Thomas Lucy

And yet it is the only one everybody tries to chouse him out of, the Baconians included.

The historians find themselves justified in believing that the young Shakespeare poached upon Sir Thomas Lucy's deer preserves and got held before that magistrate for it.

But there is no shred of respectworthy evidence that anything of the kind happened.

The historians, having argued the thing that might have happened into the thing that did happen, found no trouble in turning Sir Thomas Lucy into Mr.

Justice Shallow.

They have long ago convinced the world, on surmise and without trustworthy evidence, that Shallow is Sir Thomas.

Others believe different stories.

There is a legend, probably false, that he stole deer from the estate of a local magnate named Sir Thomas Lucy and had to flee Stratford in disgrace.

The story is so good that people have repeated it for centuries, but there is almost no evidence to support it.

It is the kind of myth that grows around famous people, especially when large parts of their lives are completely undocumented.

Sometimes, with them, he raided the neighbouring parks and killed the deer and poached other game, and the old tradition hints that on these occasions the others made good their escape and Shakespeare was generally caught.

Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlacote, who was the chief sufferer from the exploits of these youths, is said to have had Shakespeare whipped, imprisoned and fined for his part in them.

To London, therefore, William Shakespeare made his way.

With what credentials, if any, did he go? He had friends in London, among them Richard Field, a schoolfellow, who in 1579 had gone thither to become apprentice to a printer and in 1587, about this time when Shakespeare left home, had set up in business for himself and become a member of the Stationers' Company.

End of chapter 11 Chapter 12 of Summer Days in Shakespeare Land by Charles G. Harper This LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 12 To Charlcott, four miles east of Stratford, is an expedition rarely ever omitted by the Shakespearean tourist, for it is associated with one of the most romantic traditions of the poet's life, that of the famous poaching incident, which may well have been the disposing cause of his leaving his native town and seeking fortune in London.

The balance of opinion is strongly in favor of accepting the story, which comes down to us by way of Archdeacon Davis, vicar of the Gloucestershire village of Sapperton, who died in 1708.

He says the youth was much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and rabbits, particularly from Sir Thomas Lucy, who had him oft whipped and sometimes imprisoned and at last made him fly his native county to his great advancement.

This does not at first present a flattering picture of William Shakespeare, but we have to consider that the deer and game raiders of that era were not on the blackguardly level of the modern poacher.