Critic: Claudia Limbert

Source: English Literary Renaissance 16, no. 2 (spring 1986): 383-90.

[(essay date 1986) In the following essay, Limbert describes a manuscript purported to be the earliest examples of Philips's poetry.]

In his brief biography of the Royalist poet Katherine Philips (1632-1664), known in her time as "The Matchless Orinda," John Aubrey (the cousin of Philips' lifelong friend and schoolmate, Mary Aubrey Montague) claims that, having been influenced as a small child by her grandmother Oxenbridge's interest in writing poetry, Katherine Philips had "Loved poetry at schoole, and made verses there."¹ While no poetry from these early school years seems to have survived, a hitherto unpublished manuscript in the uncatalogued Orielton Collection of the National Library of Wales² reveals Philips as a practicing poet, possibly as early as her fourteenth year.

The daughter of a prominent London merchant, John Fowler,³ Philips was brought up in a family with strong Puritan connections.⁴ A precocious child who could read the Bible at four and who "Took sermons down verbatim when she was but 10 years old," Philips was known to pray for an hour at a time and was, as a child, "much against the bishops, and prayed to God to take them to him."⁵ At eight, she was enrolled at Mrs. Salmon's School in Hackney.⁶ Obviously, the school climate was hospitable to Royalists as well as to Puritans, for Philips' two best friends at school--Mary Harvey (who later married Sir Edward Dering, a man devoted to the interests of the Crown) and Mary Aubrey--were both Royalists.

From the incomplete records available, it would seem that Orinda remained in London until she was approximately fourteen, when her widowed mother married Sir Richard Phillips [sic] of Picton Castle, Wales, and took her daughter along to her new home. At sixteen, Katherine married Colonel James Philips,⁷ a prominent Puritan Parliamentarian and widower of fifty-four who had been married to Sir Richard's deceased daughter Frances by whom he had a small daughter. Orinda then moved to her new husband's home in Cardigan where James was active in politics, variously serving as a Commissioner of the Sequestration Committee, as a Commissioner of the Propagation of the Gospel Committee, and as High Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, councilman, and mayor.⁸

Shortly after her marriage, Philips' reputation as a poet began to grow; her poems were widely circulated by the friends who were also her poetic subject matter. In particular, Philips' best work may be her graceful Platonic friendship poems to and about her women friends whom she elevates to the status of goddesses with symbolic trappings of fire, water, and twinned spirits. There is no evidence that the women involved responded in kind.

Besides writing poetry, Philips translated Corneille's Pompée⁹ which was enthusiastically received in 1663 at the new Theatre Royal in Dublin¹⁰ before being published both in Ireland¹¹ and in London.¹² It was at about this same time that a group of her poems fell into the hands of Richard Marriott, a London publisher, who filed to print a pirated edition on 25 November 1663.¹³ While Philips was in London, partly to take care of business for her husband and partly to make certain that her friends had been successful in suppressing this pirated edition, she succumbed to smallpox on 22 June 1664. She left behind her a partial translation of Corneille's Horace (which was completed by Sir John Denham and which became a favorite with the court of Charles II)¹⁴ as well as a considerable literary reputation. Her work was praised by Cowley, Tyrell, Flatman, and the Earls of Orrery and Roscommon in a posthumous edition of her poems,¹⁵ and later by Keats.¹⁶

Philips' mature creative life is well documented by these commendatory poems and some contemporary accounts as well as by Philips' letters and poetry but, until recently, Aubrey's claim that Philips had written poetry while at school was the only evidence of any writing activity before her marriage. Now, however, the Orielton manuscript, composed of two poems and a short prose receipt that are relatively unformed and unpolished compared to her later work, yields a great deal of useful information about this poet's early years.

The envelope holding the manuscript bears the inscription "Emma Owen / Ode to her dog Sancho."¹⁷ Just below, in a different ink, is written: "Also verses by C. Fowler"--Katherine Philips' maiden name. Folded within is the ode to the dead Sancho, plus a sheet of paper in another hand. On one side of this sheet is a poem beginning "No blooming youth shall ever make me erre." Under the poem appears "Humbly dedicated too M^rs Anne Barlow" and the poem is signed "C. Fowler." On the reverse is both a poem beginning "A marry^d state affords but little ease" and, in prose, "A receipt to cure a Love sick Person who can't obtain the Party desired."

