Katherine Philips
Biographical Introduction
Katherine Fowler was born on New Year’s day, 1631 in London, England. Her father, John Fowler, was a Presbyterian merchant. Katherine was educated at one of the Hackney boarding-schools, institutions whose students were admired more for their beauty than their academic achievements, where she became fluent in several languages. After the death of John Fowler, Katherine’s mother married a Welshman, Hector Philips, and, in 1647, at the age of sixteen, Katherine was married to fifty-four-year old James Philips, Hector’s son by his first wife.
In spite of the difference in their ages, there appears to have been little conflict between Katherine and James. What division there was, was political in nature: she was a Royalist; he supported Oliver Cromwell. This difference in their views is recorded in Katherine’s poetry. However, James continued to reside on the coast of Wales, while his wife spent much of her time in London. He encouraged her literary activities and left her largely to her own devices.
Her time was not idly spent. Besides bearing two children (a son, Hector, who lived only forty days, and a daughter, Katherine, who lived to be married), Philips founded The Society of Friendship, wrote some hundred and sixteen poems, completed five verse translations, and translated two plays by Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) from the French. The earlier of these dramatic translations, a rendering of Pompey, was produced in 1663, the first play by a woman to be performed on the London stage. It was also performed, to great acclaim, in Dublin in the same year. The later translation, Horace, was not finished in her lifetime. Sir John Denham (1615 – 1669) completed her work, and the play was produced in 1668.
The Society of Friendship (1651-1661) was a semi-literary correspondence circle composed primarily of women, though men were also involved. The membership, however, is somewhat in question, as its members took pseudonyms from Classical literature (Katherine Philips, for instance, took the name Orinda, to which other members appended the accolade “Matchless.” It is as “Matchless Orinda” that Philips is most often known, as this was her usual signature.) Poet Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) was probably a member, and in some degree a personal friend to Philips. It was as a preface to his poems that hers were first published, in 1651. (The only other publication of Philips’ work in her lifetime was an unauthorized edition in 1664).
More important are the female members of the circle, especially Anne Owen, known in Philips’s poems as Lucasia. Fully half of Philips’s poetry is dedicated to this woman; the two seem to have been lovers in an emotional, if not in a physical, sense for about ten years. Also significant as correspondents and lovers and Mary Awbrey (Rosania) and Elizabeth Boyle (Celimena). Boyle’s relationship with Philips, however, was cut short by Philips’ death in 1664. These loves are prominent in Philips’s poetry. Because she used the language of courtly love to describe her relationships, their extent and nature are not entirely certain, but the love between these women was most likely platonic. Philips remarked at time that love between women was pure, uncorrupted by the sexual. The poetry does not overtly suggest physical relationships. In fact, Philips’ contemporaries often praised her modest, properly feminine subject matter.
Katherine Philips died of smallpox June 22, 1664, in London. She was thirty-three years old. Her death was mourned in verse by the metaphysical poet Abraham Cowley. The first authorized collection of her verse was not published until 1667. A century and a half later, the Romantic poet John Keats admired her work in a letter to a friend.
Bibliography
Early Editions
Philips, Katherine. Letters. Ed. Sir Charles Cotterell. January 29, 1664.
—. “Letters by the Late Celebrated Mrs. Katherine Philips.” Familiar Letters. Written by the Right
Honourable John, late Earl of Rochester, and several other Persons of Honour and Quality.
With Letters Written by Thomas Otway and Mrs. K. Philips. Published from their Original
Copies. With other Modern Letters by Tho. Check, Esq; Mr. Dennis; and Mr. Brown.
London: Printed by W. Onley for Samuel Briscoe, 1697.
—. Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus. London: Printed by W.B. for Bernard Lintott, 1705.
—. Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus. 2nd ed. (enlarged). London: Printed for Bernard Lintott,
1729.
—. “Mutuall Affection between Orinda and Lucasia.” Henry Lawes Second Book of Ayres, and
Dialogues. London: Printed by T. Harper for John Playford, 1655.
—. Poems. By the Incomparable Mrs. K.P.. London: Printed by J.G. for Richard Marriott, 1664.
—. Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, The Matchless Orinda. Ed. Sir
Charles Cotterell. London: Herringman, 1667.
—. Poems. By the most deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda. To
which is added, Monsieur Corneille’s Pompey & Horace, Tragedies. With several other
Translations out of French. London: Printed by J.M for Henry Herringman, 1667.
