It’s best to read ‘Willobie his Avisa’ Decoded: Part One first.
Satire in 1594 was a dangerous game.
In 1579 Queen Elizabeth had ordered pamphleteer John Stubbs’s right hand to be chopped off……
….. for….
……seditious libel……
(The Queen had to be persuaded not to execute him)
But in the same way that serial killers are said to purposely leave clues to their identity, so does the Willobie author….
…….through coded topography……
…….and coded language…….
(1) Coded Topography
The Willobie author writes how the Four Graces, Venus, Pallas, Diana and Juno meet…..
At Wester side of Albion’s isle
Where Austin pitcht his monkish tent
Where shepherds sing, where muses smile
…..in order to create Avisa……
The location for this miraculous birth is, as many have convincingly argued, a coded description of Cerne Abbas in Dorset…..
‘Austin’ – St. Augustine – founded a monastery there…….
……and legend has it that the Saint struck the earth with his staff…….
……and water gushed forth…..
This became a holy well…..
…..worshipped for its magical properties to this day…..
People leave wishes, wrapped in tiny scrolls of paper, hanging on the bushes….
……….and women who wish to become pregnant drink the waters…….
……….and girls, who want to find a husband, pray to St. Catherine, then twirl three times before the well’s ‘Catherine Wheel’…..
The waters are said to cure eye-strain….
……mothers, to ensure the health of their babies, dip them into the well when the first rays of the sun touch the waters……
……and if you look into the well on Easter Day, you will see reflected over your shoulder all those who will die in the coming year.
This is how the well appeared in 1790……
…..and probably looked in 1594. The well had been part of a chapel dedicated to St. Catherine which had been demolished in Henry VIII’s time.
In the 1596 sequel to Willobie his Avisa, the Willobie author not only associates the Four Graces with Cerne Abbas: he associates them with the well itself.
He writes:
In sea-bred soil, on Tempe downs,
Whose silver spring from Neptune’s Well
With mirth salutes the neighbour towns
A hot contention lately fell:
Twice two sweet Graces, urge the strife,
Of two which was the constant wife…..
‘St. Augustine’s Well’ was originally called ‘The Silver Well’…..
Before Augustine arrived in England, St. Edwold, a Mercian King, had a vision of the well…..
……..and gave a shepherd silver pennies to show him where it was….
To this day, eels and little fish mysteriously appear in its waters……
Hence the Willobie author’s description of it as…..
Neptune’s well…..
When the Graces create Avisa, Venus gives her….
….a luring eye…
Pallas gives her…..
….a reaching head…
And Diana gives her
….feature brave….
……saying…..
Avisa shall she called be,
The chief attendant still on me….
But when Juno sees Avisa’s beauty, she becomes worried that her husband, Jove, will pursue her…..
……as he has pursued many other beautiful women and nymphs….
……in many different forms…..
So Juno refuses to give Avisa wealth.
But to make up for this, Diana gives her….
A face an eye that should entice
A smile that should deceive the wise…..
And seeming oft as though she would
Yet fardest off when that she should…..
The Willobie author then shifts the scene away from the well at Cerne Abbas:
Not far from thence there lies a vale,
A rosie vale in pleasant plain;
The nymphs frequent this happy dale,
Old Helicon revives again;
Here muses sing, here satyrs play,
Here mirth resounds both night and day.
In 1924, G.B. Harrison convincingly identified this topography as that of Sherborne, twelve miles away from Cerne Abbas…..
As you approach Sherborne from Cerne Abbas, it does indeed lie in a vale……
The Willobie author continues……
At East of this a castle stands
By ancient shepherds built of old
And lately was in shepherd’s hands,
Though now by brothers bought and sold…
The….
….ancient shepherds……
…. were Bishops with their crooks…….
….who originally built the Castle in the 12th Century…..
…..and it was…..
lately…in shepherds’ hands…
i.e. still owned by the Church………….
…….till Sir Walter Raleigh came along….
According to Sir John Harington…..
