Henry Willobie (1575? – 1596?) is the supposed author of a 1594 poem called Willobie his Avisa (in modern spelling, Willoughby's Avisa), whose main claim to fame is a possible connection with William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's personal life.

Life and work

Henry Willoughby was the second son of a Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

 gentleman of the same name, and matriculated

Matriculation

Matriculation, in the broadest sense, means to be registered or added to a list, from the Latin matricula – little list. In Scottish heraldry, for instance, a matriculation is a registration of armorial bearings...

 from St John's College, Oxford

St John's College, Oxford

__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...

 in December 1591 at the age of sixteen. He is probably the same Henry Willoughby who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 from Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

 early in 1595. He published Willobie his Avisa in 1594.

Willobie may have died before 30 June 1596, when a new edition of Willobie his Avisa was published with the addition of an "Apologie" by Hadrian Dorrell, a friend of the author, which describes him as "now of late gone to God." Dorrell alleges that he found the manuscript of Willobie his Avisa among his friend's papers, which were left in his charge when Willoughby departed from Oxford on Her Majesty's service. There is no trace of any Hadrian Dorrell in the historical record, and the name may be a pseudonym, perhaps even for Willobie himself. Christopher Hill

Christopher Hill (historian)

John Edward Christopher Hill , usually known simply as Christopher Hill, was an English Marxist historian and author of textbooks....

 has suggested that Matthew Roydon may have been the author.

Willobie his Avisa proved extremely popular, and passed through numerous editions. In 1596, Peter Colse produced an imitation named Penelope's Complaint.

Modern sources usually give the date of Henry Willobie's death as 1597x1605.

Connection with Shakespeare

Willobie his Avisa was licensed for the press by printer John Windet

John Windet

John Windet was an English printer, notable for his music publications. He was a close business associate of fellow printer John Wolfe. After 1591, Wolfe ceased printing the lucrative metrical psalter of Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins, and Windet succeeded him in becoming the sole printer of...

 on September 3, 1594. In the printed text, the poem is preceded by two commendatory poems, the second of which, signed "Contraria Contrariis; Vigilantius; Dormitanus," contains a reference to Shakespeare's poem The Rape of Lucrece

The Rape of Lucrece

The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...

, published four months previously:

"Yet Tarquyne pluckt his glistering grape,

And Shake-speare paints poore Lucrece rape."

This is the earliest known printed allusion to Shakespeare by name (aside from the title pages of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece).

The poem itself concerns a female character, Avisa (whose name is explained in Dorrell's "Epistle to the Reader" as an acronym for Amans Uxor Inviolata Semper Amanda). Avisa tells a story alternately with her suitors, one of whom is introduced to the reader in a prose interlude signed by the author as "Henrico Willobego Italo Hispalensis". This passage contains a reference which may refer to Shakespeare. It runs as follows ('H.W.' refers to Willobie, and 'A' to Avisa):

"H. W. being suddenly infected with the contagion of a fantastical fit, at the first sight of A, ... bewrayeth the secresy of his disease unto his familiar frend W. S., who not long before had tried the courtesy of the like passion, and was now newly recovered ... he determined to see whether it would sort to a happier end for this new actor, than it did for the old player." (spelling modernized)

Then follows a dialogue between H. W. and W. S., in which the latter gives somewhat commonplace advice to the disconsolate wooer.

The use of the word "actor" and "player" in connection with the initials 'W.S.' is suggestive that the latter may refer to Shakespeare. If so, and if the poem is autobiographical, it implies that Willobie was in love with a woman who had been previously involved with Shakespeare. The advice of "W.S." is also very similar to that expressed in the poem "Whenas thine eye", published as the work of Shakespeare in the 1599 collection The Passionate Pilgrim

The Passionate Pilgrim

The Passionate Pilgrim is an anthology of 20 poems that were attributed to "W. Shakespeare" on the title page, only five of which are accepted by present-day scholars as authentically Shakespearean.-Editions:...

. However, the authorship of this poem is uncertain, as the collection published poems by various authors under Shakespeare's name.