—. Trans. Pompey. A Tragedy. Pierre Corneille’s Mort de PompЁ¦e. Dublin: Printed by John
Crooke for Samuel Dancer, 1663.
—. Trans. Pomey. A Tragedy. Acted with Great Applause. London: Printed for John Crooke,
1663.
—. “To the Memory of the most Ingenious and Vertuous Gentleman Mr. Wil: Cartwright, my much
valued Friend.” Comedies, Tragi-comedies, With other Poems, by Mr. William Cartwright, late
Student of Christ-Church in Oxford, and Proctor of the University. The Ayres and Songs set
by Mr Henry Lawes. London: Printed for Humphrey Mosely, 1651.
—. “To the much honoured Mr Henry Lawes, on his Excellent Compositions in Musick.” Henry
Lawes Second Book of Ayres, and Dialogues. London: Printed by T. Harper for John
Playford, 1655.
——————————————————————————–
Twentieth Century Editions
Elmen, Paul, ed. “Some Manuscript Poems by the Matchless Orinda.” Philological Quarterly 30
(January 1951): 53-57.
Guiney, Louise I., ed. The Orinda Booklets. No. 1. Cottingham, near Hull, 1904.
Longe, Julie G., ed. Martha, Lady Gifford: Her Life and Correspondence (1664-1772): A Sequel to
the Letters of Dorothy Osborne. (includes a letter by Katherine Philips to Dorothy Temple)
London: George Allen, 1911.
Philips, Katherine. The Collected Works of Katherine Philips: The Matchless Orinda. Volume 1:
The Poems. Ed. Patrick Thomas. Stump Cross, Essex: Stump Cross, 1990.
—. “A Song on a Ground, the Words by Madam Philips.” A Micellany of both songs and Personal
notes Attributed to Purcell and Others. v.b. 197. Washington, D.C.: The Folger’s Library.
110-111.
——————————————————————————–
Critical Studies
Alspach, Russell K. “The Matchless Orinda.” Modern Language Notes 52 (February 1937):
116-17.
Andreadis, Harriette. “The Sapphic-Platonics of Katherine Philips, 1632-1664.” Signs: Journal of
Women in Culture and Society 15.1 (Autumn 1989): 34-60.
Applegate, Joan. “Katherine Philips’s ‘Orinda Upon Little Hector’: An Unrecorded Musical Setting
by Henry Lawes.” English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700 4 (1993):272-80.
Beal, Peter. “Orinda to Silvander: A New Letter by Katherine Philips.” English Manuscript Studies
1100-1700 4 (1993): 281-86.
Brashear, Lucy. “Gleanings From the Orinda Holograph.” American Notes & Queries 23
(March/April 1985): 100-2.
—. “The ‘Mathchless Orinda’s’ Missing Sister: Mrs. C. P.” Restoration: Studies in English Literary
Culture, 1660-1700 10.2 (Fall 1986): 76-81.
Easton, Celia A. “Excusing the Breach of Nature’s Laws: The Discourse of Denial and Disguise in
Katherine Philips’ Friendship Poetry.” Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture,
1660-1700 14.1 (Spring 1990):1-14.
Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. The Plays and Poems of William Cartwright. Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1951.
Fergusson, Moira, ed. The First Feminists: British Women Writers, 1578-1799. Indiana University
Press, 1985.
Fisher, Dorothea. Corneille and Racine in England. New York: Macmillan, 1904.
—. “The Matchless Orinda.” Seventeenth-Century Studies. London: K. Paul Trench, 1883.
Hageman, Elizabeth H. “The ‘False Printed’ Broadside of Katherine Philips’s ‘To The Queen’s
Majesty on Her Happy Arrival.'” The Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society
17.4 (December 1995):321-26.
—. “Katherine Philips (1632-1664).” Dictionary of Literary Biography: Seventeenth-Century British
Nondramatic Poets. v. 131. 3rd series. Ed. M. Thomas Hester. North Carolina State
University, Detroit: A Buccoli Clark Layman Book: Gale Research Inc., 1993. 202-214.
Hageman, Elizabeth H. and Sununu, Andrea. “‘More Copies of It Abroad than I Could Have
Imagin’d’: Further Manuscript Texts of Katherine Philips, ‘The Matchless Orinda.'” English
Manuscript Studies 1100-1700 5 (1995):127-69.
