^-% ^^
jiK y
..> :%.
%^f^yw*^^^^^/^ ■" '1-^!^^%
i ItU
i»' tt^
^^1^. n
*^ >t
*' w
>* *
>^-,^..'
* 5^-^
«¥ it
^f^"*.
t'fr Vr i'
K>
:> t^ -^: :. •%». Sf>^^^
'4i 1^:_ ?3s' '^^
^%
.^i^:^f
»; !»: jf S-^ >«
r*i*
1%'^riL "
it v.- ■ jt
y^..
i<fl^. ^* "^
f 'f^ .•^. ".
^J^.;^..
.1, ^'^.^:
V.-. *- .- ♦
$ .*^'
<^» *»:
v.-^'l^cU
_^ ^ ?,| -^ ^ *.* V
^ .r^
; ;%
■i..-'v.
lUIIB
iHIIHlimil:
i|;li \\l\
ill
,.|i«iti
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
Ex Librii C. K. OGDEN
SHAKESPEARE'S WARWICKSHIRE CONTEMPORARIES
O^nv Edition^ revised throughout and enlarged.
SHAKESPEARE'S
WARWICKSHIRE CONTEMPORARIES
BY
CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES
li
a
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS
SI RATFOKD-UPON-AVON
MCMVII
i.n
-i^^'sA"'^
iimimnnninnfliiniiffliiitttnti!!^
^
''jfr-
SHAKESPEARE'S
WARWICKSHIRE CONTEMPORARIES
BY
CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES
SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
MCMVII
s
PREFATORY NOTE.
Some years ago I thought that it might be of interest to the students of Shakespeare to know something of his Warwickshire contemporaries, and I wrote a series of twelve articles, one each month, for 'The Stratford-upon-Avon Herald^ which were appreciated so far that the Editor reprinted them in book form in the following year. That edition sold out at once. I have since gone over the ground again very carefully, making so many corrections and additions that the present edition may fairly claim to be a new book.
I originally selected my subjects on account of some relation, real or imaginary, which I believed they might have had to Shakespeare, and I limited them to biographies that had not been fully treated. Hence I had not mentioned the famous Warwickshire poet Michael Drayton (whom we know that Shakespeare knew), because there were good lives of him. But in the comparative leisure of drawing up a second edition, I have thought it necessary to complete the cycle of the con- temporaries by including Drayton. To do this as well as possible, I read through all his poems and editions, a voluminous task, nevertheless a
vi Prefatory Note.
necessary one, because so much of his biography is wrapped up in his works.
No full account of the Clergy and the School- masters has ever been given, and I have contributed chapters on these.
As I have done all my work, even where it has been treated before, from first-hand authori- ties, I trust I may have been able to glean not a few things that are new to my readers, and that, taken altogether, the series may help to form a background against which the facts of the Poet's life may be seen in their true proportions.
My thanks are due to Richard Savage, Esq., Secretary to the Trustees of Shakespeare's Birth- place, who read some of the proof-sheets and supplied me with valuable suggestions.
I regret that 1 did not note and correct in proof on page 45 the word "Welcombe," which had crept in for "Welford," and I regret still more that a late "find," which I thought might shed some light on the fortunes of Drayton's patrons, should accidentally have been interpolated on page 189, at a wrong date, and in apparent asso- ciation with the elder Sir Henry Goodere, It really referred to his nephew.
C. C. S.
CONTENTS.
Monument to Sir Thomas Lucy (i 551-1605)
IN Charlf.COTe Church . . . Frontispiece
Prefatory Note ...... v
CHAPTER I.
Richard Field (Ricardo del Campo), Printer
OF Shakespeare's First Book: i 561-1625 i
CHAPTER n.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder, the Real and
THE Traditional: i 532-1 600 . . 23
CHAPTER HL Sir Thomas Lucy the Second: 1551-1605 . 42
CHAPTER IV.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Third: i 585-1640 . 55
CHAPTER V.
John Somerville of Edreston : 1 560-1 583 . 68
viii Contents.
PAGE.
CHAPTER VI. Edward Arden : 1 533-1 583 . . . .89
CHAPTER VII.
Sir [ohn Conway of Arrow: 1539?- 1603 . iii
CHAPTER VIII. Edmund Neville , . . . . -123
CHAPTER IX.
The Throckmortons . . . . -134
CHAPTER X.
Francis Throckmorton . . . . .150
CHAPTER XL The Grevilles and Lord Brooke . . .161
CHAPTER XII. Dr. John Hall . . . . . '173
CHAPTER XIII. Michael Drayton: 1563-1 631 . . .187
CHAPTER XIV. The Trussells of Billesley . . . .210
Contents. ix
PAGE.
CHAPTER XV.
The Cloptons . . . . . .214
CHAPTER XVI.
The Combes . . . . . . .219
CHAPTER XVII. The Underbills ...... 226
CHAPTER XVIII. The Clergy of Stratford . . . -234
CHAPTER XIX. The Schoolmasters ...... 242
Conclusion . . . . . . .250
Index ........ 255
SHAKESPEARE'S WARWICKSHIRE CONTEMPORARIES
CHAPTER I
Richard Field (Ricardo del Campo), Printer of Shakespeare's First Book: 1561-1625.
It is pleasant to remember that the printer who brought out Shakespeare's first book was a fellow townsman, Richard Field, the son of Henry Field, tanner, of Stratford-upon-Avon, a friend of John Shakespeare, the poet's father. The very printer's devil that ran about the ofiice in 1593 was a Stratford boy, his brother, Jasper Field, apprenticed the year before. In going through the Stationers' Registers I was struck by the number of Warwickshire apprentices in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.
The poet may well have had other friends in the trade besides the Fields. Mr. Blades, a printer himself, suggested that Shakespeare spent the early years of his life in London in a printing office, as a printer's appren- tice. While finding many cogent reasons againt this theory as a whole, I hold a resembling theory, based on the same preliminary arguments.
When Shakespeare went to London as a stranger, what would be more natural to him than to go straight
B
2 Shakespeare's fVanvickshire Contemporaries
to Richard Field, avail himself of his metropolitan knowledge, and very probably share his lodgings ? He would want to know all about his friend's occupation, as he wanted to know about most things, and he learned a good deal about it. The method of Shakespeare's use of printing terms is very different from that of his use of other professional phrases ; for instance, legal terms s^enerally illustrate some point in law, or the nature of some legal mind ; medical terms have similar applications, but printing language comes forth as a natural and familiar language of the poet, without foun- dation either in his own art or his development of any special character. For instance, Paulina, a court lady, says to the Lords, regarding Hermione's child —
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father.
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger.
Winter s Tale^ ii. 3.
So Northumberland says in 2 Henry IV. ^ i. r —
Yea this man's brow, like to a title leaf. Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
Mr. Blades collected many such quotations to illus- trate his opinion, but readers may find many more of them for themselves.
A still strancrer coincidence makes Richard Field's biography of importance to the study of Shakespeare. Much ingenuity has been wasted to prove the impos- sibility of Shakespeare acquiring such wide and varied knowledge as his plays exhibit with his limited oppor- tunities in Stratford-upon-Avon, "a bookless neighbour- hood," as Halliwell-Phillipps scornfully calls it. Even if it had been, which it was not,"* we have only to follow Shakespeare up to Richard Field's home and office in
* One man alone, the Rev. John Marshall, of Bishopton, in 1607, left 187 books. See Aihcnaum^ 23 February, 1907, "Stratford's Bookless Neighbourhood."
Richard Field 3
Blackfriars to find him planted in a good reference library, in the very midst of opportunities such as his works show he could take advantage of. If anyone carefully studies the titles and contents of the books issuing from this printing press, he would not have far to go for the sources of most of Shakespeare's special knowledge, perhaps for all that he shows in his early work beyond Holinshed's Chronicles.
To understand this, we must go back a long way and consider facts that, at first sight, appear to be somewhat irrelevant. Mr. Blades does not seem to have consulted the Stationers' Registers, and hence he was mistaken about Field's apprenticeship, asserting that he did not serve with Vautrollier. Field's inden- ture was a very special and peculiar one. Doubtless the worthy tanner of Stratford-upon-Avon was willing to pay handsomely to give his son Richard the best possible chance as a printer. Perhaps his leather was good for bookbinding, and he had interest with the Company. On the loth day of August, 1579, an entry is recorded : "George Bishop. Richard Feylde, sonne of Henry Feilde, of Stratford-uppon-Aven, in the Countye of Warwick, tanner, hath putt himself apprentis to George Bishop, citizen and staconer of London, for VII. yeres from Michaelmas next, 29th Sept., 1579, IS. 6dy And another entry immediately follows : — "Thomas Vautrollier. It is agreed that this apprentis shall serve y'^ first vi. years of his apprentiship with y" said Vautrollier to learn y" arte of printing, and y'' viith with ye said G. Bishop. 3 Novr." So Field was under two masters from the first, rather an unusual thing for an apprentice. The six years he spent with Vautrollier were those that determined his after career, and, as I think, had a strong influence upon Shakespeare's. It, therefore, becomes of importance to go even further back, and learn who Vautrollier was, and what he did.
