Willobie His Avisa is a narrative poem that was published as a pamphlet in London after being entered in the Stationers' Register on 3 September 1594.
Willobie His Avisa is of particular interest to Shakespearean studies, because it contains literature's first extant, independent mention of William Shakespeare.
[10]After the title page are two epistles: “To all the constant Ladies & Gentlewomen of England that fear God,” and “To the gentle & courteous Reader.” Both are ascribed to Hadrian Dorrell.
[11] Dorell then says, “Whether it be altogether fayned, or in some part true, or altogether true” he does not know, but he suspects that the name, Avisa, may have been invented as an acronym for the Latin words “Amans Uxor Inviolata Sempre Amanda”, which he translates: “A loving wife, that never violated her faith, is always to be beloved.” Willobie’s intention, Dorell guesses, may be simply to tell a story that sets out “the Idea of a constant wife” to let one type of woman know she can expect “glory & praise” and the others “blacke ignominy, and foule contempt”.
[1] Dorrell then speculates alternatively that the poem may be based on actual examples, because he has discovered a note in Willobie's hand that says “Yet I would not have Avisa to be thought a politike fiction, nor a truethlesse invention.”[12] Dorrell ends his preface with an attack on writers of "lewd" tales, and by citing examples of chaste women.
The second of these, "In praise of Willowbie his Avisa, Hexameton to the Author," is signed "Contraria Contrarijs: Vigilantius: Dormitanus.” This is the poem that contains the allusion to William Shakespeare: Though Collatine have deerely bought, To high renowne, a lasting life, And found, that most in vaine have sought, To have a Faire, and Constant wife, Yet Tarquyne pluckt his glistering grape, And Shake-speare, paints poor Lucrece rape.
Avisa was born with “A face and eye that should entice” and “a flinty heart, that should endure all fierce assaults, and never yield.” She then confronts the men who would seduce her, and she rebuffs them all.
As he is about to take his turn to persuade Avisa out of her chastity, he finds that he is "not able any longer to endure the burning heat of so fervent a humor", and so he "betrayeth the secrecy of his disease unto his familiar friend, W.S., who, not long before, had tried the curtesy of the like passion.” W.S.
This episode is followed by a stanza that hints that there is more that could be revealed: But here I cease for fear of blame, Although there be a great deal more, That might be spoken of this dame That yet lies hid in secret store, If this be lik't, then can I say Ye may see more another day.
[18] The last pages of the pamphlet contain two short poems, “The resolution of a chaste and a constant wife, that minds to continue faithful unto her husband.
To the tune of Fortune.” and “The praise of a contented mind.”[19] Two years after the first printing, a second edition was issued, in which "Hadrian Dorrell" added an "Apologie showing the true meaning of Willobie his Avisa".
[20] In this addition Dorrell contradicts his earlier claim by declaring that the story is entirely a poetic fiction that was written "thirty-five years since."
(who seemeth to bee a Scholler)"[21] and refers to an earlier pamphlet published in the same year (1596), Penelope's Complaint or a Mirror for Wanton Minions taken out of Homer's Odysea and written in English Verse by Peter Colse.
This pamphlet is written in a verse form and style that is identical to Willobie his Avisa, and also the author, Peter Colse, has in common with Hadrian Dorrell that neither of their names can be found mentioned anywhere else in Elizabethan letters.
Dorell's response in his "Apologie" is to claim innocence – Willobie his Avisa was mere fiction with no intended targets.
[23] In the eighteenth century scholars encountering Willobie His Avisa accepted it at face value as a simple morality tale, not noticing the signs that suggest there is something else going on, signs that include: Dorrell’s contradictions and explanations regarding how the book came to be discovered and printed,[22] the suggestive use of initials, the censuring of the book,[24] and the inexplicable popularity of what on the surface was a pedestrian morality tale.
with Shakespeare's patron Henry Wriothesley, as well as the possibility that Willobie His Avisa was written as a libel intending to embarrass certain prominent Elizabethans.
[3] In an entry to the Stationers' Register dated 4 June 1599 following a list of books that have been burned, comes a note that "Willobies Adviso" is to be "Called in", which indicates the pamphlet was censured, assumedly by someone who was offended and could take that action.
Shakespeare, at the time, was known as an actor and author, and is believed to be the "Shake-scene" of Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, which was published two years before Willobie His Avisa.
[36] Willobie His Avisa is also seen as a variation of the story in Shakespeare's poem The Rape of Lucrece, a comparison which is suggested by Dorrell in his "Epistle to the Reader".
[37] One example can be found in these lines, spoken by W.S., and found in Willowbie His Avisa : The smothered flame, too closely pent, Burnes more extreame for want of vent … So sorrows shrynde in secret brest, Attainte the hart with hotter rage, Then griefes that are to friends exprest, Whose comfort may some part asswage.