The manuscript itself, written in a slightly less sure, more childish hand than Philips' later copybook,¹⁸ can be fairly well dated. Since the poems concern marriage, they would have been written sometime after 1 December 1646, when Orinda's mother married Sir Richard, but before late August of 1648 when Orinda herself married. Thus, Philips was between fourteen and sixteen years of age.

It is not surprising to find such a manuscript among the materials from Orielton. Located three miles southwest of Pembroke, Wales, and now a nature study center,¹⁹ Orielton was once the home of Anne Lewis Owen (called "Lucasia" by Philips), who was the object of Philips' most intense friendship. Besides Orielton, the Owen family also owned Llandshipping, just across the East Cleddau River and to the southeast of Picton Castle where Philips lived with her mother and step-father before her own marriage. The Anne Barlow of the manuscript can be identified as one of the Barlows living at the manor house of Slebech (pronounced Slebets),²⁰ less than two miles northeast of Picton Castle. Thus, all three young women lived within a short distance of one another.

Anne Barlow was one of nine children, two of her sisters becoming lady abbesses in France. Anne's first husband was Nicholas Lewis of Hean Castle and her second was Lewis Wogan of Wiston.²¹ Genealogical information shows that she was approximately the same age as Philips and Owen. Anne's father John Barlow, a Royalist and "a church papist," is listed among the commanders captured in 1642 by Parliamentary forces at Fort Pill.²² His extensive and personal estate was finally sequestered on 13 May, 1651.²³ Thus, the records would indicate that the Barlows most likely were at Slebech during the period before Philips' marriage in 1648.

As one reads the manuscript, it soon becomes clear that this is the earliest known evidence of Orinda's break from Puritanism and her subsequent commitment to the Royalist cause, a change most likely made while still at school. Here, Philips establishes herself as seeking an ideal Royalist husband: literate, of "good estate," and possessing beauty of mind. But Fate dealt Philips something quite different. James Philips, while instrumental in the formation of a local free school,²⁴ was never recorded as being a man of books. He was recorded, however, as having made many enemies and was seen by some to be an enthusiastic sequestrator.²⁵

Additionally, the manuscript provides a glimpse of Philips' early creative life, demonstrating that she was already familiar with the mechanics of composition and was approaching mastery of the heroic couplet. This manuscript also signals Philips' interest in communicating with other women through poetry, although the absence of her subsequent use of pseudonyms for her friends is noticeable since the work is dedicated directly to Anne Barlow. However, by at least 15 February 1651/2, Philips was employing pseudonyms, as in her "Philoclea's Parting."²⁶ Perhaps even more significant than the absence of a pseudonym for Barlow is the absence of the Orinda persona, so obvious later in her copybook.

Finally, in these pieces, Philips deals, as so many beginning poets do, with the topic of romance, but her voice is that of a pragmatic young woman of good humor voicing clearly anti-romantic expectations about love and marriage. The sentiments are hardly original, yet the perspective and voice are not so common in English literature. One thinks of Shakespeare's Beatrice or Congreve's Millamant, but the witty sophistication of such characters is very distant from Philips' tone. That distance might in some measure be related to the fact that Philips does not speak as a character imagined by a male author but as herself, a woman who would go on to transform herself into "the Matchless Orinda," the celebrator of the Platonic love of one woman for another.

[Text]

No blooming youth shall ever make me err
I will the beauty of the mind prefer
If himans rites shall call me hence
It shall be with some man of sence
5 Nott with the great butt with a good estate
Nott too well read nor yet illetterate
In all his actions moderate grave & wise
Redyer to bear than offer injuries
And in good works a constant doer
10 Faithfull in promise & liberall to the poor
He thus being quallified is allways seen
Ready to serve his friend his country & his king
Such men as these yout say there are but few
Their hard to find & I must grant it too
15 Butt if I ^ever hap to change my life
Its only such a man shall call me wife.