4 Shakespeare' s ff^af-wicksbire Contemporaries
According to the Stationers' books, Vautrolller was "a stranger" ; and Ames states that he was "a French- man from Paris or Rouen, who came Into England about the bemnnlnfj of Elizabeth's relcjn." He was made a brother of the Stationers' Company in the same year that Shakespeare was born, on 2nd October, 1564, for the ordinary payment of two shillings and sixpence. This suggests that he had served as a London appren- tice ; but there was not full time in Elizabeth's reign to have done so. He might have commenced with one of those friendly foreign printers who through Mary's reign printed Protestant books abroad for the English market. But that matters not to us. He did become, probably through special skill, a distinguished London printer. He seems to have been a man of probity, skill, and cultivation, a scholar of taste and judgement ; "a curious printer," Ames calls him, and not without Court influence. For besides the ordinary licence to print, which he secured in 1573, he had a patent for ten years, from 19th June, 1 574, for some books of divinity, for works in foreign languages, for Ovid, Tully, the "Dialectics" of Peter Ramus, and Plutarch's "Lives." No one was to print or import any of these under a penalty of forty shillings, and he was allowed "to keep six foreign workmen. Frenchmen or Dutchmen or such lyke, for the said space and terme of tenne years with- out any lette or disturbance of any person." The privy seal was attached to this monopoly, granted "to our wel-beloved subjecte Thomas Vautrollier, typographus Londinensis in claustro vulgo Blackfriars commorans." The patent was renewed more than once.
A note concerning Vautrollier's privileges is recorded in the Stationers' Registers, 8th July, 1578; yet in that same year he was fined by the Company for printing Luther's sermons without a licence. In 1582 there was a great outcry made by unprivileged printers
Richard Field 5
against such monopolies as hampered free trade, and an investigation was made. Christopher Barker's report shows that "Marsh was allowed the Latin schoolbooks used in the Grammar Schools; Vautrollier the other Latin books, such as Tully, Ovid, and diverse other great works in Latin." "He hath other small things wherewith he keepeth his presses at work and also worketh for booksellers of the company who keep no presses." " Marsh and Vautrollier have certain special schoolebooks wherein yet when they be spoken with, it is thought they will be reasonable." (Arber's Stat. Reg., IL, 776.) The commissioners on i8th July, 1583, advise "Marsh and Vautrollier, having the sole printing of school-bookes, may be treated withall to chose some and leave the rest."
Further complaints caused another investigation into monopolies in 1586, when a Royal Commission was appointed that vested, through a Star Chamber decree, the powers of determining these things in the master, wardens, and assistants of the Stationers' Company. Yet they did not disturb Vautrollier in his copies, nor prevent him keeping his two presses.
In 1 58 I Vautrollier seems to have been abroad, and a dispute arose between his wife and Marsh (Stat. Reg. IL, 434, 7th July, 1 581). "Yt is agreed that Thomas Vautrollier his wife shall finish this present ympression which shee is in hand withall in her husband's absence, of TuUie's Epistles with Lambini's annotations, and deliver to those that have partes therein with the said Thomas. Yf his title be found unsufficient to the said booke, then the said Thomas and his partners to yield such recompense to Mr. Thomas Marshe for this ympres- sion as the table shall think good, for the said Thomas Marshe now pretendith title thereto." On Vautrollier's return he proved that Marsh was wrong and confirmed his own title.
6 Shakespeare's PVa)-wickshire Contemporaries
Apprentice Richard Field no doubt enjoyed some- what more liberty in his master's absence, but seems to have proved faithful to his interests and devoted to his mistress, and her daughter Jacquinetta, who afterwards became his wife. In i 584 Vautrollier had again to leave his presses in the charge of his wife, his foreign work- men, and his apprentices ; for in that year, having brouirht out the works of Giordano Bruno* he had to fly the country. This time, however, he only fled to Scotland, and printed notable books there, for a stranger to touch, even the King's book, "Essays of a prentis in the art of poesie," and "The King's intention regard- ing the last Acts of Parliament," with his own device and motto, " Anchora Spei." He also brought out some of the hymns and psalms for the Scotch Service.
Thomas Baker wrote to Joseph Ames, — "Vautrollier was the printer of Jordanus Brunus in the year 1584, for which he fled, and the next year, being in Edin- burgh in Scotland, he first taught that nation the way of good printing, and there staid, until such time as by the intercession of friends he had got his pardon, as appears by a book dedicated 1587 'to the Right Wor- shipful Mr. Thomas Randolph, Esq.,' where he returns him thanks 'for his great favour, and for assisting him in his distress.'"
During the time he was in Edinbur^jh his London printing presses were not idle, for some books appeared there of the same date, bearing his name and device. Again Richard Field would be able to prove his ability in the Blackfriars printing ofiice.
It is probable that Vautrollier returned before Sep-
* Giordano Bruno, born 1548, a monk who had renounced his gown. He had written "On the Signs of the Times," had travelled all over Europe, lectured in Paris on the Thirty Divine Attributes ; and taught the Art of Memory, under the title of "De Umbris Idearum." His conception of the universe as resembling an animal was certainly known to Shakespeare. Bruno anticipates Kepler's view, Descartes' identity of thought and being, Spinoza's of an immanent God, and even the modern theory of Evolution. He was burnt at the stake in 1592.
Richard Field 7
tember, 1585, when Richard Field would have to leave his service and complete his time with George Bishop, probably for bookselling and publishing experience. Ht would, however, in September, 1586, return to the Blackfriars printing office, to leave it no more. VautroUier appears to have died in 1587-8. The last entry of a book to him occurs on the 20th February, 1587-8. His widow, "I.V." (Jacquinetta VautroUier) priited one book dated 1588. But on 4th March, 1587-8, the Court of Assistants recorded an order "That Mrs. VautroUier, late wife of Thomas Vautrol- lier, deceased, shall not hereafter print anye manner of book or books whatsoever, as well by reason that her husband was noe printer at the time of his decease, as alsoe for that by the decrees sette downe in the Starre Chamber she is debarred from the same." This sounds extraordinary. Other printers' widows were allowed to exercise the business or to carry it over to a second or even a third husband, as Mrs. Kingston and others did. All the more curious, because in the order of Succession of Master Printers, Thomas VautroUier is duly given, and it is said that Richard Field married his widow and succeeded to the business. Elsewhere it is stated that he married the daughter. This seems more likely for two reasons : first, because Richard Field's widow " Jakin" succeeded him, when he died in 1625, and carried on the business ; and second, because of the remarkable statement that "Thomas VautroUier was no printer when he died." It makes one think that VautroUier must already have handed over his business with his daughter to Richard Field. It is likely that Mrs. VautroUier also was a Frenchwoman, and there might have been difficulties with her methods. By 1588, then, Richard Field had attained the position of heading a printing business in London, much coveted and difficult to be attained, because only twenty-two
8 Shakespeare's fVarwickshire Contemporaries
master printers were allowed In the city ; and when a rare vacancy occurred, the Court of Assistants, with the sanction of the Archbishop, claimed the right :o elect a successor. Only by inheritance, or by marryifig a widow or a daughter, could an eligible young printer evade the risks of an election. Richard Field managed it through matrimony.
If Shakespeare, then, went up to London in 15S5, after the christening of his twins, he would find Richard Field reigning in the polyglot workshop, where French- men, Dutchmen, and Englishmen worked together at their classical and scientific sheets. Or in 1586 Fie'd might be at Bishop's in a new circle, selling and dealing in books and keeping up an intimate visiting acquaint- ance with the Vautrolliers, where he probably went of the evenings courting Jacquinetta.
