THE POEMS OF ISABELLA WHITNEY: A CRITICAL EDITION by ...

Both of her parents were still alive in 1573, as is clear
from her letter "To her brother. G. W.," but had apparently
died by 1600, the date of Geoffrey's will. If Green's
assertion is correct and one of the dedicatory poems, signed
"I. W.," in Thomas Morley's A Plaine & Easie Introduction to
practicall Musicke (1597) is by Whitney (Ixix), then she
would have been alive when Geoffrey's A Choice of Emblems
was written in 158 6. The fact that she was not mentioned
there led Panofsky to suggest that either Green is incorrect
and Isabella had died before that date, or that a rift
between the two might have occurred because Geoffrey
disapproved of her debts or her publications (Floures,
xviii). If she is, indeed, the author of the dedicatory
poem in Morley's book, she must either have remained in
London after the publication of A Sweet Nosgay and the
statement in her "Wyll" that she was about to leave, or have
returned to London at some later date to again become
affiliated, however slightly, with literary circles.
In 1600, only three years after the publication of
Morley's book, Geoffrey's will made no mention of Isabella
by name, although he carefully left money or goods to all
his other sisters, leading some critics to believe Isabella
had died by that time. It is far more probable, however, as
Fehrenbach suggested, that she is mentioned in the will by a
married name, the "sister Eldershae" whose family is treated
better than anyone other than Brooke Whitney ("Isabella
XXXV