The well-known tale of Shakespeare’s poaching on the preserves of Sir Thomas Lucy and his subsequent punishment is doubted by many authorities; yet this story has clung to the poet and has always been associated with the house of Charlecote.

The legend runs that Shakespeare as a gay and heedless youth stole deer from the park at Charlecote. The fact of the matter is that there were no deer at Charlecote at the time; but there was a warren, and this term legally covers a preserve for other animals than hares or rabbits. At any rate, the young poet is said to have been called up before Sir Thomas Lucy, who was then sheriff, and prosecuted in 1585. There is added the statement that Shakespeare aggravated the offence by writing a silly ballad on Sir Thomas and affixing it to his gate. This gave the Knight great offence, and Shakespeare is said to have been driven from Stratford to London. The ballad, however, is probably a forgery.

Shakespeare is generally supposed to have caricatured Sir Thomas Lucy in his portrait of Justice Shallow in the second part of “Henry IV,” and in the “Merry Wives of Windsor.” This may be true for, in the coat-of-arms of Lucy there were three “luces”; while Slender remarks of Robert Shallow that “the ancestors who come after him may give the dozen white luces in their coat.”

Sir Thomas Lucy was born on April 24, 1532. Three of his ancestors had been sheriffs of Warwickshire and Leicestershire: and on his father’s death in 1552 Thomas inherited the estates of Sherborne and Hampton Lucy, in addition to Charlecote, which was rebuilt for him by John of Padua in about 1558. In 1565 he was knighted and a few years later he became high sheriff of the county.

In 1558 Sir Thomas Lucy introduced into Parliament a bill for the better preservation of game and grain; this, together with his reputation as a preserver of game, gives some color to the Shakespearian tradition connected with his name. He died at Charlecote on July 7, 1600. The Charlecote estates eventually passed to the Rev. John Hammond through his marriage with Alice Lucy, and in 1789 he himself adopted the name of Lucy.

Charlecote is still occupied by one of his descendants. It contains a good collection of old paintings, antique furniture, and many objects of Shakespearian interest. The park is now well stocked with deer.

Charlecote Church, nearby, contains several monuments of the Lucy family, including one to the wife of Sir Thomas Lucy with a fine epitaph written by the Knight himself. This epitaph shows that Sheriff Lucy could hardly have been otherwise than kind and gentle. He may have been a severe magistrate and perhaps a haughty, disagreeable neighbor, but in those lines there is a tone of manhood and high feeling that wins a prompt response of sympathy. If Shakespeare stole the deer of Sir Thomas Lucy, he received just punishment and the Knight was not to blame.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 8, SERIAL No. 108
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

Shakespeare’s Country