If Shakespeare went up after the sad settlement with the Lamberts in 1587 he might be present at Richard's wedding and Vautrollier's funeral, and see his old friend installed at the head of the establishment. Then he would have free run among the odd volumes. All Vau- trollier's "copies" would be retained, and on his shelves would be many of those that he had " printed for other men," to which we have no clue. Vautrollier's theologi- cal, medical, poetical, classical publications were a library of themselves. No critics seem to be aware how much of the learning found in Shakespeare's world might have been acquired from the publications of Vautrollier and Field. He is not familiar with many classical authors, and he quotes few, such as Ovid, Cicero, and the "old Mantuan" John Baptist {Love's Labour s Lost, iv. 2). These books were in the monopoly of this firm. Shakespeare's "small Latin and less Greek" might have been brushed up in Blackfriars over the Latin " Phrases " of Manutius, Cicero's "Orations" and "Epistles," Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Ovid's "Epistles," and
Richard Field 9
Ovid's "Art of Love"; his French might become prac- ticable among so many speaking the language around ; his few Italian phrases could be borrowed from "The Campo de Fior, or else the Flourie Field of Foure laii- fjuaires for the furtherance of the learners of the Latin, French, English, but chiefly of the Italian tongue, 1585." Italian proverbs were handy there, and Italian grammars. Everyone knows how freely Shakespeare borrowed from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's "Lives," * Uu Bartas' "Divine Weeks," &c. The love of music was evidently a passion in Shakespeare's soul, and Vautrollier's shop held many volumes on this art, chiefly De la Motte's "Introduction to Music," 1574, and "Cantiones Sacra^," &c., by Thomas Tallis and William Bird, of Her Majesty's Chapel Royal, 1575.
Medical books, too, the best of the time, were there, one of them suggesting Shakespeare's study of madness, "A Treatise of Melancholic, containing the causes thereof and reasons of the strange efi^ects it worketh in our minds and bodies, 1586." In some of the Sonnets there are such evident traces of the influence of Giordano Bruno that I long wondered how Shake- speare could have come in contact with him. That philosopher had, it is true, lectured in Oxford in 1583, but one could hardly fit Shakespeare into a university lecture room. He had visited in 1582 Sir Fulke Greville and Sir Philip Sidney in London; yet we can- not imagine Shakespeare in their company then. But in Vautrollier's shop the sayings of Bruno would acquire tragic interest at his tieath for a philosophic faith, and not only from the copy kept in the secret cupboard, but from the conversation of the workmen, Shakespeare may have picked up some of these.
The "Dialectics of Aristotle," edited by John Case, of Oxford, came out in 1584. Another book doubtless
* Published by VautroUier, 1579; by Field, 1595, 1603, 1607 and 1612.
lo Shakespeare 5 IVarwickshire Contemporaries
read by Shakespeare was a treatise on moral, political, and economical philosophy, by Petrucio Ubaldino, a Florentine, for many years pensioned by Queen Eliza- beth (see Dec. Ace. Treas. Chamber, 541-2). Histories there were of many countries, notably Ludovico Guic- ciardini's "Description of the Low Countries "in Master Geffray Fenton's translation. Thus far these were Vautrollier's publications, but Richard Field himself began to print in 1588. A little French volume in the French reformed interest was his first issue.
Thomas Orwin had, on nth November, 1588, en- tered as his copy "The Art of English Poesie in three books, the first of Poetes and poesie, the second of pro- portyon, and the third of ornament," but as he did not pay the fee, it was, with his assent, assigned on 7th April, 1589, to Richard Field. This critical analysis of literary elements was dedicated by the author* to the Queen, and by Field to Lord Burleigh. It expresses strong objection to rhymed plays, and teaches that vice should be reproved, even in comedy. Can we not believe Shake- speare learned something from reading this treatise } In that year also Field brought out an elegant edition of Ovid's " Metamorphoses."
In May, 1589, Richard Field was fined ten shillings for printing a book contrary to order; and on "No- vember 3rd, 1589, for keeping a prentice unpresented according to order, is. 6^." Mr. Blades might have rejoiced to see this entry, as possibly representing Shakespeare, but the irregular apprentice seems to have become a regular one, for on that date "Launcelot Leafe, son of Richard Leafe of Crawme, in the County of York, fuller, was bound apprentice to Richard Field."
In I 590 there was entered "An account of Sir Francis
* I know that there is some doubt about the authorship of this important work, but it is generally believed to be by George Puttenham.
Richard Field 1 1
Drake's voyage." In the same year also Field entered as his copy Philip Burrough's " Method of Physicke," a book against the Spaniards, and the " French Littleton "; and in 1 59 1 Sir John Harington's translation of" Orlando Furioso."
In 1592, there came up from Stratford-upon-Avon a new apprentice to Blackfriars : "Jasper Feyld, the sonne of Henry Field, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, tanner, hath putt himself apprentice to Richard Field, citizen and staconer of London, for seven years from the date hereof, 7th February, 1592-3." (This is the year after Henry Field's death; Mr. Thomas Trussell and Mr. John Shakespeare had appraised his goods on 2 1 St August, 1591.) Other apprentices of his were Christopher Waters, of Cambridge, 25th December, 1594; John Hanson, of Nottingham, 29th September, 1 598 ; John Ryxon, of Oxford, 23rd March, 1601 ; George Myllor, of Northampton, 29th Septem- ber, 1604.
Mr. H. Plot's "New Inventions" were entered to Richard Field, 5th March, 1593, and one or two other books shortly after. During the years that Shakespeare, homeless and uncertain of a future, apprenticed to no trade, educated to no profession, inheritor of no pro- perty, was being driven with the wind and tossed till he should find a shore, it seems to me that he spent much time and study in Master Field's treasure-house. "The right happy and copious industry of Master Shakespeare," attributed to him by Webster, was true of him even then. While studying the actor's parts that he played, or the old dramas that he patched and tinkered wherebv he earned his bread, or the books in Field's shop, wherein he forgot his sorrows, there had dawned upon him the conviction that he, too, was a poet. Was it Ovid or Puttenham during the plague year that acted as the immediate cause "? We know
12 Shiikcspeares PVarwickshire Contemporaries
not. But we know that he dedicated his first poem to the young Earl of Southampton ; and that his friend, Richard Field, on i8th April, 1593, "entered for his copie under thandes of the Archbishop of Canterbury and Master Warden Stirrup a book intituled Venus and Adonis, vi<r/." Probably the dedication flicilitated the licence. Then to the press.* How lovingly and carehilly would Shakespeare read the first proof of "the first heir of his invention"! None of his works are so free from printer's errors as this. It is a credit to Field as a printer.f
I have elsewhere shown how the Earl of Southamp- ton, by active kindness and warm-hearted sympathy, stimulated Shakespeare to a new effort and to "graver labours." In that busy year Shakespeare completed his second poem ; but for some reason or other this was entered on 9th May, 1594, to Master Harrison, senior, "for his copie under thande of Master Cawood, Warden, a book entitled the * Ravishment of Lucrece,' vi^." Again, on 25th June, 1594, "Master Harrison, senior, had assigned to him from Richard Field a booke called Venus and Adonis, the which was before entered to Richard Field, i6th April, 1593." But Field printed later editions of the poem for other men. Was this transference merely a business exchange for classical works, or was it a symbol of the loosening of friendly bonds.'' Was the respectable Richard Field becoming ashamed of his play-acting Stratford friend.'' It is pos- sible, because in the list of the inhabitants of Blackfriars that signed a petition in 1596 against the players being allowed to use their theatre in Blackfriars the name of Richard Field occurs. The petition was not successful.
Though Shakespeare seems to have studied some of
* Timperlcy says, in his "Anecdotes of Printing," p. 41 S, "We find, from a manuscript payment of izd. for a survey of France and the Venus and Adonis, that by I 2th June, 1593, it was in circulation."
•f- See the Introduction to my edition of the "Sonnets" (Dc La More Press).
Richard Field 13
Field's later publications, we find no proof of further connection between these Stratford men.
Richard Field was recognised as a master printer in 1596; and was sworn and admitted to the livery on rst July, 1598, in which year he was chosen with Master Dawson "to goo to my Lord Maiour's feast" (Stat. Reg. II. 'T^s)-) ^"'i °" ^^^^ December, 1598, he assisted in drawing up the ordinances of the Stationers' Company.
Master Bishop, under whom Field served his last year, was appointed Master of the Company, February, 1604, and on 25th March Field was elected Renter, for exemption from which office he cheerfully paid ten pounds.
On yth May, 1604, Thomas Vautrollier, junior,* was sworn and admitted a freeman of the Company, by Master Legate, but we hear no more of him in this or in any other printing business. It is strange how the son should apparently in this instance have been supplanted by the son-in-law.
