Thomas Lucy ignorant, stupid man. The "three louses rampant" refer to the arms actually borne by Lucy. The "dozen white luces" in the play is merely one of Slender's mistakes. At all events, here we have the earliest explanation of the remarkable satirical allusions to the Lucy family at the commencement of the Merry Wives of Windsor. "I will make a Starchamber matter of it," says Justice Shallow; and we have just seen that the offence of deer-stealing was referred to that arbitrary court.* "You have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge." Davies tells us moreover, what we should have believed independently of his authority, that Sir Thomas Lucy was ridiculed under one of his characters. That character is Justice Shallow, and the satire is by no means confined to one play. There can be little doubt but that the exquisite descriptions of a country justice of peace in *Among the unpublished papers in the Talbot collection is a letter from the Earl of Derby, dated 1589-90, relating to a deer-stealer in Staffordshire, whom he binds over to appear before Lord Shrewsbury, "and at the nexte terme (God willinge) I will call hym into the Starre Chamber to answeere his misdemenors. In the same MSS. is a letter from the Archbishop of York, 1556-7, relating to "divers evill disposed personnes who entred into the same parke by night season with grehoundes and bowes entending to destroy our deare." the Second Part of Henry IV. are in some degree founded upon Sir Thomas Lucy. When Falstaff says, "if the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but I may snap at him," we see a direct personal allusion, a luce being merely a full-grown pike. Harrison, in his Description of England, p. 224, says, "the pike, as he ageth, receiveth diverse names, as from a frie to a gilthed, from a gilthed to a pod, from a pod to a jacke, from a jacke to a pickerell, from a pickerell to a pike, and last of all to a luce." Shallow's declaration, "I am, sir, under the king, in some authority," the constant ebullitions of importance where so much is inadequate in his nature to support it, and touches that give his whole character the air of a semiludicrous creation, would more severely wound an individual, if Sir Thomas was recognised by such foibles, than Thomas the keenest verses attached to the gates of Charlecote Park. I trust that in adopting this view of the case, believing the account given by Davies to shadow the truth, I am not falling into the error of particularising a generic character. I am too well aware that Shakespeare's inventions were "not of an age, but for all time;" but in this instance we have palpable evidence of an allusion to an individual, a neighbour of Shakespeare, introduced in a manner to leave no room for hesitating to believe that a retaliating satire was intended. Again, observe how severe is Falstaff on Shallow's administration of justice, on the "semblable coherence of his men's spirits and his." Davy's interceding for his friend Visor is one of the keenest satires of the kind to be found in Shakespeare. It is well known that Shakespeare, throughout his life, retained a strong affection for his native town, but I do not think it has ever been observed how often he adopted the names of his characters from his neighbours in Warwickshire. In the play we have just been noticing, there are several remarkable instances of this. Bardolf and Fluellen were names well known at Stratford. At a meeting of the town council, 9 March, 1604, it was "ordered that Isabell Bardolf, widow, shall have and enjoy one tenement in the almeshouse with widdow Bishopp." In the registry of the Court of Record, August 19th, 1584, William Parsons brought an action of debt against William Fluellen, "Willielmus Parsons quer. versus Willielmum fflewellyn def. de placito debiti ;" and Anne Fluellen is mentioned in the Chamberlains' accounts for 1604, "the summe of monye receyved in the consell house, and of Isabell Hudson, Anne Fluellyn, and widow Cowle, elected almesweomen, and from the ringers of the chappels great bell, is, 11li. 13s. 6d." William Fluellen and George Bardolf are found in the list of recusants, printed at p. 72. The name of Shallow's servant Davy may have been taken from Davy Jones, an inhabitant of Stratford, who is mentioned in the extracts I have given from the Chamberlains' accounts as exhibiting a "pastyme" at Whitsuntide. Two persons of the names of Perkes, inhabitants of Snitterfield, have already been mentioned (p. 8), and Peto* was a Warwickshire magistrate contemporary with Sir Thomas Lucy. In the rolls of King's Bench, 28 Eliz. John Richardson is mentioned as bringing an action against Thomas Partlett. This