Кэтрин Филипс: Жизнь и творчество "Непревзойденной Оринды"

Anglo Welsh poet and translator

Katherine or Catherine Philips (; 1 January 1631/222 June 1664), also known as "The Matchless Orinda", was an Anglo Welsh royalist poet, translator, and woman of letters. She achieved renown as a translator of Pierre Corneille's Pompée and Horace, and for her editions of poetry after her death. She was highly regarded by many notable later writers, including John Dryden and John Keats, as being influential.

Born in London, Katherine was the daughter of John Fowler, a Presbyterian cloth merchant of Bucklersbury, near the river in the City of London, and of Katherine Oxenbridge, whose father worked in the medical profession. Katherine, it seems, had a strong memory and was intellectually advanced, and was, according to a cousin of hers, able to read the Bible before the age of four. She attended boarding school from 1640 to 1645 where she began to write verse within a circle of friends and to appreciate French romances and Cavalier plays from which she would later choose many of the pet names she gave to members of her Society of Friendship. This school, run by a Mrs Salmon, was in Hackney, a hotbed of female education at the time. Philips also broke with Presbyterian traditions, in both religion and politics, by becoming a member of the Church of England, as well as an ardent admirer of the king and his policy. The couple had two children, including a son named Hector who did not live past infancy. He was buried in London in 1655. Hector's death was the subject of some of her later poems, such as "Epitaph On Her Son H. P. At St. Syth's Church" and "On the Death of my First and Dearest Childe." There she completed a translation of Pierre Corneille's Pompée, produced with great success in 1663 in the Smock Alley Theatre, and printed in the same year both in Dublin and London, under the title Pompey. Although other women had translated or written dramas, her translation of Pompée broke new ground as the first rhymed version of a French tragedy in English and the first English play written by a woman to be performed on the professional stage. In 1664, an edition of her poetry entitled Poems by the Incomparable Mrs. K. P. was published; this was an unauthorised edition that made several grievous errors. In March 1664, Philips travelled to London with a nearly completed translation of Corneille's Horace, but died of smallpox. She was buried in the church of St Benet Sherehog, later destroyed in the Great Fire of London.

She inspired the figure of "Orinda", elderly widow, hypersensitive to matters of love, and she herself a victim of love for a woman, in the Italian tragedy of 1671 Il Cromuele (Cromwell) written by Girolamo Graziani, set in England during the Civil War.

There has been speculation among critics over Katherine Philips' sexuality, specifically regarding the relationships she shared with some of her female friends. Literary critics have often highlighted suggestions of female intimacy and eroticism within Philips' work. In fact, many of her poems were written for or about fellow Society of Friendship members Anne Owen and Mary Aubrey, who went by the names of Lucasia and Rosania, respectively. A series of letters exchanged by Philips and her friend Sir Charles Cotterell between 6 December 1661 and 17 May 1664 were recovered and published in 1705, Hints of Philips' affection for Owen can be found throughout this correspondence, notably within an exchange referring to Philips' attempt to convince Owen to marry Sir Charles in order to keep her nearby, as Owen was engaged at the time and planned to move to Dublin with one Marcus Trevor. This attempt would ultimately prove unsuccessful.