Isabella Whitney Whitney, Isabella Author Kate McPherson Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Early Modern England EncyclopediaEMEE

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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First Professional Woman Poet in England

Scholars consider Isabella Whitney (c.1540–1580?) the first professional female poet in England because she was the first woman to publish a collection of original poetry. Unlike many other female poets of the day, Whitney was from the middle class rather than a noblewoman. Whitney wrote poetry designed to appeal to public taste rather than focusing on devotional literature and translations like many other female authors.

She published A Copy of a Letter, a series of poems about love and inconstancy, in 1567 and followed that with A Sweet Nosegay or Pleasant Posy: Containing One Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers, a series of short adages and verse epistles, in 1573. Her poem, To her sister, Mistress A.B comments Had I a husband, or a house, and all that longs thereto My self could frame about to rouse as other women do: But till some household cares me tie, My books and Pen I will apply. A pioneer in many ways, Whitney wrote poems specifically to sell them. She also rebelled against the current style of ornate, metaphorical, or pastoral poetry. Her poems are about some challenges that women faced, including the legal prohibition against them writing wills. Her final poem in A Sweet Nosegay is entitled Will and Testament and it critiques the culture of commerce and institutions that limit its gentlewoman speaker as she leaves the city.

Biography

Relatively little is known for certain about Isabella Whitney’s life, other than that she was the sister of Geoffrey Whitney, the author of the popular 1586 book of short poems with illustrations, A Choice of Emblemes. Her writings indicate that she was familiar with the city, so she likely lived in London. Her poems say that she was a servant, and they reveal knowledge of the tasks she would have completed as a lady-in-waiting or other type of upper-servant. Scholars infer that she lost her post during a time of economic contraction and that financial need may well have prompted her to write and publish her poems. She does claim to be weak on purse in one poem. Other autobiographical details in her poems indicate she had at least two sisters. It is not known whether or not Whitney ever married, although she may have been jilted by a man named William Gruffith in about 1562, perhaps giving her the inspiration for the theme of her first volume of poetry.

Key Print Sources Gregerson, Linda. Isabella Whitney: c. Mid-Sixteenth Century. Poetry, vol. 187, no. 6, Mar. 2006, pp. 502–504. Stevenson, Jane, and Peter Davidson. Early Modern Women Poets (1520–1700): An Anthology. Oxford UP, 2001. Travitsky, Betty S. Whitney, Isabella (fl. 1566–1573). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 Sep. 2004.
Key Online Sources Best, Michael. Isabella Whitney. Shakespeare’s Life and Times.Internet Shakespeare Editions, https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/literature/women%20writers/whitney.html. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023. Isabella Whitney. The Map of Early Modern London, https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/WHIT15.htm. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023. Isabella Whitney. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/isabella-whitney. Accessed 25 Feb. 2023. Whitney, Isabella. A Sweet Nosegay. Wikimedia, 1573, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Sweet_Nosgay.gif#filelinks.