Isabella Whitney

Isabella Whitney (born 1545?; fl. 1566–1573) was arguably the first female poet and professional woman writer in England. More specifically, Whitney is credited with being the first Englishwoman to have penned and published original secular poetry under her own name.

Early life

Isabella Whitney was born in Cheshire, England to parents of low rank. It’s unclear whether she was born in Nantwich, or Coole Pilate. However, these two places are just down the street from each other and their close proximity could be the reason why her exact birth location is unknown. Although, it is known that her brother Geoffrey was born in Coole Pilate, so it is logical to assume that this location would be the place of her birth as well. Whitney was the middle child, having an older sister, Alice, two younger sisters, a younger brother, and a prolific older brother. This older brother, Geoffrey Whitney (named after their father), was a notable author of the time whose works include A Choice of Emblemes and other Devises (1586). Geoffrey died around 1601 without a spouse. Because of Isabella's and Geoffrey's writing abilities, one can infer that the family may have been quite creative.

However, unlike many of the other women writers of the sixteenth century, Isabella Whitney did not come from a noble family. Rather, she was of the middle class and lived on meager finances. Because of this, Whitney herself was sent to London in her youth to live with a wealthy family, which was a common custom for English gentry. Being born into a lower-class family, it was never a bad idea to serve the upper-class until becoming an adult. From this experience as a child, it would be easier to grow up and be more connected to people and exposed to opportunities. It is thought that she served (performing household duties to compensate for her room and board) under Sir Arthur and Margaret Mainwaring, who owned a great deal of land in Cheshire.

Family/Personal Life

Despite having no dowry and coming from a poor family, Isabella believed she had found a romantic match in William Gruffith from Cheshire, who may have worked in the same household. It should be noted, however, that Whitney’s connection to Gruffith has been deduced by scholars based on the attribution of the poems to Whitney, and via connecting those to her earlier work. It is very likely true, but is not an entirely established fact. Furthermore, Gruffith proved to be unreliable and left Whitney. Upon being abandoned by her alleged fiancé, she “was left to fend for herself”. Whitney was heartbroken, but she didn’t give up. Instead, Isabella sent a letter titled “To her Unconstant Lover” to Cheshire as an attempt to win Gruffith back. Gruffith was nonplussed and married Margery Radley on July 4, 1562. Readers can gather that Gruffith was the man being addressed within Whitney’s poem, on the theory that “W.G.”, is in fact William Gruffith. This, as scholar Randall Martin notes, would have meant that Gruffith and Whitney were affiliated.

Between 1566 and 1572 (the specific year is unknown) Whitney was fired at the worst time to be unemployed. “Tens of thousands of rural poor were displaced to the cities” after a shift from farming fields to raising animals that closed off once common land. As a result of the times and a desire to reduce unemployment rates, the government decided to make unemployment illegal and under the new Poor Law of 1572, relatively healthy adults in London who could not provide proof of employment were imprisoned and whipped, sometimes even hanged. It is likely that this newfound unemployment and consequent laws are what led to Whitney selling “two of her poems to the London stationer, Richard Jones” in 1566 or 1567. She sold her aforementioned 1562 epistle alongside an accompanying poem that served as a warning to other women in London in hopes to save them from her recent miseries. These were published by Jones as The Copy of a letter, lately written in meeter, by a yonge Gentilwoman: to her vnconstant Louer. With an Admonitio to al yonge Gentilwomen, and to all other Mayds in general to beware of mennes flattery.

Still unemployed, in the fall of 1572, Whitney again sought out to earn money from her writings. This second work, Whitney’s Nosegay (1573) was a reworking of Hugh Plat’s Floures of Philosophie (1572), specifically focusing on similar motifs. However, Whitney reworked the themes of love, suffering, friendship, and illness with an added feminine perspective that many would call “proto-feminist”. Plat’s maxims contained 883 maxims, but Whitney chose 110 that had particular emphasis on suffering (whether it be from love or poverty), and she rewrote them in verse form.

