Henry Willobie

Henry Willobie (or Willoughby) (1575? – 1596?) is the ostensible author of a 1594 verse novella called Willobie His Avisa (in modern spelling, Willoughby's Avisa), a work that is of interest primarily because of its possible connection with William Shakespeare's life and writings.

Henry Willobie was the second son of a Wiltshire gentleman of the same name. He matriculated from St John's College, Oxford in December 1591 at the age of sixteen, and is probably the same Henry Willobie who graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Exeter College, Oxford 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 Willobie 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.

Several authors have suggested that Willobie was not the real author of the poem. Arthur Acheson suggested that Matthew Roydon may have been the author, arguing that the poem obliquely described Shakespeare's relationship to Jane Davenant, the mother of William Davenant, who later hinted that he was Shakespeare's son. Roydon's authorship was later tentatively endorsed by G. B. Harrison, and reasserted by Christopher Hill. M. C. Bradbrook argued that it was a collaborative work written by Walter Raleigh's circle, the so-called School of Night, with which Roydon was associated.

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

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