TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

I’d like to introduce you to a little known female poet from the Sixteenth Century.

ISABELLA WHITNEY – A controversial female poet – it is believed she was the first to write secular verse for the masses – poetry that was not about religion – rather she wrote verse that appealed to the masses – about romance, love and loss, friends, events etc. Her printer/publisher, Richard Jones, circulated her pamphlets which proved very popular. He must have been making a decent profit for it was a risky thing for a printer to publish the poetry of a woman who was deemed to be not respectable, in Tudor times.)

(I discovered this female poet many years ago, and she has always been a hero of mine. She defied those who would disown, discard and dislike her, and carried on writing even when she had been effectively driven out of London amid an unknown scandal, and turned out of home and job. Vagrancy was a crime at this time. Isabella had no choice but to return home under her father’s care. She later married a local man who, it seems, approved of her secret profession, as she appears in later anthologies under the guise of a male name. Her brother Geoffrey had modest fame with a published a book called a Choice of Emblems, in which he mentions his sister and her writing, alongside many male contemporary poets, and including his patron, the Earl of Leicester. Her father had held a position at court and was a lawyer and a poet. Her story is sparse in facts known about her, but fascinating and important, nevertheless.) Isabella Whitney was the first woman in England to publish a volume of poetry. She published not one but two: The Copy of a Letter, Lately Written in meeter, by a younge Gentilwoman to her unconstant Lover (1567) and A Sweet Nosegay or Pleasant Posy (1573). She also wrote countless poem letters and epistles to her family, and perhaps was published her best poem – WYLL and TESTAMENT – a mock Wyll to London on her departure from that famous city. It is an amazing historic insight to London and well worth reading from that point of view.

ISABELLA WHITNEY

A Cheshire lass, when still quite young,

was brought to London Town.

There trained to be a Lady’s maid

for one of great renown.

_____

This lass had other things she loved

to do when she had time.

Like writing controversial verse

that always had a rhyme.

_____

She lived in the sixteenth century,

wrote secular poems for fun.

Was published and paid by Richard Jones,

at the sign of the Rising Sun.

_____

But her work was considered a scandal.

A professional writer – no!

The Lady she worked as a servant for

Determined to let her go.

_____

For what woman would consider

Taking payment for writing verse?

Selling herself for profitable gain

like a prostitute, or worse!

_____

And when that money ran its course

her luck went the same way.

Isabella Whitney, she became

a vagrant of the day.

_____

She wrote in vain to her family

requesting kindness and aid,

but no-one sought to help her out 

with rent, that must be paid.

_____

Then George, a friend, took pity

and paid for her to lodge,

but still the scandal hung around;

barbed words she had to dodge.

_____

In Abchurch Street, she found a room

but the scandal would not die.

Her poet friend, Thomas Berry,

Said it was time for her to fly.

_____

Before she left, she made a Wyll,

that mocked old London town

who never was a help when,

on her luck, she was quite down.

_____

I ask you please to read her Wyll,

for better or for worse

because this little-known author

might well have been the first

_____

among women writers to have

penned such secular lines.

And those discovered publishing them,

were sure to suffer fines.

_____

Isabella Whitney was a champion

for female professional writers.

She faced the world with courage

As a Tudor freedom fighter.