Katherine Philips

Figlia di un mercante e pastore presbiteriano di Londra. Studiò nel collegio di Hackney dove conobbe , tra le altre, Mary Aubrey, la "Rosania" delle sue poesie. Nel 1648 sposò James Philips, uno dei parlamentari che sostennero la condanna a morte di Carlo I. Fu scoperta, come poetessa dal poeta metafisico Henry Vaughan, e compose per il poeta e drammaturgo William Cartwright (1611-1643). Fu in questo periodo che cominciò a usare lo pseudonimo "Orinda".

Dopo la Restaurazione, nonostante durante la Guerra Civile avesse manifestato simpatie monarchiche, fu coinvolta nella epurazione di quanti avevano congiurato contro il Re assieme al marito, che perse il titolo e le terre ricevute in dono da Oliver Cromwell.

Morì di vaiolo nel 1664.

Ha ispirato la figura di Orinda, vedova attempata, ipersensibile alle faccende d'amore, ed ella stessa vittima di un amore, sia pur platonico, per una donna, nella tragedia in 5 atti di Girolamo Graziani Il Cromuele (1671) ambientata nell'Inghilterra della Guerra Civile.

Lettere e poesie

• Letters by the Late Celebrated Mrs. Katherine Philips, London, W. Onley for Samuel Briscoe, 1697.
• Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus, London, Printed by W.B. for Bernard Lintott, 1705 (2nd ed. enlarged: London, Bernard Lintott, 1729).
• Mutuall Affection between Orinda and Lucasia in: Henry Lawes, Second Book of Ayres, and Dialogues,London, T. Harper for John Playford, 1655.
• Poems. By the Incomparable Mrs. Katherine Philips, London, J.G. for Richard Marriott, 1664.
• "Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, The Matchless Orinda", a cura di 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, Henry Herringman, 1667.

Traduzioni

• Pompey: A Tragedy, Pierre Cornèille: Mort de Pompée, Dublin, Printed by John Crooke for Samuel Dancer, 1663.
• Pomey. A Tragedy. Acted with Great Applause'. London, Printed for John Crooke, 1663.

Edizioni moderne

• Louise I. Guiney ed., The Orinda Booklets. No. 1. Cottingham, Near Hull, 1904.
• Julie G. Longe, ed., Martha, Lady Gifford: Her Life and Correspondence (1664-1772): A Sequel to the Letters of Dorothy Osborne, London, George Allen, 1911.
• Paul Elmen ed., “Some Manuscript Poems by the Matchless Orinda.”, in Philological Quarterly, numero 30 (January 1951), pagg. 53-57.
• The Collected Works of Katherine Philips: The Matchless Orinda. Volume 1: "The Poems". A cura di Patrick Thomas, Stump Cross, Essex, 1990.
• "A Song on a Ground, the Words by Madam Philips" in A Micellany of both songs and Personal notes Attributed to Purcell and Others, Washington D.C., The Folger's Library. Pagg. 110-111.

• Claire Buck , The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. New York: Prentice Hall, 1992, pag. 911.
• Janet Todd, British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. London, Routledge, 1989, pagg. 537-538.
• Joseph Black, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century Vol 2, Ontario, Broadview Press, 2006, pagg. 785-786.
• Edmund Gosse, Seventeenth Century Studies (1883).
• Poems, By the Incomparable Mrs K. P. appeared surreptitiously in 1664 and an authentic edition in 1667.
• Matthew, H. C. G., and B. Harrison, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Web.
• Limbert, Claudia A. “Katherine Philips: Controlling a Life and Reputation.” South Atlantic Review 56.2 (1991): 27-42.
• Llewellyn, Mark. "Katherine Philips: friendship, poetry and neo-platonic thought in seventeenth century England." Philological Quarterly 81.4 (2002): 441+. Academic OneFile. Web. 13 Mar. 2010.
• Stone Stanton, Kamille. “‘Panting Sentinels’: Erotics, Politics and Redemption in the Friendship Poetry of Katherine Philips.” Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies. [ISSN: 1557-0290] Vol. 38. Fall, 2007, pp. 71-86.
• ‘Capable of Being Kings’: The Influence of the Cult of King Charles I on the Early Modern Women's Literary Canon.” New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century. [ISSN: 1544-9009] Vol 5.1. Spring, 2008, pp. 20-29.
• Trolander, Paul and Zeynep Tenger. “Katherine Philips and Coterie Critical Practices.” Eighteenth-Century Studies. 37.3 (2004): 367-387.
• Robinson, David Michael. "Pleasant conversation in the seraglio: lesbianism, platonic love, and Cavendish's Blazing World." Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 44 (2003): 133+. Academic OneFile.

•   Wikisource contiene una pagina in lingua inglese dedicata a Katherine Philips
•   Wikimedia Commons contiene immagini o altri file su Katherine Philips

• Philips, Katherine, su sapere.it, De Agostini.  
• (EN) Katherine Philips, su Enciclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.  
• Opere di Katherine Philips, su MLOL, Horizons Unlimited.  
• (EN) Opere di Katherine Philips, su Open Library, Internet Archive.  
• (EN) Audiolibri di Katherine Philips, su LibriVox.  
• Audio: (EN) Robert Pinsky reads "A Married State" by Katherine Philips (via poemsoutloud.net)
• (EN) Katherine Philips at Luminarium.org, su luminarium.org.

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