……as he [Raleigh] was riding post between Plymouth and the Court, as many times he did upon no small employment, this castle [Sherborne] being right in the way , he cast such an eye upon it as Achab did upon Naboth’s vineyard; and once, above the rest, being talking of it, of the commodiousness of the place, of the strength of the seat, and how easily it might be got from the bishoprick; suddenly over and over came his horse, that his face, which was then thought a very good face, ploughed up the earth where he fell….
Sir Walter Raleigh fell so in love with Sherborne Castle, he bribed Queen Elizabeth with money and a precious ring…….
In return she snatched the Castle away from the Church and gave it to her favourite, on a ninety-nine year lease, as a ‘gift’….
Sir Walter and his brother, Carew, attempted to modernise the castle, but failed…….
Instead they built a new one…….
The Willobie author continues:
Along this plain there lies a down,
Where shepherds feed their frisking flock
Her sire, [Avisa’s] the Maior of the town,
A lovely shout of ancient stock….
In some modern editions, ‘maior’ is changed to ‘mayor’………..
…….but there was no mayor of Sherborne at this period.
‘Maior’ can, however, suggest the ‘major’ person of the town………….
…….and in 1594 this would have been the ‘lovely’ Sir Walter…….
……who even Harington admits had…..
……a very fine face…..
Raleigh’s family, though poor, were certainly….
……..of ancient stock…..
(Queen Elizabeth surrounded herself with impoverished gentry who needed her money)
Shout….
……..(from 1464 to 1842 at least) could mean……
…… a flat-bottomed boat……
……and mariners (in 1395) were referred to as…..
shoutmen
‘Shout’ could well be a poetic abbreviation for ‘shoutman’
…….and Sir Walter,
…….The Shepherd of the Ocean…….
……..was certainly a famous mariner……
He also had strong links with Cerne Abbas.
He famously bought his ‘buskins’ there – his soft leather shoes – from a family called Hodges……
The Hodges Stone, Cerne Abbas, kindly supplied to The Code by George Mortimer.
……..which survived as a family firm long enough to supply Princess Victoria with her first pair of grown up leather shoes….
Raleigh was also ‘examined’ for blasphemy on 21st March, 1594, in Cerne Abbas………
……..along with his brother Carew, and his mathematician, Thomas Haryot.
To this day the locals talk of the hospitality afforded him by a Cerne Abbas family……
…….and there is still a house in this row associated with him…….
The Willobie author continues his description of Sherborne with:
At west side springs a crystal well
There doth this chaste Avisa dwell……
And there she dwells in public eye
Shut up from none that list to see;
She answers all that list to try,
Both high and low of each degree:
But few that come but feel her dart,
And try her well ere they depart….
Later on in the poem, the love-sick ‘H.W.’ says:
See’st yonder house, where hangs the badge
Of England’s saint, when captains cry
Victorious land, to conquering rage,
Lo, there my hopeless help [Avisa] doth lye:
And there that friendly foe doth dwell,
That makes my heart thus rage and swell….
The…..
….. house……
…..is a pub…….
…..that is why Avisa…..
…..dwells in public eye…
…..and….
The badge…..
……..is a pub sign…..
……England’s saint….
……..is St. George….
The Willobie author is describing the George Tavern in Sherborne…….
…..which, as you can see, is still standing……..
…..up quite a steep hill from the town centre….
….. and serving excellent beer to this day…..
See: http://www.thegeorgesherborne.co.uk/
Many commentators have suggested that ‘The George’ is the tavern quoted in Willobie…..
There is even a sign outside the pub to that effect, even if it does say that Willobie his Avisa is a…..
……poem, attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh, written in 1593…
But what of the……
……..crystal well……..
……where Avisa dwells?
It cannot be the well in Cerne Abbas,
…..as Harrison suggested…..
So where is it?
The Shakespeare Code sent Trixie the Cat and Tom ‘X’ to find out……
TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM, CLICK: HERE!
The Shakespeare Code 
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