'I lov'de thee best': London as Male Beloved in Isabella Whitney's 'The Manner of her Wyll'.

<title/> This paper reflects on the role of London as male Beloved in Whitney's 'Last Wyll and Testament'. Such a characterization of the city, the paper argues, has two consequences. First, it complicates and provides an important challenge to the ubiquitous personification of London as female in early modern England. Second, this dynamic between female speaker and male Beloved encourages a reconsideration of Whitney's agency in the poem - often celebrated as forceful - as more consciously ironic (although, ultimately, all the more compelling and effective because of it). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]