Master Richard Field was appointed Warden 1605, and was Master of the Company from 16 19 till i622.t A transcript of the Stationers' Registers was made while he was Master. Some of the phrases illustrate the meaning of words used by Shakespeare. He died in 1625, and his widow, Jakin or Jacquinetta, continued the business,! apparently in conjunction with her son.
* The name is so rare that I may note that a Sampson Vautrollier, son of James, was baptised in St. Clement's Danes, 15th June, 1631.
+ On <jth May, 1615, a complaint was made of there being too many presses in London, and the Court ordained that " none shall have more presses than are here sett downe:
I. Master Dawson, 2 presses. II. Master Field, 2 presses," &c. I "3rd April, 1626, assigned over unto him by Mistres Field, wife of Richard Field, deceased, the following copies to George Miller."
14 Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries
Note A. Warwickshire Apprentices in London Printing Offices.
"Roger Lock, sonnc of John Lock, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the Countie of Warwick, glover, hath puthimself apprentice to Richard Pickeringe, citizen and stationer of London, for tenne yeares, beginninge at Bartholomew-tide laste (24th August, 1577). 2nd September, 1577. 2s. 6d"
"Raffe Jackson, sonne of Thomas Jackson, of the citie of Coventry, draper, hathe putte himselfe apprentice to Garret Dewce, stationer, for terme of tenne yeares from Mychaelmasse next, 29th September, 1580. 2s. 6^/."
"John Rampston, son of John Rampston, of Atherston, in the County of Warwick, yeoman, hathe putte himselfe appren- tice to James Goneld, staconer, for nine years from Midsomer laste (24th June, 1580). 2s. 6d. 28th August, 1580."
"8th September, 1580. Michael Mussage, son of Thomas Mussage, late of Barfoot, in y«= Countie of Warwick, yeoman, deceased, hathe putte himselfe apprentice to John Bishop for viii. years from Midsomer last (24th June). 2s. 6^/."
" 1st March, 1585. Allan Orrian, son of Thomas Orrian, of Stratford-on-Avon, in y^ County of Warwick, tailour, doth put himselfe apprentice to Thomas Fowkes, staconer, for the terme of seven yeres from our Lady-daie in Lent next (25th March, 1585). 25.6^."
"Richard Tomes, son of John Tomes, of Stretton-upon- Fauce, in the Countie of Warwick, mason, putteth himself an apprentice to Thomas Styrrope, staconer, for seven yeres from this day, 8th November, 1589. 2s. 6d."
"22nd August, 1586. Robert Blackham, son of Thomas Blackham, of Sutton, in the Countie of Warwick, tanner, dothe putte himselfe apprentice to Robert Robinson, citizen and staconer of London, for seven yeres from the date hereof. 25. 6<^." This is erased, and by it written "Gone from his master, and never to be made free."
"17th Oct., 1586. Morrys Pettifer, sonnc of Michael Pcttifer, of Anstey, in the County of Warwick, husbandinan,
Richard Field 15
puttcth himself apprentice to Thomas Brighte, staconer, for 8 yeres, from Michaelmas laste paste, 29th Sept., 1586. 2s. 6^/."
"i2th Jan., 1590. Edmund Mutton, sonne of Thomas Mutton, of Rockbey, in the Countie of Warwick, butcher, hath put himself apprentice to John Penny, citizen and staconer of London, for seven years from the birth of our Lord last, which shall be the day of the date 25 Dec, 1589. 2s. 6r/."
"6th March, 1592. Jasper Feyld, sonne of Henry Field, of Stratford-on-Avon, in the County of Warwick, tanner, hath putt himself apprentice to Richard Field, citizen and staconer of London, for seven years from the date hereof, 7th Feb., 1592."
"5th March, 1592. Anthony Higgons, son of William Higgons, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Warwick, yeoman, hath putt himself apprentice to Thomas Purfoote, the elder, citizen and staconer of London, for the terme of seven yeres from the date of these presents (6th March, 1592). 2s. ^d."
"5th March, 1593. Gulimus Winspere, son of John Win- spere, of Exham, in the County of Warwick, taylor, hath put himself apprentice to William Ponsonby, citizen and staconer of London, for terme of nine years from our Lady-day next (25th March, 1593). 2s. 6^/."
Richard Badger, a Stratford-upon-Avon printer, was in 1602 apprenticed to Peter Short.
Note B.
Vautrollier's Publications.
Some idea of the class of books published by Vautrollicr may be gleaned from the following notes from the "Stationers' Registers."
1569-70. — Thomas Vautrollier's licences.
"A Book of Copyes of Various handwriting, English, French, and Italian, for the Secretary hand." I 5 70-1. — "A Booke of Music."
1573. — 1 8th April, for Llodowick Lloyd's translation of Plutarch's "Lives." For eight years (transferred to Vautrollier).
1 6 Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries
Vautrollier's Publications — continued.
1574. — Vautrollier had a patent for ten years for printing several books of Divinity, the works of Calvin, Luther, Beza, and other theological writers, the New Testa- ment, and digest of St, Augustine ; various classical works, such as the works of Ovid, the works of Cicero, with Lambinus' notes; the "Elegant Latin Phrases" of Manutius; the "Dialectics" of Peter Ramus; the"Giardina Cosmographica de B. Sylva"; Plutarch's "Lives," englished by Sir Thomas North from the French of Amyot. No one else was to print or import any of these, under a penalty of forty shillings. He was also allowed to keep six foreign workmen. Frenchmen or Dutchmen, or such like for the space of ten years without let or hindrance from any one. 1574.5. — "A Brief Introduction to Music," by Paul De La
Motte. 1575. — "Cantiones Sacrae," or Sacred Music of Master Bird and Master Tallis of her Majesties Chapell. These two composers had themselves a "patent for all music books whatsoever, and the printing of all ruled paper, for the pricking of any songes to the lute, virginals, or other instruments," but they seemed to have worked their patent through Vautrollier's presses. 1577. — ist Dec. "A Sovereign Salue foraSinfull Soule," by Nathaniel Baxter, Minister.
"A Right Comfortable treatise containing xiiij points of consolation for them that labour and are laden."
Unto Master Norton and Thomas Vautrollier "Ye History of Guicciardini of Master Gcffray Fenton's translation" (from the Latin edition of 1567).
Thomas Vautrollier and Master Wright, "a Booke in English called Plutarch's 'Lives.'"
Eusebius' "Historie" in English. 1578. — Scipio Lentulo's "Italian Grammar," printed by Henry Grantliam.
Charles Merbury's "That Monarchic is the best for the Common Weal," whereunto is annexed, "A book of Italian Proverbs."
Richard Field 1*7
Vautrollier's Publications — continued. 1578. — "Phrases Linguje Latinae," compiled from Manutius. 1 8th Sept. Claudii a Sancto Vinculo "de pronun- ciatiorie linguae Gallica^, lihri duo." 1580.— "A Treatise on French Verbs." 15S1. — "A most easie perfect and absolute way to learn the
French Tongue." 1582. — ScipioGentilis, "Paraphrases of the Psalms of David." "Le Jardin de Vcrtu et bonnes mceurs," par Jaques
Bellot Cadomois. "An Astrological Catechism," by Leowitz, translated
by Turner. "The Life of Admiral Coligny." 1583.— "The French Littleton."
" Campo de Fior or else the Flourie Field of four languages for the furtherance of the learners in the Latine, French, English, but chiefly of the Italian tongues." 1584. — "The Dialectics of Aristotle," edited by John Case of Oxford. The works of Giordano Bruno (interdicted). "The new Godly Garden of Prayers," whereunto is joyned "Bradford against the fear of Death," Edin- burgh. (Maunsell's Catalogue.) "The Essayes of a Prentice in the Divine Art of
Poesie." By the King. Edinburgh. "A Declaration of the Kinges Maiesties intentioun and meaning towards the last Acts of Parliament," cum privilegio Regali. (See Pinkerton.) 1585- — Morgan's "Phoenix Britannicus," Edinburgh. Printed same year in English for Thomas Nelson. See Harl. MS. VIL 4-9. 1586. — Timothy Bright's "Treatise on melancholy, contain- ing the causes thereof, and reasons of the strange effects it worketh on our minds and bodies." "La Main Chretien aux tombds." 1587. — "The Treasons of the Scottish Queen." Sir William Herberte's "Sydney."
1 8 Shakespeare's (^'Warwickshire Contemporaries
Note C. Richard Field's Publications.
1588.— "Le Politique Rcform(:'."
iith No\'. Allowed to Thomas Orwyn *'The Arte of English Poesie in three Hooks, the firste of Poetes and pocsye, the second of proportyon, and the third of Ornament." (Fine not paid and licence granted to Field). 1589. — "The Art of English poesie," beinge before entered for Thomas Orwin's copie is by his consent putt over to Richard Field, (This is Puttenham's book).