At this point, in her early twenties, Isabella was ready to end her life, or at least write about ending it; as she alludes to in her poem A Care-full Complaint by the Unfortunate Author. She had fallen very ill and was without any sustainable income, which, adding to her broken heart and being assailed by her creditors, made the thought of ending life all the easier. Whether Whitney actually thought of suicide, or it was merely trope, can be left up to the interpretation of the reader.

In late 1573, Whitney began packing to move back to Cheshire from Abchurch Lane, London. Before leaving she wrote two farewell greetings (in verse) to her siblings, either displaced or living in London, and to her friends. She also penned a “detailed farewell to a beloved who had not been very kind to her: the City.” This farewell, “Will and Testament,” served both as a goodbye to the city and also “as a tourist’s guide to Elizabethan London, written in Isabella’s characteristic style of cheery grief.”

Career

Isabella Whitney’s career as a writer began after she was a servant in London. This was a very dangerous time not only for women, but especially for unemployed women. Having lost her employment Whitney knew she had to find a way around this law. This struggle can be seen in Whitney's A Sweet Nosegay, where she states that she is "whole in body, and in mind, / but very weak in purse". So, she began selling her poems, and a man named Richard Jones published her works. Whitney wrote for money and says that she settled on a career in writing because she could not find any other way to make an income. Whitney wrote multiple works demonstrating an acute awareness of public taste. This awareness, combined with a sharp satirical tone allowed her to become one of the first professional women writers in Europe. She was also the first woman to write a collection of original poetry, and is thought to be the first professional female poet in England. Prior to her poems being published, no other woman before her had accomplished such a thing. As a result, Isabella Whitney becomes known as the first woman writer to have a book of poems published professionally and in a substantial amount. It was during a hard time that Whitney became a published writer, but fighting through it gave her a great title in the end. Her writing is even described as being her property and partner while she is without both. While not having much in the life surrounding her, Isabella Whitney wrote about those exact things.

Late Life

In 1575, Isabella Whitney’s romantic rival Margery Gruffith died followed by her husband, Whitney’s past lover, William Gruffith two years later. Grief-stricken, and also in failing health herself, Isabella lamented her grief for her ex-lover in verse. This poem, “Lamentation”, and another, “The Lady-Beloved Exclaimeth of the Great Untruth of her Lover,” were Whitney’s last. They were both featured in Thomas Proctor’s A Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, which was published in 1578. However, we cannot be certain that Whitney in fact wrote them. It is only through scholar Randall Martin’s careful analysis of the poems, as compared to her earlier poems, that the “Lamentation” can be attributed to Whitney. Martin found that the language, some minor stylistic choices, and the criticism of patriarchal rule all lead to a very high likelihood that Whitney was, indeed, the author.

Death

It’s unknown exactly when she died, but readers didn’t hear from Whitney after 1578. So it’s assumed that she died in 1577, around the same time that her alleged lover (Gruffith) died.

Works

• The Copy of a letter, lately written in meeter, by a yonge Gentilwoman: to her vnconstant Louer. With an Admonitio to al yonge Gentilwomen, and to all other Mayds in general to beware of mennes flattery (1567). Whitney’s first work, The Copy of a Letter (1566-7) contains four love complaints, two of which are in a female voice and two of which are in a male voice. Copy is a response to her former lover who has gone off and married another woman. It is speculated that this work may be imaginative rather than literal.
  File:The Copy of a Letter.png
  The pictures seen here, from the Early English Books Online, are copies of Isabella’s first published works. In 1567, The Copy of a letter… was published. The only living copy is housed at Oxford’s Bodleian Library; it consisted of the following two poems.
  • • “I.W. to her Unconstant Lover” (as seen on the right).
    • “The Admonition by the Auctor, to all Young Gentlewomen.”

• A Sweet Nosegay (1573). This, Whitney’s second work, was inspired by Plat’s Floures of Philosophie (1572), which she “cites punningly as ‘Plat’s [garden] Plot.’” She says that although he planted them, Isabella had to harvest and arrange them.
  
