Katherine Philips

English poet

• Born: January 1, 1631
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: June 22, 1664
• Place of death: London, England

Philips produced an impressive body of verse and two successful dramatic translations while also founding a circle of literary correspondence called the Society of Friendship.

Early Life

Katherine Philips’s father, John Fowler, was a Presbyterian merchant. Her mother, Katherine Oxenbridge, also came from Presbyterian roots, being the daughter of Dr. John Oxenbridge, who held a fellowship at the Royal College of Physicians. In her earliest years, Katherine Fowler lived in the vicinity of Saint Mary Woolchurch, in London. Fowler’s early education was acquired at a boarding school for girls located in Hackney (a village north of London). The school’s headmistress was a Mrs. Salmon. From the very beginning, Fowler distinguished herself as a student at this school, studying languages and biblical writings. It was also at the school at Hackney that Fowler became friends with Mary Aubrey (or Awbrey) and Mary Harvey, both of whom would later figure in the literary circle Katherine was to found.

In 1639, Fowler’s father died. In 1646, her mother married Hector Philips, a minor Welsh noble, and the family took up residence for some time in Cardigan, Wales. It was there, in 1647, that Hector Philips arranged the marriage of his stepdaughter Katherine to his son, James Philips. James, who at the age of fifty-four surpassed his young wife in age by some thirty-eight years, was a member of Parliament and a fierce supporter of Oliver Cromwell in the First English Civil War (1642-1646). Although Katherine herself supported the Royalist cause, the husband and wife were not bitterly divided over the subject. Their first child, Hector Philips, was born in 1647 but only lived forty days. Katherine wrote an elegy for Hector in the form of a sonnet, titled “Orinda upon Little Hector Philips” (pb. 1667).

Life’s Work

Although Philips probably began writing poems during her teen years in boarding school (some of her juvenalia survive), she seems to have begun her career as a poet in earnest around the time of her 1647 marriage. As she would do throughout her life, Philips circulated her poems among friends in manuscript form, probably under the pen name Orinda. Her work came to the attention of Henry Vaughan (1621?-1695), who appended Philips’s “Elegy for William Cartwright” to his own collection of verse, Olor Iscanus (1651). Vaughan referred to Philips as the Matchless Orinda, by which title she is often identified.

In 1651, Philips formed the Society of Friendship for the purpose of literary and philosophical correspondence. The society appears to have been a fairly informal association, composed primarily of women. As few concrete details about the actual nature of the society are known, however, there has been much critical speculation about its exact nature. Members of the society took up pseudonyms derived from classical literature, such as Philips’s own moniker, Orinda. It is not clear whether men were allowed membership in the society, although they too were given classical pseudonyms in relevant poems (for example, James Philips was referred to as Antenor). Philips refers in her poetry to a seal for the society, but no evidence for a specific design has surfaced.

Philips’s society, which seems to have remained active through at least 1661, focused on a theme that is explored throughout her verse—the topic of friendship. Philips’s verse reveals a fascination with the philosophical and spiritual implications of friendship. Her treatment of the theme is often marked by Metaphysical imagery reminiscent of the poetry of John Donne . Philips also inquired about the theological status of friendship, through correspondence with Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), whose response to Philips’s query is recorded in his Discourse on the Nature and Offices of Friendship (1657).

The intensity of Philips’s passionate friendships with women has stirred some critics to speculate that she was a lesbian. In particular, critics have focused on Anne Owen (whom Philips refers to by her society pseudonym, Lucasia) as a possible lover, citing the intensity of the emotions Philips revealed in her poetry and the large number of poems that Philips dedicated to Owen. Like-minded critics have also speculated about a lesbian relationship with two other society members, Mary Aubrey(“Rosania”) and Elizabeth Boyle (“Celimena”). Whether the powerful expressions of emotion in Philips’s verse consist merely of conventional courtly tropes on the theme of Platonic love or are in fact open expressions of lesbianism remains a matter of interpretation.