Humbly Dedicated too M^rs Anne Barlow C. Fowler

A marry^d state affords but little Ease
The best of husbands are so hard to please
This in wifes Carefull faces you may spell
Tho they desemble their misfortunes well
5 A virgin state is crownd with much content
Its allways happy as its inocent
No Blustering husbands to create y^r fears
No pangs of child birth to extort y^r tears
No childrens crys for to offend your ears
10 Few worldly crosses to distract y^r prayers
Thus are you freed from all the cares that do
Attend on matrymony & a husband too
Therefore Mad^m be advised by me
Turn turn apostate to loves Levity
15 Supress wild nature if she dare rebell
Theres no such thing as leading Apes in hell

A receipt to cure a Love sick Person who cant obtain the Party desired

Take two oz: of the spirits of reason three oz:
of the Powder of experiance five drams of the Juce
of Discretion three oz: of the Powder of good advise
& a spoonfull of the Cooling watter of consideration
make these all up into Pills & besure to drink a
little content affter y^m & then the head will be
clear of maggotts & whimsies & you restored to y^r
right sences but the persons that wont be ruld must
become a sacrifise to cupid & dye for love for all
the Doctors in the world cant cure y^m
if this wont do apply the plaister & if that wont
do itts out of my power to find out what will

Notes

¹John Aubrey, Aubrey's Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark (Oxford, 1898), II, p. 153.

²Orielton Collection, Parcel 24. National Library of Wales. Having found the manuscript under discussion, I discovered that I had been anticipated by two others: Ronald Lockley who gives excerpts in his Orielton: The Human and Natural History of a Welsh Manor (London, 1977), pp. 19-20, and Patrick Thomas who quotes the MS in full in "An Edition of the Poems and Letters of Katherine Philips," Diss. Univ. of Wales, 1982, III, pp. 129-30. However, Lockley confuses Anne Barlow with Anne Lewis Owen and does not identify "C. Fowler." Thomas, by the generic limitations imposed upon an edition, is unable to devote space to the implications of the manuscript. Additionally, since neither author's work is readily available, the Orielton MS is presented here for consideration.

³John Fowler belonged to the Clothworkers' Guild, having paid his 29d. fee to join the guild on 18 July 1612. Between 1615-16, he became wealthy enough to set up his own workshop and to hire employees. By 1623, he had been elected as fourth of the four Wardens of the Yeomanry for 1624. He appears in annual lists of the Livery until his death in 1642. Joshua, his son by his first wife and Katherine's half-brother, became a member in 1645. (Letter received from D. E. Wickham, Archivist for the Clothworkers' Guild, 4 July 1984.)

⁴An uncle, John Oxenbridge, became pastor of the First Church of Boston, Massachusetts. See The Records of the First Church in Boston, 1630-1868, ed. Richard D. Pierce (Boston, 1961), XXXIX, p. xxxiv. An aunt, Elizabeth Oxenbridge Cockcroft, in 1645 took as her second husband Oliver St. John, Cromwell's Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from 1648-60 who had been married formerly to Cromwell's cousin Elizabeth. See William Durrant Cooper, The Oxenbridges of Brede Place, Sussex and Boston, Massachusetts (London, 1860), p. 6. Additionally, Katherine Philips' own mother lived to marry three times, her last husband being the famous Puritan military leader and writer of devotional books for his troops, Philip Skippon, Cromwell's major-general of London. See "The Will of Phillip Skippon, Major-General," Prob. 11/300, pr. 25 October 1660, by his son Phillip. Public Records Office, London.

⁵Aubrey, II, p. 153.

⁶Little is known of Mrs. Salmon's School and nothing of its curriculum. Indeed, its very existence can no longer be documented since none of the ratebooks for the period have survived. (Letter received from David Mander, Archivist for Library Services of Hackney, 15 January 1985.)

⁷An intent to marry was filed in London 23 August 1648. See Marriage License Allegations in the Registry of the Bishop of London, 1597-1648, ed. Reginald M. Glencross (London, 1937), XXV, p. 256.

⁸Basil Henning, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1660-1690 (London, 1983), III, p. 239.

⁹The National Library of Wales has lately purchased another manuscript copy of Pompey (NLW 21867B--General Collection), their first copy being NLW 776B. The more recent acquisition is believed to date from the second half of the seventeenth century. It appears to have been originally part of a larger volume, coming to the library with the remains of raised bands and gold-tooled calf on its spine.