—. “New Manuscript Texts of Katherine Philips, ‘the Matchless Orinda.'” English Manuscript
Studies 1100-1700 4 (1993):174-216.
Hamessley, Lydia. “Henry Lawes’s Setting of Katherine Philips’s Friendship Poetry in His Second
Book of Ayres and Dialogues, 1655: A Musical Misreading?” Queering The Pitch: The New
Gay and Lesbian Musicology. Eds. Philip Brett and Elizabeth Wood and Gary C. Thomas.
New York: Routledge, 1994. 116-38.
Hiscock, W.G. “Friendship: Francis Finch’s Discourse and the Circle of the Matchless Orinda.”
Review of English Studies 15 (1939): 466-68.
Hobby, Elaine. “Katherine Philips: Seventeenth Century Lesbian Poet.” What Lesbians Do in Books.
Eds. Elaine Hobby and Chris White. London: The Women’s Press, 1992. 183-204.-
–. Virtue of Necessity: English Women’s Writing, 1649-88. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1989.
Kelliher, Hilton. “Cowley and ‘Orinda’: Autograph Fair Copies.” The British Library Journal 2.2
(Autumn 1976):102-108.
Lennep, William Van. The London Stage, 1660-1800. Carbondale: University of Illinois Press,
1965.
Limbert, Claudia A. “Katherine Philips: Another Step-Father and Another Sibling ‘Mrs. C.:P.,’ and
‘Polex.'” Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 13.1 (Spring 1989):2-6.
—. “Katherine Philips: Controlling a Life and Reputation.” South Atlantic Reviw 56.2 (May
1991):27-42.
—. “The Poetry of Katherine Philips: Holographs, Manuscripts and Early Printed Texts.”
Philological Quarterly 70.2 (Spring 1991):181-98.
—. “Two Poems and a Prose Receipt: The Unpublished Juvenalia of Katherine Philips.” English
Literary Renaissance 16.2 (Spring 1986):383-390.
—. “Two Poems and a Prose Receipt: The Unpublished Juvenalia of Katherine Philips.” Women in
the Renaissance and Reformation: Selections from “English Literary Renaissance.” Eds. Kirby
Farrell, Elizabeth H. Hageman, and Arthur F. Kinney. Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press, 1990. 179-186.
—. “‘The Unison of Well-Tun’d Hearts’: Katherine Philips’ Friendships With Male Writers.” English
Language Notes 29.1 (September 1991):25-37.
— and O’Neill, John H. “Composite Authorship: Katherine Philips and an Antimarital Satire.”
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 87.4 (December 1993):487-502.
Loscoco, Paula. “‘Manly Sweetness’: Katherine Philips among the Neoclassicals.” Huntington
Library Quarterly 56.3 (Summer 1993):259-79.
Lund, Roger D. “Bibliotecha and ‘The British Dames’: An Early Critique of the Female Wits of the
Restoration.” Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 12.2 (Fall 1988):
96-105.
MacLean, Gerald M. “What Is a Restoration Poem? Editing a Discourse, not an Author.” Text:
Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship 3 (1987):319-346.
Mambretti, Catherine Cole. “‘Fugitive Papers’: A New Orinda Poem and Problems in Her Canon.”
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 71 (October-December 1977): 443-52.
—. “Orinda on the Restoration Stage.” Comparative Literature 37.3 (Summer 1985):233-51.
Mermin, Dorothy. “Women Becoming Poets: Katherine Philips, Aphra Behn, Anne Finch.” Journal
of English Literary History 57.2 (Summer 1990): 335-55.
Moody, Ellen. “Orinda, Rosania, Lucasia et aliae: Towards a New Edition of the Works of
Katherine Philips.” Philological Quarterly 66.3 (Summer 1987): 325-54.
Mulvihill, Maureen E. “A Feminist Link in the Old Boys’ Network: The Cosseting of Katherine
Philips.” Curtain Calls: British and American Women and the Theatre, 1660-1820. Eds.
Mary Anne Schofield and Cecilia Macheski. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1991. 71-104.
Phillips, John Pavin. “The ‘Matchless Orinda,’ and her Descendants.” Notes and Queries 5 (March
1858): 202-203.