"A Book intituled Discours bref mais trcssolide monstrant clairement qu'il est loisible, honnete, utile, et necessaire au Roy de s'allier au Roy de Navarre." (Master Hartwcll's hand being to this copy.)
"Le Vray Agnus Dei, pour desarmer le peuple Fran- cois, ecrit pour le Roy treschretien Henri III. Roy de France."
"The Declarations of the French Kingeand the King of Navarre upon the truce concluded between y Majesties together with the King of Navarres declaration at his passage over the River of Loire."
"David's Faith and Repentance."
"Daniell expounded by Scriptures in Hebrue, Greeke,
and English." These three little bookcs following: "Vray Discours sur la DefFaicte de Due D'Aumalle et Sieur de Rattagny, avec leurs troupes, par le Due de Longue-ville ct autres seigneurs." "Lettre d'un Gcntilhomme de Beausse a son sien aux Bourgeois de Paris." *' Lettre du Roy de Navarre, a Messieurs d' Orleans du 22 May, 1589, a Banqueney."
A Booke intituled "The Furious, translated by James the Sixte King of Scotland, with the Le Panto of the same King." (Both translations from the French of Saluste du Bartas).
"A briefe Dyscourse of the Spanyshe State with a Dyalogue entytulcd Philo iiasilis."
Richard Field 19
Richard Field's Publications — continued.
1590. — 2nd March. "T+ie Mcthodc of Phisickc, Philip
Barroughc aucthore." 1 6th May. A Booke intituled "Soveraigne Salve for
a Sicke Soul, teachinge the right use of a patient
bearing the crosse." "A brief discourse dialoge-wyse showing how false and
dangerous their reportes are which affirme the
Spanyards intended invasion is for re-establishment
of the Romische religion." " Her Majesties allyance with y^ Netherlanders." "Sir Francis Drake's enterprise three yeares past into
the West Indies." 25th June. "The Frenche Lyttleton, set forthe by
Holiband and printed by Vautrollier." "The treatise of Christian Righteousness, which was
Thomas Vautrollier's copie." I 591. — A booke intituled "John Haringtons Orlando Furioso." 6th Dec. "Parte Prima Delle brevi Dimonstrationi et
precetti utilissime dc Diversi propositi morali politici
et Iconomisi, Da Petruccio Ubaldino Cittadine
Fiorentino." 1592. — A booke intituled "The French Alphabet, together
with the treasure of the French tonge." (This to
be void.) "Saluste du Bartas, the Divine Weeks and Works." 1 593. — 1 8th April. " A booke intituled " Venus and Adonis." I ith Dec. A booke intituled "The Pearle of Practise,
or practisers pearle of Phisick and Chirurgerie." 31st Dec. "A Description of all the principallest
Minerals and their properties." 1594. — 5th Feb. "A brief discourse of Man's Transgression
and of his Redemption by Christ, with a particular
survey of Romysh religion and Rome itself." 5th March. "A Brief Apologie of certen new inven-
cions compiled by Master H. Plot." Walter Bigg's "Summary and true account of Sir
Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage." David Hume of Godscroft, "Daphnis Amaryllis."
20 Shakespeare s JVarwickshire Contemporaries
Richard Field's Publications — contd.
i^g^, — Thomas Cogan's "Haucn of Health for the use of Students." ist May. "The History of our Lord Jesus Christ in
English Meeter." R. H. Holland. 2nd May. "The first part of Christian passions con- teyning a hundred Sonettes of meditacion humilia- tion and prayer." 7th May. Assigned over from Master Bonham Norton. "The History of Gwicciardini conteyning the warres of Italy and also the arguments, with a Table &c. Reduced into English by Geffray Fenton." 9th May. "The Theatre of fine devises conteyning an hundred Morrall Emblems translated out of French by Thomas Combe." "Lyacropedius de Conscribendis epistolis," assigned
over unto him from Harrison. 25th June. "Venus and Adonis" assigned over to
Harrison. Thomas Campion's "Observations on the art of English poesie." "A booke intituled Thome Campione Poema." 1595. — 14th Jan. Assigned unto him the printing of Tullie's "Orations" in i6mo in 3 volumes for the Com- pany, and he to allow upon every impression 6d. in the pound for the use of the poor. 2nd Dec. Harrison and Field. A book intituled "Phrases Manutii." I 5g5, — 20th Oct. "A Newe discourse of a Stale subject called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, with the Anatomy and Apologie of the same, wrytten by Mysacmos to his friend & Cozen Philostilpnos" (Sir John Harington). nth Nov. "A book called Ecclesiastes in English Verse." 1597. — 5th March. "The Elements of Arithmetic," C. Verstitius being the authore and Thomas Hood, Doctor in Phisick translater thereof into English.
Richard Field 21
Richard Field's Publications — contd.
1597. — 29th March. "Aphorisms of Christian Religion a very compendious abridgement of Master John Calvines Institucions by Master J. Piscator, and now En- glished according to authors 3rd edition."
I 598. — 13th May. Entered to Richard Field & Feh'x Kingston copies formerly belonging to Tobie Cooke, viz., 8 divinity tracts and his "Booke of Wytchcs."
1599. — 22nd May. Richard Field and Robert Dexter. "The Sacred Shield of all Christian Souldyers."
1600. — 5th March. Luther's "Commentary on Galatians." Dr. Abbot's "Lectures on Jonas." 28th June. "Oratio Hominis Belgici De Virtute ac laudibus Britannorum."
1602. — "England's View in the unmasking of two paradoxes [by de Malestroict], with a replication to the answere of Master John Bodin by Gerard de Malynes."
1603. — New edition of Plutarch's "Lives."
1607. — Another new edition.
1608. — Matthew Stoneham's Two Sermons.
1 6 10. — 4th October. A Booke in French called "Dialogues Rustiques."
1 611. — 27th Sept. A Book intituled "In Assertorem Chymicae sed vera; Medicinae descrtorem Franciscum Antho- nium. Matthaei Gwynne." 14th Oct. A Booke called "Analysis Logica 30'^ psalmorum a primo scilicet ad 3inum Authore Gulielmo Templo Dublinensis apud Hybernos Col- legii Prasposito."
1 61 2. — 20th Jan. A Booke called "Vis Naturae et Virtus Vitae, &c., Aucthore Gulielmo Sparke."
1613. — 17th Jan. "De Numeris Geometricis. Of the Nature and properties of geometricall numbers written by Lazarus Sconerus, englished by Master Bedwell."
1614. — 1st March. "Trigonium Architectonium or the Car- penter's Square, that is a table serving for the measuring of a board, Glasse, Stone, and such like playne and sollides by William Bedwell."
2 2 Shakespeare's IVarwickshire Contemporaries
Richard Field's Publications — contd.
1615. — 1 6th Jan. A booke called "Mohammedis Imposturae translated out of Arabic by Williain Bedwell." 22nd June. The following 8 copies. A book of Copies in English, French, and Italian ; IvUthcr on Galatians ; A History of "Fortunatus" ; A Com- mentary of Luther on the 15 Psalms of Degrees; Eusebius' "Ecclesiastical History" in English; De- clining of French Verbs and the "French A.B.C." 1616. — 15th March. "Principles of Arithmetic written in Latin by Barnard Salignac, nowenglished by William Bedwell. "Tobacco tortured or the filthy fume of Tobacco refined." This does not pretend to be a complete list, it is only what has been gleaned from the Stationers' Register. Many other books were printed by Field, some for other men and some even for himself, such as Juvenal's "Satires" and Histories of England and Scotland, but there are sufficient to show where Shakespeare had the opportunity of acquiring a considerable amount of learning. I give no publications after Shakespeare's death, but it may be noted that Field entered for publication the French edition of Camden's "Elizabeth," 4th November, 1623.
( 23 )
CHAPTER II
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder, The Real and the Traditional: i 532-1 600.
Sir Thomas Lucy was the chief person in the imme- diate neighbourhood of Stratford-upon-Avon during the latter half of the sixteenth century, and there is no doubt that he must have often come into contact with Shakespeare. But we have no clue to the circumstances thereof, Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps says "No record of the least value bearing directly on the Shakespeare traditions has ever been found in Charlecote" ("Out- lines," vol. ii., 383), and the minutes of the Court of Records and the Chamberlain's Accounts are likewise silent. The untrustworthy nature of the traditions that have come down to us concerning these two men can best be shown by a careful historical criticism of authentic facts and a psychological analysis of apocry- phal anecdotes, founded upon mistaken association of ideas.
