|
''Willobie His Avisa'' is a narrative poem that was published as a pamphlet in London after being entered in the Registers of Stationer's Hall on 3 September 1594. It purports to have been written by a person called "Henry Willobie" with an introduction by "Hadrian Dorrell". It is possible that these are pseudonyms, though a real Henry Willobie certainly existed.〔Gray, Henry David. ''Shakespeare, Southampton and Avisa''. Stanford Studies in Language and Literature. 16–21.23 Stanford University Press. 1941. page 143. ()〕〔Sams, Eric. ''The Real Shakespeare; Retrieving the Early Years, 1564 – 1594''. Yale University Press. 1995. ISBN 0-300-06129-3. page 95.〕 The central story tells of Avisa, who is at first a maid and then an innkeeper's wife. She is besieged by a series of would-be seducers, one after the other. She rebuffs each of them and remains a chaste and a constant wife.〔Drabble, Margaret. ''The Oxford Companion to English Literature''. Oxford University Press. 1985. page 1071.〕 It is told in seventy-two cantos, the cantos are made up of six-line stanzas of iambic tetrameters, which rhyme ''ababcc''.〔Hughes, Charles. ''Willobie His Avisa with an Essay Towards its Interpretation''. Sherratt & Hughes. London. 1904. page ix. ()〕 The pedestrian quality of poem has left critics unimpressed,〔〔Gray, Henry David. ''Shakespeare, Southampton and Avisa''. ''Stanford Studies in Language and Literature''. 16–21.23 Stanford University Press. 1941. page 144. ()〕 and it was censured by the authorities in 1599.〔 The work is enigmatic regarding the actual identities of its characters and its author,〔Hughes, Charles. ''Willobie His Avisa With an Essay Towards its Interpretation''. Sherratt and Hughes, London. 1904 page xxvi ()〕 but its popularity suggests that Tudor audiences knew what was being said. It was republished six times between 1594 and 1635. ''Willobie His Avisa'' is of particular interest to Shakespearean studies, because it contains literature's first extant, independent mention of William Shakespeare.〔Acheson, Arthur. ''Mistress Davenant, the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets''. Bernard Quaritch, London. 1914. page 119. ()〕 This occurs in an introductory poem printed in the first pages. Also, one of the characters, "W.S.", is widely thought to be based on William Shakespeare. W.S. is presented as a friend to "H.W." (Henry Willobie), and offers him advice on wooing Avisa.〔Gray, Henry David. ''Shakespeare, Southampton and Avisa''. ''Stanford Studies in Language and Literature''. 16–21.23 Stanford University Press. 1941. page 143 ()〕 == The title page == The title page reads in full: “Willobie his Avisa. Or The true Picture of a modest Maid, and of a chaste and constant wife. In Hexamiter verse. The like argument whereof, was never heretofore published. Read the preface to the Reader before you enter farther. A vertuous woman is the crown of her husband, but she that maketh him ashamed, is as corruption in his bones. Proverb. 12.4. Imprinted at London by John Windet. 1594.”〔Hughes, Charles. ''Willobie His Avisa with an Essay Towards its Interpretation''. Sherratt & Hughes. London. 1904. page 2. ()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Willobie His Avisa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|