Life and Work
Henry Willoughby was the second son of a Wiltshire gentleman of the same name, and matriculated from St John's College, Oxford in December 1591 at the age of sixteen. He is probably the same Henry Willoughby 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 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 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.
Read more about this topic: Henry Willobie
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or work:
“The writing career is not a romantic one. The writer’s life may be colorful, but his work itself is rather drab.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
“It is necessary to get a lot of men together, for the show of the thing,—otherwise the world will not believe. That is the meaning of committees. But the real work must always be done by one or two men.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)