Geoffrey Whitney (?1548-1601?) was an English poet.
from Geoffrey Whitney, Whitney's Choice of Emblemes (edited by Henry Green), 1866. Courtesy Internet Archive.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Geoffrey Whitney, the son of a father of the same name, was born at, or near, Coole Pilate, a township in the parish of Acton, near Nantwich in Cheshire. His family, probably sprung from the Whitneys of Whitney in Herefordshire, had been settled on a small estate at Coole Pilate since 1388.[1] His sister was poet Isabella Whitney.[2]
He was educated at the neighboring school of Audlem.[1]
He afterwards attended Oxford, and then Magdalene College, Cambridge; but he seems to have left university without a degree.[1]
Career[]
Having adopted the legal profession, Whitney became in time under-bailiff of Great Yarmouth. He held this post in 1580 (how much earlier is not evident), retaining it till 1586. In 1584 the earl of Leicester, high steward of the borough, made an unsuccessful attempt to procure the under-stewardship for Whitney, but the place was given to John Stubbs. After some litigation with the corporation, by which he seems to have been badly treated, the dispute was settled by a payment to the poet of £45. (Manship, Yarmouth, vol. ii.).[1]
During his residence at Yarmouth Whitney appears to have had much contact with the Netherlands, and to have made the acquaintance of many scholars there. On the termination of his connection with Yarmouth, he proceeded to Leyden, "where he was in great esteem among his countrymen for his ingenuity." On 1 March 1586 he became a student in its newly founded university, and later in the year he brought out at Plantin's press his ‘Choice of Emblems,’ the book which has preserved his name from oblivion. Of the duration of his sojourn on the continent there is no evidence.[1]
He subsequently returned to England, and resided in the neighborhood of his birthplace, at Ryles (or Royals) Green, near Combermere Abbey.[2]
On 11 September 1600, he made his will, which was proved on 28 May 1601. He seems to have died unmarried.[2]
Writing[]
Whitney's reputation depends upon his celebrated work (full title: A Choice of Emblemes and other Devises; for the moste parte gathered out of sundrie writers, Englished and moralised, and divers newly devised, by Geffrey Whitney. A worke adorned with varietie of matter, both pleasant and profitable: wherein those that please maye finde to fit their fancies: Because herein, by the office of the eie and the eare, the minde maye reape dooble-delighte throughe holsome preceptes, shadowed with pleasant devises: both fit for the vertuous, to their incoraging; and for the wicked, for their admonishing and amendment; 2 pts., Leyden, 1586, 4to). The book was dedicated to the Earl of Leicester from London on 28 November 1585, with an epistle to the reader dated Leyden 4 May 1586. The author speaks as if this were a 2nd edition; if so, the 1st was written only, and not printed.[2]
His emblems, 248 in number, generally in 1 or more stanzas of 6 lines (a sestet followed by a couplet), have a device or woodcut prefixed, with an appropriate motto. Being addressed either to his kinsmen or friends, or to some eminent contemporary, they furnish notices of persons, places, and things not elsewhere readily to be met with. Of the devices 23 only are original, while 23 are suggested by, and 202 identical with, those of Alciati, Paradin, Sambucus, Junius, and Faerni.[2]
The work was the earliest of its kind to present to Englishmen an adequate example of the emblem books that had issued from the great continental presses; and it was mainly from it, as a representative book of the greater part of emblem literature which had preceded it, that Shakespeare gained the knowledge which he evidently possessed of the great foreign emblematists of the 16th century.[2]
Whitney's verses are often of great merit, and always manifest a pure mind and extensive learning.[2]
The only other works which can be positively assigned to Whitney are: 1. ‘An Account in Latin of a Visit to Scratby Island, off Great Yarmouth,’ 1580, a translation of which is printed in Manship's History of Great Yarmouth. 2. Some verses in Dousa's Odæ Britannicæ, Leyden, 1586, 4to.[2]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- A Choice of Emblems. Leyden, Netherlands: Francis Raphelengius, in the house of Christopher Plantyn, by 1586.
- (edited by Henry Green). London: Lovell, Reeve, 1866
- facsimile edition (edited by John Horden). Menston, UK: Scolar Press, 1969.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[3]
See also[]
References[]
Saunders, Francis (1900) "Whitney, Geoffrey" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 61 London: Smith, Elder, pp. 142-143 . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 10, 2017.
Notes[]
External links[]
- Poems
- About
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen & Sidney Lee). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Whitney, Geoffrey
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