Sir Thomas Lucy came of a long line of distinguished ancestors, who had dwelt at Charlecote over four hundred years, and had given commanders, councillors, sheriffs, knights of the shire, and justices of the peace repeatedly to the service of their country. Dugdale supposes Thurstan de Charlecote to have been a younger son of Thurstan de Montford, whose son and heir Henry granted to Walter the son of Thurstan of Charlecote
24 Shakespeare's M^arwickshire Contemporaries
the lordship of the village, which grant King Richard I. confirmed by letters patent at Dover, 6th" December, 1 191, and John again confirmed with all the privileges therein noted in the fifth year of his reign. "From this Walter de Charlecote (who was a knight) by Cecily his wife, descended William, who assumed the surname of Lucy." This makes Dugdale think that his mother Cecily* must have been a " Lucy." There were many Lucys on the fellowship of The Guild of Knowle. In 1494 was introduced Domina Alicia Lucy Vidua de Charlecote ; and prayers were requested for the soul of Sir William Lucy. Thereafter appeared Master Edmund Lucy Armiger and Johane his wife, and Thomas, Edward, William, Anna, and Marie Lucy. Prayers were re- quested for the souls of Alicia and Edmund in 1523.
The owner of Charlecote at the opening of the six- teenth century was Sir Thomas, who married Elizabeth, the widow of George Catesby, and daughter of Sir Richard Empson, of Easton Neston, Northamptonshire. He was Sheriff of Warwick and Leicestershire, and was buried at Greyfriars, London, leaving three sons, William, his heir,t Thomas and Edmund, well provided for, and three daughters, Anne, Radegund, and Barbara. Of this William many notices may be gleaned from the Domestic Series of State Papers. Among those yet uncalendered is a list of soldiers furnished by the noblemen and gentlemen of Warwick for the Vant-
* Some entries in the Testa de Neville suggest another name for the lady. "Matilda de Lucy holds in the Hundred of Barlichway the villa of Hulcnhalle of John de Screiveila, one carucate of land and 3^ virgatcs of land," p. 88. A tenant "holds Mineli and Lantian (Cornwall and Devon) of the honour of Matilda de Lucy, and Robert, the son of Walter." "Robert, the son of Walter and Matilda de Lucy holds Mineli and Lantian," &c. This might be a second son's portion from his mother. But the eldest son is also noted. "William de Lucy holds half of Charlecote from Peter de Monte Forte and half of the Earl of Warwick." "In Charlecote 4 parts of a fee which William de Lucy holds of the Prior of Coventry." " The aid granted to the King on marrying his sister to the Emperor of Rome — William de Lucy, i Mark."
f The Dictionary of National Biography states that he married Anne, daughter of Richard Fermor, of Easton Neston.
Sir 'Thomas Lucy the Elder 25
guard, 1544: — "John Gryvell 31 fotcmcn, Thomas Ardcn 16, William Lucy 20," &c.* But the only records important to our after history are his will, and the Inquisition Post-mortem, because therein we find many domestic particulars as well as details of his inheritance, his debts, jewels, and estates, his children and his plans for their up-bringing.f
Thomas, his eldest son, was born on the 24th April, 1532. He did not go to the university, but seems to have been educated by private tutors at home. The Dictionary of National Biography states that he was educated by John Foxe, the martyrologist, and that he imbibed from him his Puritan tendencies. But we must not forget that Foxe only left Oxford in July, 1545, and that he was in London eighteen months later. During this period both he and Thomas Lucy got through their courtship and marriage, so there was not apparently much leisure for a wide education at that time. On the ist of August, 1 546, Sir William drew
* Another may be here noted, only because it may prove of local interest, and has not been printed, concerning William Lucy, John Greville, and John Combes, who, on the 15th day of March, 30 Henry VIII., examined Robert Mawde, clerk, parson of Whatcope, because he would not read the "King's injunctions" from his pulpit on Sunday, but entertained sturdy vagabonds in his house at Knoll, playing cards with them. A lively account is given of the irregular manners of this parson.
■j- The Registers of Charlecote have preserved some facts concerning the family:
"Susane Lucye, ye daughter of Mr. William Lucye Esquier was baptized ye 15 of January 1543 [-4].
Martha Lucy daughter of Mr. William Lucy Esquier was baptized ye 15 of August 1545.
Joyes Lucye ye daughter of Mr. William Lucye Esquier was baptized ye last of September i 546.
Tymothie Lucye ye sone of Mr. William Lucye Esquier was baptized ye 16 of November, 1547.
Edwarde Lucye sone of Mr. William Lucye Esquier was baptized ye 30 of June,
1549."
Among the marriages : "Thomas Merson and Margret Lucye were married the 2ist of October, 1543." The Burial Register notes:
"Susane Lucy buried 14th April 1546.
Anne Lucye buried i6th of July 1549.
Mrs. Anne Lucye 12th July 1550.
Mr, William Lucye Esquier, buried ye 24th of June 1551."
i6 Sbiikcspcare's ff^iifwicksbire Contemporaries
up the marriage settlement between his eldest son and Joyce Acton, the only child and heir ot Thomas Acton, of Sutton Park, Worcestershire. Thomas could only, therefore, have been fourteen at the time of his marriage, and his bride is stated on her parents' tombstone to have been twelve,* though she is reckoned as being a year older on her own tombstone in Charlecote church.
In January, 1546-7, a few months after the marriage, Thomas Acton died, and Joyce Lucy inherited his great estates, deer park and all, subject to her mother's dowry. In February, 1546-7, Foxe left Charlecote for London, having married a dependant of the Lucys, and therefore no doubt he found his stay at Charlecote so pleasant. Sir William Lucy died in 1551, and Thomas succeeded at Charlecote in the nineteenth year of his age. There were various debts of his father to be cleared, portions for the other sons, Edward, Richard, William, Timothy, and for the daughters Elizabeth, Mary, Jane, Martha, and Joyce, so he must have been forced to live economically at the first. On 22nd April, 7 Edward VI., just when he came of age, he was granted Sherburne and Kingsford, which he afterwards sold to Mr. Dabridgecourt. His Puritanism was not impassioned enough to let him suffer for conscience' sake in Mary's reign. His biographers state that he had a gift of Hampton Lucy from her ; but a note in Egerton MS., 606, f. 27, implies that it was paid for.
By 1558 he had probably paid up his sisters' portions, and settled his brothers' incomes, for he was able to
* Near Siitton Park, the inheritance of Joyce Acton, in the church of Tenbury, Worcestershire, is the tomb of the Actons, with this inscription: — "Here lieth Thomas Acton, of Sutton, Esquire, who at the age of seventy years departed this life January 2, 1546, and Mary his wife, daughter to Sir Thomas Laycon, of Willy, Knight, being of the age of 58 years, deceased April 28, i 564, having issue in their lifetyme two sons, Launcelot and Gabriel, who dyed before them in their infancy, and Joyce their only daughter and heir, being then of the age of 12 years, was espoused to Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlcot, knight, which Dame Joyce, in dutiful remembrance of these her loving parents, hath erected this monument, 1581. — T.A.M.A."
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 27
rebuild Charlecote In a sumptuous manner. To honour the Queen, he designetl it in the pattern of a royal E. He was elected sheriff of the county in that year. He was interested in Archery.
Sir Thomas Lucy wrote to Lord Robert Dudley : —
Right honorable and my singular good lordc picascth it youar honor to be advertised that according youar lordships request and my one promise I have sent you my servaunt Burnell whom I fear will not be liable to doo yor lordshipp such sarvice as I could wish nor as his hart woold sarvc, for that by occasion of longe sickness his strength is greatly decayed, and thereby his shuting much hindered. Your lordshipp must take hede in making off yor matches that Burnell be not overmarked for that at this instante he is hable to shute no farr ground (which iff youar lordshipp forsee I doo not mistrust but he will be able to shute with the best). Thus as one off the best off youar lordship's friends in power or habilitie to doo youar lordshipp any sarvice or pleasure (although as willing as the greatist in hart and good will as youar lordshipp shall well understand when occasion shall sarve) I commend you unto almightie God who send you long life in the feare off God with increace of honor according to your lordship's one desier from Charlecot the viiith off Aprill at your lordship's commandemant during life.
Thomas Lucy.
(Addressed) To the Right Honorable and his singuler good Lord my L. Robert Dudleye, Mr. of the Queues horse, &c.*
There is no date to the letter. Dudley was appointed Master of the Horse 1558, and he became Earl of Leicester i ^6t^. It must have been between these dates.
