User:SpicyEggs/Isabella Whitney

= Marley Draft =

Career
The term “pressing the press” insinuated a scandalous sexual behavior that inherently linked print to something perceived as negative. '''It is terms such as these that worked against women who wished to publish their work. In early modern England, many factors affected women’s access to the world of print. Public speaking was somehow associated with harlotry, many insisted that the proper place for women to be was inside of their homes, and a silent woman constituted as a mold all women should strive to fit. Whitney’s work directly addresses this issue of hesitation to publish one’s work due to the negative connotations associated with it.'''

'''It was especially harmful to Whitney also because of her current station as an unemployed single woman. The lack of opportunities for women, especially those like Whitney, created difficulties to make money in early modern London. Whitney is also writing her poetry in order to profit, even placing her writing in substitution for a husband that would normally work and profit for the house. Due to this, there exists the reasoning that since Whitney is a woman in print who uses her work to make money, many may have considered her to be a prostitute of sorts. This is because of how women publishing work to a public audience was seen as a scandalous, sexual act. It did not help that her persona of an unemployed maidservant was a group that was often linked to prostitution in early modern society.'''

Through her uncle’s contacts, Whitney built up contacts in the printing industry and began penning verse which was published, initially anonymously but later under her own name or initials, using the tropes in fashion at the time but subverting them from the traditional, socially-approved roles women and men were expected to play in relationships and society generally.

A Sweet Nosegay
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. This publication also came at a time in English history when people like Whitney, those not belonging to the upper class, were given the opportunity to purchase all sorts of different goods. '''With this newfound opportunity to read books came a well of knowledge filled with new ways to live. Whitney’s work contributed to this well with the versification of Hugh Plat’s humanist discourse.  As aforementioned, London was in a great state of change as a capitalist mindset grew and “contaminated” the streets of London. This humanist knowledge from Plat is presented to her readers with intent to keep them in good health as they had kept herself well in the infected social and moral world around her.'''

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. '''Whitney expresses in her poetry that she is warned to avoid the lanes and streets which are contaminated with disease. Although this can be seen literally, these public spaces are references to the rather corrupted public circulation of print. While Whitney is returned to her space within the home where many men would say she is safe, in a rebellious manner she is still able to send her work out into the world. In order to share her nosegay as medicine to those who read it, her book must be exposed to the ratifications that come with public print. Whitney knows what it means to be a woman in public print and takes on this burden of corruption in order to be of some help to others.'''

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.[12] She also indicates her independence by mentioning that she will earn her living by writing and selling her literary works.[13] Through this, she shows the alienation that existed during this time and calls for a change.

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Early Life

Isabella Whitney was born in Cheshire, England. Her father, Geoffrey, was brother to Sir Robert Whitney, their family being the Cheshire branch of the influential Whitney family based in Clifford, Gorsington, Icomb and Castleton. At the time of her birth, her family were living at Coole Pilate in the parish of Acton, near Nantwich though the family moved in 1558 when her father took a lease of a farm at Ryles Green, Audlem. Isabella Whitney was the second child, having an older brother, Geoffrey, four sisters - Anne, Margery, Mary and Dorothea - and a younger brother, Brooke. George Mainwaring, who is mentioned in A Sweet Nosegay and comes from a prominent household in England, was a childhood friend of hers. Her 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 in 1601 without a spouse.

Personal Life

"Whitney lived and worked in London until 1573 when she lost her position under the mistress she was serving and became unemployed. The reason behind the loss of her employment is assumed to be due to slander as evidenced in A Sweet Nosegay . She resided in Abchurch Lane while she continued to write but, financially, she could not stay there for long. Throughout her work, it is evident that she reached out to friends and family for support, but none could do so. Unable to support herself, she returned to the family home in Ryles Green. The Wilkersley court records for 1576 show her father being fined for the fact that his unmarried daughters, Dorothea and Isabella, were both pregnant. Isabella’s child, a girl, was baptised in September of that year in Audlem but there is no further reference to her. Sometime around 1580 she married the physician of Audlem, Richard Eldershaw, a Catholic who was several times fined for non-attendance at church. In 1600 he was fined the sum of £240 at a time when a rural labourer would expect to earn £40-£60 a year. Perhaps this is why Whitney saw the benefit of using her contacts in the publishing world to make a little extra money around this time. They had two children: Marie and Edmund. Sister Eldershae is mentioned in her brother’s will of 1601 as are her children and her husband, Richard. Dorothea is not mentioned in this Will so it must be assumed that she predeceased her brother. Geffrey left his sister, Isabella, a quantity of silver – a bequest perhaps recognising her lamentable financial situation and the affection between the two siblings. Isabella surfaces again in 1624 when her other brother, Brooke, a successful lawyer in London, makes his Will and dies. There is no mention of Richard Eldershaw; he has presumably died since 1601. By this time Isabella would have been in her seventies. No record of her death has so far surfaced though her children are shown living in Stafford as adults."

“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.” 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.” In this work, she expresses her discontent towards the city's cruelty and indifference towards her but also shows regret in leaving. The manner of how she describes the city as an "undeserving lover" is reminiscent of a rocky romantic relationship. As with other works in Whitney's career, her feeling of abandonment by those around her is displayed in this piece as well.
 * “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 piece begins with painting London as a charming city, however, the favorable tone shifts when she addresses the darker parts of London such as prisons and hospitals. Here, when looking at the prisons, Whitney addresses her own poverty by stating that she is so poor, she is unable to borrow money to be imprisoned for debt. Throughout the mock will, she leaves behind money and various things to the people of London as well as her family and friends, but, Whitney's irony shows since she owns none of those things and, therefore, has given nothing. English professor, Wendy Wall, argues that this will is an "attempt to assume control of the unfortunate circumstances. . .an act of possession by dispossession." In this way, Whitney writes her works in order to create ownership of things which her current position does not allow her to do so. 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.