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Isabella Whitney

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Isabella Whitney

Iabella Whitney (1567-1573 fl.). Portrait by Emily M. Chase. Courtesy Emily M. Chase.

Isabella Whitney (1567-1573 fl.) was an English poet. She is the earliest identified woman to have published secular poetry in the English language, and has been called "the first professional woman poet in England."[1]

Life[]

Whitney was born sometime in the late 1540s in Coole Pilate, Cheshire, England.[2] She came from a reformist family which allowed the daughters as well as sons access to a certain degree of humanist education. She had a brother, Geoffrey Whitney, who wrote A Choice of Emblems in 1586. From what we can gather from A Sweet Nosgay Whitney also had a brother-in-law and 3 sisters,[3] though their identities are not certain.

Isabella left Cheshire at an early age to work in London as a servant. While there, she wrote multiple works demonstrating an acute awareness of public taste.[3] This awareness, combined with a sharp satirical tone, allowed her to become 1 of the earliest professional women writers in Europe. She was also the earliest woman to publish a collection of original poetry, and is thought to be the earliest professional female poet in England.

Unlike many of the other women writers of the 16th century, Whitney did not come from a noble family. Rather, she was of the middle class and lived on meager finances. This can be seen in A Sweet Nosegay, where she states that she is "whole in body, and in mind, / but very weak in purse".[4] To her Cousin, F.W., Isabella Whitney (accessed 2 May 2010)</ref>

According to most critics, Whitney’s works contained a certain degree of autobiographical material. This can be seen in 2 of her connected poems: A Communication Which the Author had to London before she Made Her Will and The Manner of Her Will, and What She Left to London and to All Those in it, of her Departing where the writer is not only lacking in finances, but also spends the majority her time amongst "the poor, the imprisoned, and the insane", otherwise known as the commonwealth of London.[5]

Writing[]

Whitney published her poetry in a time when it was not customary for a woman, especially a woman not of the aristocracy, to do so. In addition, her material contained controversial issues such as class-consciousness and political commentary as well as witty satire, and was made available to the upper and the middle class.[5]

Whitney’s best known works are The copy of a letter, lately written in meeter, by a yonge gentilwoman: to her vnconstant louer, written in (1567?), and A sweet nosgay, or pleasant posye contayning a hundred and ten phylosophicall flowers, written in 1578. Her most innovative poems were her verse epistles, many of which were addressed to female relatives.[6] She addressed her poem "Will and Testament" to the city of London, mocking it as a heartless friend, greedy and lacking charity.[7] These works were written in ballad meter and contained witty and animated descriptions of everyday life. Judging from these popular inclusions, it is likely that the reason for the publishing of her works was simply to supplement her scanty income.[5]

Publications[]

Poetry[]

Collected editions[]

  • "The 'Wyll and Testament' of Isabella Whitney" (edited by Betty Travitsky). English Literary Renaissance, 10 (Winter 1981): 76-94.
A_modest_meane_for_Maides

A modest meane for Maides

  • The Floures of Philosophie by Sir Hugh Plat; and A sweet nosgay and The copy of a letter by Isabella Whitney (edited by Richard J. Panofsky). Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1982.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.[8]

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Dale Spender & Janet Todd, British Women Writers: An anthology from the fourteenth century to the present. New York: Bedrick Books, 1989, p. 9
  2. ↑ Travitsky BS. 'Whitney, Isabella (fl. 1566–1573)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 (accessed 21 April 2010)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Isabella Whitney 1548-1573, Poetry Foundation Web, May 2, 2010.
  4. ↑ A Sweet Nosegay or Pleasant Posy: Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers (accessed 2 May 2010)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Whitney, Isabella," Notes on the Authors, Women Poets of the Renaissance (edited by Marion Wynne-Davies. New York: Routledge, 1999.
  6. ↑ Spender and Todd, 9.
  7. ↑ Clarke, Danielle. Isabella Whitney, Mary Sidney and Amelia Lanyer: Renaissance Women Poets. New York: Penguin, 2001, p. xiv.
  8. ↑ Isabella Whitney 1548-1573, Poetry Foundation, Web, Dec. 30, 2012.

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