  Perhaps the work she is most known for, A Sweet Nosegay, (as seen to the right ) showcases Whitney’s style and independence. Within this second book of hers, she has changed from a woman who is depressed about love and romance to a woman who writes to the world as a single woman in London. A Sweet Nosegay also focuses on the suffering and illness that, in the end, forced her to leave London. Through the poems, we receive seemingly autobiographical hints about Whitney, namely that she has two younger sisters who are in service, that Whitney is single and that is why she is allowed to write, that she is of low rank, and that despite serving a woman she admires, she has lost her position and is ill and financially struggling. Through this, she shows the alienation that existed during this time and calls for a change.
  • • "The Author to the Reader" – Since readers hadn’t read anything from Whitney since 1567, she included a verse epistle titled “The Author to the Reader” to catch them up on the last six years.
    • After her epistle to the reader, Whitney’s “110 quatrains of advice” that she picked from Plat’s garden were printed. It was this section that specifically lent itself to the traditions of the time period, especially considering it was printed alongside her original narratives. She chose 110 out of the 883 poems, typically ones based on love, friendship, and poverty, and rewrites them through a more feminist lens, changing male-specific identifiers and references to be more general and inclusive.
    • “A Care-full Complaint by the Unfortunate Author” – Whitney here commiserates with the Queen of Carthage, Dido, for falling in love with an unworthy man. She also alludes to the fact that she too has thought of ending her life, much like Dido, but “in her familiar jocular tone and jaunty meter.” Leading all to wonder whether she was actually suicidal, or just a poetic device; theoretically either could be the case.
    • “Farewell to the Reader” – in this closing to A Sweet Nosegay Whitney asks for her readers to forgive her for borrowing from Plat; she also asks of her readers to bless both her and the originator. What set her apart, however (aside from the overt-feminism mentioned earlier) was that Whitney was “one of the few writers of the age to credit her contemporary source.”

• “Her Will and Testament” was Whitney’s mock will, that not only said goodbye to her friends and family, but also to the city of London. As scholar Betty S. Travitsky notes “the lively, sometimes even madcap, mock legacy brings contemporary London alive… her vividness, perhaps the more remarkable for its presence in a non dramatic poem, reminds one of the London of the city comedies that would be a feature of the early-seventeenth-century stage.”
  File:The Manner of her Will.gif
  This solidified Whitney as a trendsetter, even more so than her previous works. It had two parts:
  • • “A Communication which the Author had to London, Before She made Her Will”– “Will and Testament” features Whitney’s farewell to London. She describes the city vividly in a mock testament, using character sketches reminiscent of “Cock Lorell’s Boat.” This piece acts as a tourist guide to 16th century London. This work resonated with women readers, as is indicated by an imitator who wrote after Isabella’s death.
    • “The manner of her will, and what she left to London and to all those in it at her departing” can be seen here (on the right).

• “The Lady Beloved Exclaimeth of the Great Untruth of her Lover” (1578)
• “The Lamentation of a Gentlewoman upon the Death of Her Late-Deceased Friend, William Gruffith, Gentleman” (1578). While the author of this poem has been highly debated, through careful analysis of the language, criticisms, and style used within the poem, scholar Randall Martin has said that he believes Whitney is the author. Whether the poem was actually penned by Whitney can be contested, but Martin certainly presents a grounded argument in favor of her authorship.

Style/Scholarly Writings

Whitney was a very unusual and progressive woman, especially for the sixteenth century. She was unconventional in many ways. While almost all women writers of the time were well connected and noble, Whitney was not, and because of this, she often criticized the financial situations of her time in her writing, as well as criticizing gender roles. She also hoped that her writings would bring her and her family some sort of income. Some critics claim that Whitney’s poetry proclaimed her as an outsider, or “other,” who pursued her own interests publicly. Whitney was often upfront in the way that she wrote. A common theme in her works were of women in powerless positions and romance. During the time period she was living in, it was important for women to remain modest and under control, however, Whitney did the opposite of this. As Whitney had apologized for borrowing some of her ideas, she is one of a few who named their contemporary sources. Even more importantly, she gave a “public voice to breezily expressed secular concerns”. Furthermore, Whitney was the first writer, male or female, “to exhibit any concern for gender-based phrasing, a practice that took another four hundred years to catch on”. Similarly, scholars have argued that with her use of “complaint, manifesto, satire, [and] mock will,” Whitney was attempting to show a temporal utopia, long before utopia was a generic custom.