Price, Curtis A. “The Songs for Katherine Philips’ Pompey 1663.” Theatre Notebook (London). 33
(1979): 61-6.
Pritchard, Allan. “Marvell’s ‘The Garden’: A Restoration Poem?” Studies in English Literature,
1500-1900 23.3 (Summer 1983): 371-388.
Radzinowiz, Mary Ann. “Reading Paired Poems Nowadays.” Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory
1.4 (May 1990):275-290.
Reynolds, Myra. The Learned Lady in England, 1650-1760. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1920.
Roberts, William. “The Dating of Orinda’s French Translations.” Philological Quarterly 49(1970):
56-67.
—. “Saint-Amant, Orinda and Dryden’s Miscellany.” English Language Notes 1 (March 1964):
191-196.
—. “Sir William Temple on Orinda: Neglected Publications.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society
of America 57 (1963):328-36.
Sant, Patricia M. and Brown, James N. “Two Unpublished Poems by Katherine Philips.” English
Literary Renaissance 24.1 (Winter 1994): 211-28.
Shifflett, Andrew. “‘How Many Virtues Must I Hate’: Katherine Philips and the Politics of
Clemency.” Studies in Philology 94 (Winter 1997):103-35.
Souers, Philip Webster. The Matchless Orinda. Harvard Studies in English. Vol.5. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1931.
Stanford, Ann. The Women Poets in English. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.
Stiebel, Arlene. “Not since Sappho: The Erotic in Poems Of Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn.”
Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment England: Literary Representations in
Historical Context. Ed. Claude J. Summers. New York: Harrington Park, 1992. 153-71.
—. “Subversive Sexuality: Masking the Erotic in Poems by Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn.”
Renaissance Discourses of Desire. Eds. Claude J. Summers and Ted Larry Pebworth.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993. 223-36.
Thomas, Patrick H[ungerford] B[ryan]. Katherine Philips (“Orinda”). Cardiff: University of Wales
Press, 1988. 73pp.
_ _ _. “Orinda, Vaughan and Watkyns: Anglo-Welsh Literary Relationships During The
Interregnum.” Anglo-Welsh Review 56 (1976): 96-102.
Tinker, Nathan P. “John Grismond: Printer of the Unauthorized Edition of Katherine Philips’s Poems
(1664).” English Language Notes 34.1 (September 1996):30-5.
Vaughan, Henry. “To the Most Excellently accomplish’d Mrs. K. Philips.” The Complete Poetry of
Henry Vaughan. Ed. French Fogle. New York: New York University Press, 1965.
Williamson, Marilyn L. Raising Their Voices: British Women Writers, 1650-1750. Detroit: Wayne
State University Press, 1990.
Books about Katherine Fowler Philips.
Katherine Fowler Philips, Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, The Matchless Orinda (London: Herringman, 1667)
Katherine Philips, Collected Works of Katherine Philips edited by Elizabeth H. Hageman and Andrea Sununu (Oxford University Press, 1996)
Katherine Philips, Horace, conclusion by John Denham (1664)
Katherine Philips, Letters by the Late Celebrated Mrs. Katherine Philips (from Rochester’s Familiar Letters) (1697)
Katherine Philips, Letters by the Late Celebrated Mrs. Katherine Philips (from Rochester’s Familiar Letters) (1705)
Katherine Philips, Letters From Orinda to Poliarchus (1703)
Katherine Philips, Poems by the Incomparable Mrs. K.P. (1664)
Katherine Philips, Poems by the most deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda, to which is added Monsieur Corneille’s Pompey and Horace, Tragedies (1667)
Katherine Philips, Pompey (1663)
Elaine Hobby, “Katherine Philips: Seventeenth Century Lesbian Poet,” What Lesbians Do in Books, Elaine Hobby and Chris White, Editors (London: The Women’s Press, 1992) pp 183-204
Philip Webster Souers, The Matchless Orinda (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931)
Arlene Stiebel, “Not Since Sappho: The Erotic Poems of Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn” Homosexuality in Renaissance and Enlightenment England, Claude J. Summers, Editor (Binghamton, New York: Haworth, 1992) pp 153-171
Arlene Stiebel, “Subersive Sexuality: Masking the Erotic in Poems by Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn” Renaissance Discources of Desire, Claude J. Summers and Ted-Larry Pebworth, Editors (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993) pp 223-236