Mrs. Acton died in 1564 (a few days after Shake- speare was born) and her dowry came back to her daughter's estate. Sir Thomas was knighted in 1565 (tradition says in his own house), and became later a justice of the peace and Commissioner of Musters for
* The photogravure in the British Museum is headed — "Facsimile of a Letter from Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, the Justice Shallow of Shakespeare, to Lord Robert Dudley, Master of the Horse, from the original among the papers of the Marquis of Bath at Longleat, co, Wilts, by whom this is presented."
28 Shakespeare's IVarwickshire Contemporaries
Warwickshire. From the register of the University I find that his brother, Timothy Lucy, became B.A. of Oxford 26th April, 1567, and M. A, shortly afterwards. Sir Thomas was elected knight of the shire for the Parliament of 1571, in which he seems to have been an active and respected member. He was appointed to be on the Committee to discover which of the members had taken money for their voices ; of the committee to consider abuses of religion as suggested by Mr. Foxe's book ; and of the conference touching the Bill against priests disguising themselves as serving-men, which had been drawn up after the Pope's ill-advised Bull against Elizabeth.
The Charlecote Registers say that "Mr. Thomas Lucye Esquier was married to Dorothee Arnoll sone {sic) to Sir Nicholas Arnoll Knight, 27 Jan. i574[-5]." That is, of course. Sir Thomas's only son and heir.
Another entry is — " Mr. Edward Aston, ye sonne and heir of Sir Walter Aston Knight, and Mrs. Anne Lucy, daughter of Sir Thomas Lucye, Knight, were married y^ 27 of April 1580."
Sir Thomas was again elected sheriff of the county in 2 1 Elizabeth, but was not returned as knight of the shire for the next Parliament, which lasted eleven years. A Bill had been brought forward during its sitting concerning the preservation of game, which had been rejected on its first reading.
The chief act of the session of 1581 was that which, in order to keep her Majesty's subjects in due obedience, had decreed new penalties on the exercise of the Romish religion, and had added new terrors to the preaching thereof. A commission had been instituted with truly inquisitorial powers. Sir Thomas, as justice of the peace, was associated with it, and he was not slow to exercise his privileges, so as to prove his loyalty through his family motto "By Truth and Diligence." There is
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 29
nothing to show that he was not upright in action and conscientious in intention, while he obeyed the Govern- ment, then represented by Leicester. We must allow somewhat for the customs and circumstances of the time, and for the blinding effect of religious and party passions. Nevertheless, he seems to have acted harshly, even by the standard of his own generation, in relation to recusants.
The first victim of the new commission was the noble and high-minded Catholic gentleman, Edward Arden, of Park Hall, a far-away kinsman of Shakespeare's mother. Dugdale, Camden, and others openly attribute his cruel death to the malice of Leicester, but Sir Thomas Lucy was the instrument through which Leicester worked. He received into his house Thomas Wilkes, clerk of the Privy Council, sent down to investigate "the plot" ; he personally searched Arden's house, and sent his own servants up with him as prisoner to London. I later tell the interesting story more fully. It is quite possible that Sir Thomas Lucy's energy on this occasion embittered Shakespeare's mind, and added other anxieties to his monetary and domestic troubles.
In January, 1583-4, Sir Thomas Lucy and Sir Fulke Greville were made arbitrators between Hamnet Sadler and Ananias Nason,* and the Corporation granted a bottle of wine "when they were made friends" (see Chamberlain's accounts). Many other entries are made of gifts of wine and sugar to Sir Thomas by the Cor- poration, when he was in town performing the duties of a justice. Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps found in the accounts of the Coventry Treasurer for this year the unexpected entry, "Paid to Sir Thomas Lucie's players X5. "; so he was not severe enough to restrain theatrical performers.
On 27th November, 1584, Sir Thomas was again
* Baptised in Charlecote Church, loth February, 1552.
30 Shakespeare s fVarwickshire Contemporaries
returned as knight of the shire to Parliament ; was energetic in promoting the Bill against the Jesuits and seminary priests ; impeached Dr. Parry, the solitary member who had courage to speak against its tyrannical spirit; and when he was proved a traitor, petitioned the Queen for his execution. A Bill for "The Preservation of Grain and Game," a curiously-worded production, was upon its second reading committed to Sir Thomas Lucy and others, but it seems to "have been discon- tinued with divers others of no great moment" (see Sir Symonds d'Ewes' Journal, p. 344). Therefore, it never became law. A private Bill was passed that session for the "assurance of certain lands which are not defined, to Sir Thomas Lucy and others." The Parliament was prorogued 29th March, 1585, and after being again prorogued six times was finally dissolved 14th September, 1586.
In the Domestic Series of State Papers, 12th April, 1586, is preserved a letter dated from Warwick from Sir Fulke Greville and Sir Thomas Lucy, in which it is stated that Francis Smith, Esq., was not a recusant, but a good subject, and went to church. The same papers contain the draft of a letter of thanks to Sir Thomas Lucy, 5th September, 1585, for "sending up the two Abingtons, recusants, from Hucknoll." He was elected sheriff of Worcestershire, through the estates brought to him by his wife ; and he also sat on the Commission for Tiplers in Stratford-upon-Avon this year. These facts show that he had not hung about London waiting for the predetermined dissolution of Parliament. His party thought him more useful in the country. The certificates of the justices of the peace within the Hundred of Kincton about their proceedings in executing the orders of the Council for the supply of the market with grain were signed by Sir Thomas Lucy and Richard Verney, 28th February, 1587.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 3 i
It is evident that his "truth and diligence" had been appreciated in high quarters; though I have been unable to find his name among the associations of the nobility and gentry in defence of the Queen's person that Leicester sugorcsted after the Somcrville-Arden affair. He appears as Commissioner of Musters during 1588 in the Stratford-upon-Avon Records. On 1 6th December, 1590, among the State Papers (Dom. Ser. Eliz., 234) is preserved a letter to the Lord President of Wales, for the election of the Earl of Worcester, Lord Chandos, Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Richard Berkeley, Sir Wm. Herbert of Swansea, and Serjeant Owen, into the Council for the Marches of Wales. And on 22nd April, 1 59 1, Lucy wrote a letter from Charlecote to Mr. Rokeby, Master of Requests, to the effect that he and Richard Verney, justices of the peace for Warwick- shire, recommended the case of Thomas Cater, the bearer, who was their neighbour, and had a good title for life to certain lands near, but was wrongfully kept out of them by his adversaries through his poverty. It was probably about this time that a John Shakespeare's name was first included in the list of recusants sent up to the Privy Council by Sir Thomas. The second certificate of all such as have been presented to them was set down at Warwick, and signed by Sir Thomas Lucy 25th September, 1592. It has always been sup- posed that this John was the poet's father. I do not think so, for two reasons : first, because Mrs. Shake- speare's name is not associated with her husband's, as is the case with the Wheelers and other known recusants; second, because 1592 is just the time of the turn of the tide, in which prosperity came back to the house of Shakespeare, instead of departing from it. But the other John Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon, Master of the Shoemakers' Company there, was then a widower. He evidently was in trouble at the time, and he dis-
32 Shakespeare's M^arwickshire Contemporaries
appeared from Stratford immediately after this recusant list was sent in.
In 1593 Sir Thomas Lucy's only son Thomas was knighted ; so for a time there were two knifjhts of the same name at Charlecote.
On loth February, 1595-6, Lady Joyce Lucy died, and was buried in Charlecote Church, where Sir Thomas set up a grand monument for her and for himself. The epitaph* he wrote is very singular, and seems intended to answer widespread gossip. The only trace of its nature is preserved in a letter from Sir Edward Aston of Tixhall, who had married his only daughter Anne. He describes his mother-in-law as a perfect vixen, but sons-in-law are apt to revenge themselves by strong language for curtailed privileges ; so we need not alto- gether believe him. Sir Thomas died on 7th July, 1600, and was laid beside his wife on 7th August following. He had a grand funeral, but nobody wrote his epitaph, so we do not know how he appeared to his family or his friends when he had completed his life's work. I think we may believe he closed an honourable career by a fitting end.
