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

the work was actually published by Peter Short, not Jones.
Because the poem was signed "I. w.", not "Is. W." (although
the title of her first poem is given as "I. w. To her
vnconstant Louer," the sixteen signed poems are all signed
"Is. W."), and because Green gave no explanation for his
attribution, Whitney's authorship is doubtful. Betty
Travitsky correctly pointed out that there is no internal
evidence in the poem to support Green's supposition ("Wyll"
78, nil). Because the content, imagery, and tone of the
poem do not match any of Whitney's other works, and because
the feminine rhymes and classical allusions were the common
property of all poets of the early Renaissance, there is no
reason to assume that the "I. W." who wrote this poem was
Isabella Whitney. If Green's assertion could be proven,
however, then Whitney's association with the literary circle
of London would have covered a period of over thirty years,
a long career for any writer of the period.
In 1981, Robert J. Fehrenbach suggested that Whitney
might have been the author of three anonymous poems with
female speakers in the popular miscellanies of Richard Jones
("Popular Miscellanies"). "The complaint of a woman Louer"
in A Handefull of pleasant delites (1566?, 1584), and "The
Lady beloued exclaymeth of the great vntruth of her louer"
in A gorgious Gallery of gallant Inuentions (1578) are very
similar to Whitney's work in tone, style, and subject
matter. Although it is of poorer quality and draws upon
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