Isabella Whitney, A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy: Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers

Ulrike Tancke (Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1573

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

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Recommended Reading

The poem collection

A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy

, published in 1573, is Isabella Whitney's second (and last known) volume of poetry. Its subtitle – …

Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers

– points to the main body of the work, a verse rendition of Hugh Plat's

Flowers of Philosophy

(1572). The “Flowers” are framed by a collection of addresses and letters (also in verse) and partly with replies - to her readers, family members, friends and acquaintances. The collection ends with her “Will and Testament” on leaving the city of London.

The “Flowers” as such consist of 110 four-line stanzas, each containing proverb-style advice on topics as diverse as friendship, wealth, youth, old age and so on. While most of her statements paraphrase common knowledge,

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621 words

Citation: Tancke, Ulrike. "A Sweet Nosegay, or Pleasant Posy: Containing a Hundred and Ten Philosophical Flowers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23216, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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