate family archives. In the 1890s these letters were transcribed and published by Lady Newdigate-Newdegate (the wife of Sir Edward Newdigate-Newdegate). Footnotes References Haynes, Alan. Sex in Elizabethan England. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997. British maids of honour 1578 births 1647 deaths People from Cheshire 16th-century English women 17th-century English women Mary Court of Elizabeth I