Willobie his Avisa and The Passionate Pilgrim--Precedence,Parody,and Development.

Abstract

Commentators have long been foxed and fascinated by the peculiar relationship between Canto XLVII of Willobie his Avisa and poem xviii ('When as thine eye hath chose the dame') of The Passionate Pilgrim. Not only that, but a tantalizing relationship with Shakespeare has been forged for each. The speaker of the Willobie poem is given the initials W. S., while The Passionate Pilgrim is a more or less pseudo-Shakespearian miscellany, authenticated in parts by some genuine pieces. That Shakespeare might have been the author of either of the poems is too improbable to warrant serious conjecture. However, I hope to show that the one poem develops in response to, and indeed somewhat parodies, the other; and in discussing the relationship between them it is relevant to assess the role of Shakespeare's name, if not his personal intervention, in the proceedings. Willobie his Avisa was published in 1594 shortly after Shakespeare's poem The Rape of Lucrece to which it carries a fulsome compliment.' The resemblance between Canto XLVII of Willobie and 'When as thine eye hath chose the dame' is well known and has in turn given rise to speculation on how or whether they may be connected. William Jaggard published The Passionate Pilgrim (a miscellany of twenty sonnets and lyrics) under Shakespeare's name, though as far as can be known without authority. Canto XLVII of Willobie bears the initials W. S. W. S. figures in a dialogue with H. W. in this part of the poem and offers the latter advice on how to conduct matters with the virtuous and intractable heroine, Avisa. The canto then is spoken by W. S. Since this figure has never emerged from behind his initials, there is no saying who he might have been. Many have casually supposed that he is indeed Shakespeare, a tradition of identification which A. B. Grosart unquestioningly followed in his I88o edition of Willobie his Avisa when he wrote, 'I am inclined to conjecture that Shakespeare may have sent his friend H. W. this identical poem'.2 H. W. is of course the Henry Willobie who