Poaching

Story about deer poaching

Shakespeare's early biographer, Nicholas Rowe, relates that he was caught poaching in a park claimed by Sir Thomas Lucy, and felt that 'he was prosecuted by that Gentleman ... somewhat too severely and in order to revenge that ill usage he made a ballad upon him.....' which 'redoubled the Prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged to leave his businesse and Family in Warwickshire for some time and shelter himself in London.' The ballad:

A parliament member, a justice of peace,

At home a poor scare-crow, at London an asse,

If lowsie is Lucy, as some volke miscalle it,

Then Lucy is lowsie whatever befall it.

He thinks himself greate,

But an asse is his state,

We allow by his eares but with asses to mate,

If lowsie is Lucy, as some volke miscall it

Sing Oh Lowsie Lucy whatever befall it.

Lucy was at this time aggressively availing himself of anti-Catholic legislation to take possession of the property of absent Catholic landowners (in general those who had fled the country to avoid government persecution) in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon. Yes, Lucy really was lousy, but baiting the bull like this was a dangerous business in these troubled times: Edward Arden, head of the distinguished and ancient Catholic Arden family, whose father, William, was second cousin to Shakespeare's mother, was hung, drawn and quartered on 20 December, 1583, on evidence extracted by torture from his son-in-law, John Somerville, implicating him in a Catholic plot against the Queen. No doubt, part of the reason for Arden's downfall related to the fact that he had dared to cross the Queen's favourite, Robert Dudley, Lord Leicester, whose seat at Warwick made him a near neighbour of both Arden and Shakespeare.

Justice Shallow

The poaching story is corroborated by the appearance in the Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV of a fictional character (Justice Shallow) who is a close parallel to the real Sir Thomas Lucy. Shallow is Justice of the Peace, Custos Rotulorum and armigerous, with a 'dozen white Luces' in his coat of arms, and is shown acting as Commissioner for the Musters. Sir Thomas was a knight, Justice of the Peace, Custos Rotulorum and Commissioner of Musters. In The Merry Wives, Sir John Falstaff is brought before Shallow, who arraigns him in that he has 'beaten my men, kill'd my deere, and broke open my Lodge'.

William Fulman

The poaching story is also supported by an entry in William Fulman's (1632-1688) notebooks made by his friend Richard Davies, which states that Shakespeare was 'much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and rabbits particularly from Sir Lucy who had him oft whipt and sometimes imprisoned and at last made him fly his native country to his great advancement, but his reveng was so great that he is his justice clod-pate and calls him a great man and in allusion to his name bore three louses rampant for his arms.' Of Shakespeare, he notes afterwards: 'He died a papist'.

The revered national poet

Clearly having the revered national poet exposed as a felon (poacher) and a Catholic was not subsequently in the interests of the State, and commentators have gone to extreme lengths at various times to argue against these well documented conclusions. This is to say nothing of the complete refusal by commentators generally to take on board the inescapable conclusion that Shakespeare was involved in a long-standing and passionate homosexual relationship with the Earl of Southampton (see later). So much for the impartiality of historians. Where Shakespeare did not conform to the ideal stereotype of the national poet, elements of his biography were suppressed or distorted to conform to what was required.