ABOUT THIS BOOK

A collection of poems by the first English woman to publish secular poetry under her own name.

Isabella Whitney (c. 1547–after 1624) was the first English woman to publish original secular poetry under her own name. She published two poetic miscellanies of poems: The Copy of a Letter (1567) and A Sweet Nosegay (1573), which include her own work as well as a total of six poems by five different male authors. This edition of her writings prints modernized texts of the complete miscellanies and adds to them six poems attributed to Whitney by largely twentieth-century critics. These poems provide a rich portrait of sixteenth-century female courtship and its dangers, a unique view of class and gender in Whitney’s lifetime, and a portrait of London as a burgeoning market of practical goods and luxury items from foodstuffs to imported silk.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Isabella Whitney (c. 1547–after 1624) was born in Chester and lived in London. Shannon Miller is professor of English and comparative literature and the dean of the College of Humanities and the Arts at San José State University. She is the author of Invested with Meaning: The Raleigh Circle in the New World and Engendering the Fall: John Milton and Seventeenth-Century Women Writers.

REVIEWS

"This edition of writings published by Isabella Whitney and poems attributed to her by later editors is so important to women's literary history that it is hard to believe it has not yet appeared. Whitney's poetry is intelligent, perceptive, witty, vibrant, and direct; it will be widely read and enjoyed by students and more advanced scholars interested in early modern women's literature, history, feminist and gender studies, as well as cultural studies more generally."

— Sara Jayne Steen, Former Professor of English and Dean of letters and Sciences at Montana State University and President Emerita of Plymouth State University in New Hampshire

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Chronology of Events

INTRODUCTION

THE COPY OF A LETTER, LATELY WRITTEN IN METER, BY A YOUNG GENTLEWOMAN TO HER UNCONSTANT LOVER (1566–1567)
The Printer to the Reader
I. W. To Her Unconstant Lover
The Admonition by the Author, to All Young Gentlewomen
A Love Letter, or an Earnest Persuasion of a Lover
R. W. against the Willful Inconstancy of His Dear Foe E. T.

A SWEET NOSEGAY, OR PLEASANT POSY, CONTAINING A HUNDRED AND TEN PHILOSOPHICAL FLOWERS, ETC. (1573)
To the Worshipful and Right Virtuous Young Gentleman, George Mainwaring
The Author to the Reader
T. B. in Commendation of the Author
A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy
A Sovereign Receipt
A Farewell to the Reader
To Her Brother, G. W.
To Her Brother, B. W.
An Order Prescribed, by IS. W. to Two of Her Younger Sisters
To Her Sister Mistress A. B.
To Her Cousin, F. W.
A Careful Complaint by the Unfortunate Author
An Answer to Comfort Her, by Showing His Haps to be Harder
A Reply to the Same
IS. W. to C. B. in Bewailing Her Mishaps
In Answer by C. B. to IS. W.
To My Friend Master T. L. Whose Good Nature I See Abused
Another Letter Sent to IS. W. by One: to Whom She Had Written Her Infortunate State
IS. W. Being Weary of Writing, Sendeth This for Answer
A Communication Which the Author Had to London, before She Made Her Will
The Manner of Her Will, and What She Left to London

APPENDIX: POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO ISABELLA WHITNEY
The Complaint of a Woman Lover, to the Tune of “Raging Love”
The Lamentation of a Gentlewoman upon the Death of Her Late Deceased Friend, William Gruffith, Gent.
The Lady Beloved Exclaimeth of the Great Untruth of Her Lover
Another by I. W.
Dido to Aeneas
Aeneas to Dido

Bibliography

Index of First Lines

General Index