Philips gave birth in 1656 to a second child, Katherine, who would eventually marry Lewis Wogan and settle in Pembrokeshire. In 1660, with the Restoration of monarchical power to Charles II, pressure was put on Katherine Philips’s Parliamentarian husband, who lost his post as M.P. and much of his land. Through the intervention of Charles Cotterell, who was master of ceremonies for Charles II, Philips’s husband was spared execution. Cotterell had apparently struck up a lasting friendship with Katherine Philips.

In 1662, Philips traveled to Dublin, Ireland, where she produced, at the request of the dramatist Roger Boyle, first earl of Orrery (1621-1679), a translation of La Mort de Pompée (pr. 1642, pb. 1643; The Death of Pompey, pr. 1662, pb. 1663), by the French playwright Pierre Corneille . Philips’s Pompey proved successful in its 1662 production, and several editions were printed, beginning in 1663. Early in 1664, Philips again turned to Corneille, beginning a translation of Horace (pr. 1640, pb. 1641; English translation, 1656) that was cut short by her untimely death; her translation was completed by John Denham (1615-1669).

That Philips’s poetic compositions generated wide interest is evident from the fact that an unauthorized collection was published, Poems by the Incomparable, Mrs. K. P. (1664), which consisted of seventy-four poems. At the request of Philips, however, this edition was taken off the market shortly after its publication. Philips appears to have preferred to circulate her work in manuscript form; indeed, many of her handwritten works survive.

On June 22, 1664, Philips succumbed to smallpox. She was buried in Saint Benet’s Church, in London. Her works were printed in a posthumous collection titled Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda (1667). The volume also included commendatory verses by the poet Abraham Cowley. Scholars have usually assumed that the collection, which included her Pompey and Horace translations, was put together by her friend, Charles Cottrell.

Significance

Although she lived only thirty-three years, Philips stands out as one of the most successful women in the history of seventeenth century poetry, a field largely dominated by males. That there was considerable demand for her plays and the nearly 125 poems she penned is evident from the unauthorized 1664 collection, printed to meet a demand, as well as from the fact that the 1667 edition of her works was reprinted three times (in 1669, 1678, and 1710). Her translations of Corneille were successful both in production and in print, and a number of the songs written for these plays also proved popular in performance, as did many of the poems that later performers set to music.

Philips’s verse was admired not only by poets of her own time, such as Vaughan and Cowley, but also by later versifiers, such as John Keats (1795-1821), who was influenced by her poem “To M. A. At Parting” (1664). Though Philips was not very well represented in nineteenth and early twentieth century literary histories and anthologies, there has been a resurgence of interest in her work that has brought her to the foreground of contemporary literary criticism.

Bibliography

Crawford, Patricia, and Laura Gowing, eds. Women’s Worlds in Seventeenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 1999. Integrates a variety of primary sources in order to flesh out the cultural contexts in which women of Philips’s era were situated.

Cummings, Robert, ed. Seventeenth-Century Poetry: An Annotated Anthology. Oxford, England: Blackwell, 2000. Offers a diverse selection of poems by Philips and her contemporaries. Includes notes on cultural and historical contexts, as well as bibliographical data.

Philips, Katherine. The Collected Works of Katherine Philips: The Matchless Orinda. Edited by Patrick Thomas. Stump Cross, England: Stump Cross Books, 1990. Well-annotated selection of Philips’s verse, offering full notes on historical and literary background, as well as relevant bibliography.

Post, Jonathan F. S. English Lyric Poetry: The Early Seventeenth Century. New York: Routledge, 1999. A survey of key authors, with detailed treatment of versification. Includes a chapter on women poets, including Philips, as well as chapters on the canonical poets of the era.

Souers, Philip Webster. The Matchless Orinda. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931. Highly detailed biography, examining primary evidence and offering interpretation of Philips’s place within the canon of English poetry.

Traub, Valerie. The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Offers very full cultural and historical analysis of female homosexuality relevant to current debate about Philips. Includes detailed criticism about numerous works by Philips.

Williamson, Marilyn L. Raising Their Voices: British Women Writers, 1650-1750. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990. Critical analysis of the literary and historical context for Philips and other female writers roughly contemporary with her.