entry may be referred to an antiquary of the old In the corporation archives at Warwick is preserved "The note of such typlers and alehouse-kepers as the justices of peax have returned to me this Michilmas sessions. Thies underwriten were returnyd by Sir Thomas Lucy and Humfrey Peyto, esquire." Mich. 15 Eliz. school. What follows is more to the purpose. The names of Sly, Herne, Horne, Brome, Page, and Ford, will be found in the following extracts from the MSS. in the Council Chamber at Stratford. It may be necessary to add that Herne the hunter is called Horne in the first sketch of the Merry Wives, and that Brome will be found to be Ford's assumed name in the first folio: 1570. Inprimis for a howse and a barne in Henley Stret in the tenure of John Page and John Carpenter als. ix.8. iiij.d. Item, we praie allowaunce for the muckhill in the Rather Stret in the tenure and occupacion of John Page viij.d. 1585. Paid to John Page for mendynge the grete bell, when the clypps of iron were loste Paid to Herne for iij. dayes worke 1597. R. of Mr. Parsons for the house where John Page dwelled R. of Thomas Fordes wiffe ij.s. ij.s. vj.d. iiij.d. vj.s. viij.d. 1606. Reginalde Brome, of Woodlowe in the countye of Warwicke, deed dated Dec. 20th, 4 Jac. I. 1613. Paid to Hearne for mending a dorman in the scole before the glasse was set in yt, ij.d., and for lath nailes, ob., in all ij.d. ob. 1626. Thomas Greene, Symon Horne, John Heminges, of Bishopton, concerned in a purchase of tithes. 1630. Item, of Joane Slie for breaking the Sabath by traveling 1633. William Horne, mentioned in a deed, May 17, 9 Car. I. 3-4. I do not of course infer that these were in every case the persons from whom Shakespeare derived the names, but still it is curious to see that he condescended to employ in his plays the appellations of persons with whom he was probably familiar in his youth; and I have introduced the subject here, because it appears to me that this circumstance tends to exhibit in itself a probability in favour of early local allusions in his plays. It must be conceded that Sir Thomas Lucy had in some way or other persecuted the poet, for nothing short of a persecution would have provoked an attack from one elsewhere so moderate and gentle in the few notices he has recorded of his contemporaries. The Lucys possessed great power at Stratford, and were besides not unfrequently engaged in disputes with the corporation of that town. Records of one such dispute respecting common of pasture in Henry VIII.'s reign are still preserved in the Chapter House; and amongst the miscellaneous papers at the Rolls House, i. 491, I met with an early paper bearing the attractive title of "the names of them that made the ryot uppon Master Thomas Lucy esquier." This list contains the names of thirty-five inhabitants of Stratford, mostly tradespeople, but none of the Shakespeares were amongst the number. We may safely accept the deer-stealing story, not in all its minute particulars, but in its outline, to be essentially true, until more decisive evidence can be produced which shall also explain equally well the allusions to which we have above referred. It is now necessary that Rowe's account of the matter in 1709 should be exhibited. Upon his leaving school, he seems to have given entirely into that way of living which his father proposed to him; and in order to settle in the world after a family manner, he thought fit to marry while he was yet very young. His wife was the daughter of one Hathaway, said to have been a substantial yeoman in the neighbourhood of Stratford. In this kind of settlement he continued for some time, till an extravagance that he was guilty of, forced him both out of his country and that way of living which he had taken up; and though it seemed at first to be a blemish upon his good manners and a misfortune to him, yet it afterwards happily proved the occasion of exerting one of the greatest geniuses that ever was known in dramatick poetry. He had, by a misfortune common enough to young fellows, fallen into ill company, and amongst them, some that made a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him more than once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and in order to revenge that ill usage, he made a ballad upon him. And though this, probably the first essay of his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter, that it redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree, that he was obliged to leave his business and family in Warwickshire for some time, and shelter himself in London. At Stratford there was a late tradition that Shakespeare stole the deer to "furnish forth his marriage table." Had |