Sir Thomas Lucy Charlecote Park

One of the many mysteries concerning William Shakespeare – aside from whether or not he actually wrote the plays attributed to him – is, what led him to abandon his wife and three children to seek employment in the precarious world of the London Theatre? History is mute as to his motivation. Thus legend and gossip have stepped nimbly into the breach to create a plethora of fanciful theories about what drove him away. One of the most colourful and enduring of these tales has become indelibly linked with the extensive grounds of Charlecote Park and its then owner Sir Thomas Lucy.

Completed in 1558, Charlecote was the first great Elizabethan manor house to be built in Warwickshire. Part of the walled estate that surrounded it was left as a free-warren, in the dense undergrowth of which rabbits, hares, foxes, pheasants and other beasts of chase were watched over by several game- keepers. Whether deer were grazed on the estate in Shakespeare’s youth is doubtful, but according to an 18^th century tradition, he was caught poaching Sir Thomas Lucy’s venison and the enraged landowner punished the transgression with a viscous flogging. The youthful bard, already showing literary promise, retaliated by libellously lampooning his persecutor in a satirical verse, which he duly nailed to the gates of Charlecote Park.

In his 1778 Shakespeare George Steevens recalled a “very aged gentleman living in the neighbourhood of Stratford…. who could remember the first stanza of that bitter ballad.. and here it is, neither better nor worse..”

A bitter barb to sling at the reputation of a powerful local dignatory and, with the threat of another beating looming, Shakespeare fled to London. But, he never forgot his pompous persecutor and, many years later, exacted literary revenge by immortalising him as Justice Shallow in Merry Wives of Windsor and, apparently, poking fun at the Lucy coat of arms. They had adopted as their heraldic device the freshwater fish the Luce – better known as the pike in its full- grown state – and in scene one, Shakespeare makes a pun at the family’s expense by having Sir Hugh Evans refer to the Luces on shallows’ coat as Louses.

Of course, there is no hard evidence to back up either the deer-poaching tradition or the fact that there existed bad blood between Shakespeare and Lucy. But it has proved an enduring legend, and to picture a high-spirited and youthful Shakespeare, stalking his quarry amongst the majestic oaks and ancient elms of the beautiful Charlecote grounds, is to embark upon a flight of fancy, that adds a delightfully human touch to one of history’s more intriguing and enigmatic figures.