¹⁰W. R. Chetwood, A General History of the Stage (London, 1749), p. 52 and Katherine Philips, Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus (London, 1705), letter no. xxvi, dated 8 April 1663, p. 124.

¹¹Letters, p. 122.

¹²A Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, 1640-1708 A. D. (London, 1913; rpt. New York, 1950), p. 339.

¹³Stationer's Register, p. 334. The edition concerned is Poems By the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. (London, 1664).

¹⁴Records indicate one performance where Lady Castlemaine took a part, wearing the Crown Jewels taken from the Tower of London for the occasion. See The London Stage, 1660-1800, ed. William Van Lennep (Carbondale, Ill., 1965), I, pp. 128-29.

¹⁵Katherine Philips, Poems By the most deservedly Admired M^rs Katherine Philips, The Matchless Orinda To which is added Monsieur Corneille's Pompey and Horace, Tragedies (London, 1667).

¹⁶John Keats, The Letters of John Keats, ed. Maurice Buxton Forman, 3rd ed. (London, 1947), letter no. 22, dated 21 September 1817, p. 45.

¹⁷Emma Owen, who lived during the early eighteenth century, was the eleventh of twelve children of Sir Arthur Owen and Emma Owen of Orielton. Dying childless, she was married to William Bowen of Williamston, Pembrokeshire, one of the Bowens of Upton Castle. Ronald Lockley documents this information and the existence of her dog Sancho whose grave he found in a little cemetery for three pets located just behind Orielton manor on the other side of a lily pond. See Lockley, pp. 23-24.

¹⁸Katherine Philips, "Poems: Orinda," NLW 775B, National Library of Wales.

¹⁹Letter received from J. D. Owen, Curator of the Ceredigion Museum, Cardiagan, Wales, 5 July 1984.

²⁰Bartholomew Gazeteer of Britain, comp. Oliver Mason (Edinburgh, 1977), p. 224. All mileages are drawn from a map in this volume on p. 22.

²¹Francis Green, "The Barlows of Slebech" in West Wales Historical Records (Carmarthen, Wales, 1913), p. 144.

²²John Roland Phillips, Memoirs of the Civil War in Wales and the Marches, 1642-1649 (London, 1874), II, p. 153.

²³Green, p. 142. John Barlow "of Slebitch" is also mentioned as one being investigated under "An Act concerning the Sequestration of South-Wales and County of Monmouth 23 Feb. 1648/9" in Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660, ed. C. H. Firth and R. S. Rait (London, 1911), II, p. 14. However, nothing seems to have been done until the date mentioned by Green. As Green states, Barlow's son John did not petition to regain one-fifth of the property for himself and the other children until 13 November 1651. Yet, when their request was granted, arrears were also awarded dating from 24 December 1649. This then would indicate an earlier sequestration date, but a date still well within the period considered here.

²⁴John Roland Phillips, A List of the Sheriffs of Cardiganshire from A. D. 1539 to A. D. 1868 with Genealogical and Historical Notes (Carmarthen, Wales, 1868), p. 17 and W. A. L. Vincent, The State and School: Education, 1640-1660 in England and Wales (London, 1950), p. 54.

²⁵W. R. Williams, The Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales, 1541-1895 (Brecknock, Wales, 1895), p. 30.

²⁶Philoclea, so far unidentified, can now be named by means of Philips' copybook, NLW 775B, p. 37, as being "Mrs. M. Stedman" who was probably Mallet Stedman of Strata Florida, Cardiganshire, less than forty miles northeast of Cardigan. Mallet was one of four children of John Stedman and Jane Vaughan. Mallet's eldest brother, James, married Margaret, daughter of Richard Owen of Rhiwsaeson, Montgomery. Upon James Stedman's death in 1672, Margaret married Hector Philips, the brother of James Philips. See Francis Green, "Stedman of Strata Florida" in West Wales Historical Records (Carmarthen, Wales, 1921), pp. 100-01.

Source: Claudia Limbert, "Two Poems and a Prose Receipt: The Unpublished Juvenalia of Katherine Philips." English Literary Renaissance 16, no. 2 (spring 1986): 383-90.