According to most critics, Isabella Whitney’s works contained a certain degree of autobiographical material. This can be seen in two 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. Her most innovative poems were her verse epistles, many of which were addressed to female relatives. She addressed her poem "Will and Testament" to the city of London, mocking it as a heartless friend, greedy and lacking charity. These works were written in ballad metre and contained both 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. As she states in an epistle to "her Sister Misteris A.B." in A Sweet Nosegay, "til some houshold cares mee tye, / My bookes and Pen I will apply," possibly suggesting that she sought a professional writing career to support her in an unmarried state. Whitney's publisher, Richard Jones, was a prominent figure in the contemporary market for ballads, and his purchase of her manuscripts makes sense in this regard, even if little evidence of their relationship survives beyond the front matter to The copy of a letter (1567).

Isabella Whitney pioneered her field of women poets. While a lot of her practices (familiar allusions, exaggerations, the ballad measure) were common for contemporary male authors of the mid-sixteenth century, as a woman she was quite the trendsetter (in both her epistles and mock testament). She published her poetry in a time when it was not customary for a woman, especially one 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. Whitney’s two 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 1573.

Titles of Works/Writings

• The Copy of a Letter, Lately Written in Meter, by a Young Gentlewoman To her Unconstant Lover (From The Copy of a Letter, 1567)
• The Admonition by the Auctor, To All Young Gentlewomen: And to all other maids being in love (From the Copy of a letter, 1567)
• The Author to the Reader (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• A Sweet Nosgay, or Pleasant Poise: Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• A Soueraigne Recipt (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• A Farewell to the Reader (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• To Her Brother. G. VV. (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• To Her Brother. B. VV. (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• An Order Prescribed, by IS. VV. To Two of her Younger Sisters in London (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• To Her Sister Mistress A.B. (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• To Her Cousin F. VV. (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• A Care-full Complaint by the Unfortunate Author (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• I Reply to the Same (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• IS. VV. TO C. B. in Bewaylynge her mishaps (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• To my Friend Master T.L. Whose Good Nature: I See Abusde (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• IS. VV. Being Wery of Writing, Send this for Answer (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• The Author Upon Her Friends Procurement is Constrained to Depart (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• The Manner of her Will & What She Left to London: And to All Those in it: at her departing (From A sweet Nosgay, 1573)
• A Communication which the Author Had to London, Before She Made Her Will
• The Lady-Beloved Exclaimeth of the Great Untruth of her Lover
• The Lamentation of a Gentlewoman upon the Death of Her Late-Deceased Friend, William Gruffith, Gentleman (1578)
• Will and Testament (1573)

Details and timeline of events are taken from Foster, Donald W. "Isabella Whitney."

Timeline of Events

• 1545 (?) – Born in Nantwich, Cheshire
• 1562 – William Gruffith (her thought to be “soulmate”) marries Margery, who Whitney later writes about.
• 1566-1572 – Sometime within these years, Whitney loses her employment.
• 1566/1567 – Within this year, Whitney sells two of her poems to Richard Jones.
• 1567 – Last time Whitney is heard from in her writing until 1572/1573.
• 1572 – Poor Law of 1572 was enacted.
• 1572 – Whitney is still unemployed and starts writing again to protect herself from those she owes money to.
• 1573 – Whitney is living in Abchurch Lane, London but getting ready to go to Cheshire.
• 1575 – Margery, wife to William Gruffith, dies.
• 1577 – William Gruffith dies.
• 1577 – Isabella Whitney is assumed to have died. Nothing is heard from her after 1578.

Works/Writings list is taken from "Whitney, Isabella." Early English Books Online.

External links

• Text of "A Sweet Nosegay or Pleasant Posy: Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers"
• Text of "To her Unconstant Lover"
• Text of "The Admonition by the Author to all Young Gentlewomen: And to all other Maids being in Love"
• Text of "An Order Prescribed, by Is. W., to two of her Younger Sisters Serving in London"
• Text of "To her Sister Mistress A. B."
• Text of "Will and Testament"
• Text of "The Lamentation of a Gentlewoman Upon the Death of her Late-Deceased Friend, William Gruffith, Gentleman"