It has generally been believed that Shakespeare had some spite against Sir Thomas Lucy, and that he inten- tionally and bitterly satirised him in the character of Justice Shallow. A story of deer-stealing, trial, threatened imprisonment, mockery in a lampoon, flight to London, and keener revenge on the stage, has taken solid shape
* Lady Joyce Lucy, "who departed out of this wretched world to her heavenly kingdom in the year of our Lord God i 595, and of her age 63 ; all the time of her life a true and faithful servant of her good God, never detected of any crime or vice, in religion most sound, in love to her husband most faithful and true ; in friendship most constant 5 to what in trust was committed to her most secret; in wisdom excelling, in governing of her house and bringing up of youth in the feare of God, that did converse with her, most rare and singular. A great maintainer of hospitality; greatly esteemed of her betters; misliked by none unlcsse of the envious. When all is spoken that can be said, a woman so furnished and garnished with virtue as not to be bettered and hardly to be equalled by any. As she lived most vertuously, so she died most godly. Set down by him that best did know what hath been written to be true.^THOMAS Lucy."
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 33
after the pattern of "The Three Black Crows." By- degrees this shadow has crept over and obscured the real facts of both lives. The demand for particulars produced the supply. All apocryphas appear after date, and contain some element of confused truth. The ordinary methods of determining authenticity when applied to these traditions prove their unreliability, and elucidate their genesis. Supposing the story to be true, Shakespeare would have been the more hot and angry the nearer the cause of offence happened. He writes of " Sir William Lucy" calmly and pleasantly in Part I. o^ Henry VI. "Shallow" was a much later conception, about ten years after the date of the traditional story^ and any such "revenge" would have been taken much earlier in his career. But I am sure that "Shallow" was not intended to represent Sir Thomas Lucy ; that there was no foundation for the tradition, and that the whole story was built upon a misreading of Shakespeare's plays, and a misunderstanding of his art. His genius was too well balanced to produce a meaningless carica- ture from superficial associations. To understand what I mean, it is necessary to forget for the time being all preconceived notions whatsoever, and consider analyti- cally the role of Justice Shallow as a real man. The reason of this creation seems to have been in order to add a new shade to the intricate character of Falstaff, the sot, the braggart, the coward, always impecunious, who risked highway robbery to fill his pockets, and told any number of lies to keep up his credit. {Henry IV. ^ Part L) It was the ready wit of Falstaff that made him acceptable to the Prince, and popular with the audience. The rags of his conscience were only aired when he was alone, as in Henry IV. ^ Part L, Act iv., scene 2, when he had been made a captain, and allowed to find his own soldiers. "I have misused the King's press damnably; I have got in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers three
D
34 Shakespeans Warwickshire Contemporaries
hundred and odd pounds . . , and such have I to fill up the rooms of them that bought out their services that you would think that 1 had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping," &c. In Henry IV., Part II., he is sent on another campaign to separate him from Prince Henry ; and he asks the Lord Chief Justice "to lend him a thousand pounds to furnish him forth." This he is refused. On his recruit- ing tour in Gloucestershire he meets Justice Shallow, whom Shakespeare uses as a foil to his bright parts (Act iii., scene 2). Each sees in the other a means to advance his private ends. Falstaff is a knight of good parentage and upbringing, once page to the highest nobleman in the land, and despite his rollicking ways still in good society, known to be on familiar terms with the young Prince, and now sent in honourable command to the King's wars. Shallow, of meaner descent, of poorer upbringing, evidently a younger son of a younger son, had comparatively lately, either through legal conveyancing acquired at Clement's Inn, through farming or trade, or through a late and unexpected inheritance from some far-off relative, received the honours of a three-hundred-year-old family name and coat of arms, and had become possessed of property important enough to allow him to be appointed a justice of the peace and Commissioner of Musters, a great rise in the world for him. But he wants to rise higher. He is not very wealthy even yet, though wealthier than he seems. Stern training in adversity had taught him to live sparingly, to consider the markets, and never to miss the chance of turning a penny. He is short of servants, and overburdened with petty economies and domestic supervision. His good fortune had come to him too late in life to suggest matrimony, and he was a lean old bachelor still. Davy, his general servant, had been so invaluable to him through the eight years since
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 35
he had come into his property as companion and economiscr in the country solitudes of Gloucestershire that he was willing to pardon even the knavery of Davy's friends to secure Davy's allegiance. He was, it is true, kind to the relatives who flattered him in his day of prosperity, as he flattered Falstaff, laughing at poor jokes, and paying far-fetched compliments. He was seemingly honest about wishing the King served with the best soldiers he could find. He was honest also in wishing to do well with his gifts.
There is no conscious humour in Shallow. The audience laugh at him, not with him, when he boasts of his wild youth and of the mad pranks that he had played at Clement's Inn. Falstaflfs soliloquy shows the whole situation. He could see the bottom of Justice Shallow. "Every third word was a lie." "At Clement's Inn ... 'a was the very genius of famine, ever in the rearward of fashion," and "now is this Vice's dagger become a squire . . . Well, I'll be acquainted with him . . . and it shall go hard but I will make him a philosopher's two stones to me." Falstaflf symbolises himself as an old pike, snapping at one as foolish and ignorant as a young dace.
Shallow's desire of Court influence makes him hos- pitable. The form that his ambition takes is suggested in the song of his drunken cousin. Silence:
"Do me right And dub me Knight, Samingo."
Knighthood was an honour of value in those days, not too easily attained, and even Shallow had wit enough to know the difficulties of an unknown man like him- self attaining it. Pistol brings news of the King's death, and Falstaflf, showing his intuition of his host's dream, cries: "Master Shallow, my lord Shallow, be what thou
36 Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries
wilt, I am fortune's steward : happy are they which have been my friends." On the strength of this promise, we can see that Falstaff had got out of Shallow the thousand pounds he had begged in vain of the Lord Chief Justice. They had travelled together to town, were standing together as the young King passed to his coronation, were humbled and disappointed together, and carried off together to the Fleet. Every point in the picture is contradictory to the life and circumstances of Sir Thomas Lucy, except that of being a justice of the peace, as many another householder in England was. It may be that a love of archery and pride in his garden distinguished Sir Thomas, but these were common English tastes. It may possibly be that he had a little habit of repeating his words as Shallow does, but it is perfectly certain that Lucy's familiar oath was not "By the Mass." He had no memories of Clement's Inn, he had never been wild, and, above all, he had always been wealthy, and, so to speak, had always been " Bene- dict the married man."
A man of many friends, and high social position, he needed no backstairs influence at Court. Knighthood came to him the year Shakespeare was born; in his own house. Is there anything in the action that could suggest Sir Thomas Lucy to a theatrical audience }
Though the plot of The Merry Wives of Windsor is a thing apart from the History of Henry IV. ^ in which Falstaff flourished, and the History of Henry V.^ in which he died, yet the characterization of the principal part is carried over. It is said that Elizabeth expressed a desire to see Falstaff in love, and that Shakespeare picked up the dropped threads of the story as he left it in Henry IV. ^ Part II. Shallow had quarrelled with Falstaff, doubtless on that memorable occasion when he discovered he had lost his thousand pounds, with- out a prospect of taking it out in Court patronage.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 37
Probably the imprisonment was short, but it was im- prisonment, a disgrace all the more galling to the justice that he might not speak of it in public. Apparently he had acted on Shallow's old invitation, had been refused hospitality in the house, and had taken a humorous revenge by hunting the deer in his park. This was an actionable offence, and it was quite creditable to the dignity of Justice Shallow to complain of it, and thereby pay off old scores. He would bring Sir John into a fine of three times the amount of the damage, and three months' imprisonment. This would satisfy his soul in many ways, and would advertise himself and his pos- sessions. Therefore, he hurries after Falstaff to London, scorns advice and mediation — "Were he twenty Sir John Falstaffs he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire." The thousand pounds and his imprisonment stuck in his throat. His servility to Sir John Falstaff is over ; it is clear he can help him no more. "Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge." "But not kissed your keeper's daughter." This, probably, had been entered in the formal com- plaint he had threatened to make to the Council. It was a custom of the time for lawyers to say: "You must plead to the indictment as it stands, aye or no." Sir John Falstaff knows that, and evades the whole on the one point ; then allows the whole indictment, and advises Shallow to forbear, or he would be laughed at. For Falstaff knew, what Shallow evidently did not, that such cases must be tried in some open Court of Record in the same county where the offence was committed. Falstaff knew also the old proviso in the Forest Laws, that any one called to the service of the King might take a deer in any park by the way if so be he blew a trumpet ; and he knew too his power of ready wit and unconscionable lying would browbeat a Justice Shallow in any court. Was Shallow's park enclosed ? Who were
38 Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries
the men Falstaff had beaten ? Slender seems to have been one of them. "Slender, I broke your head." Then comes Slender's charge against Bardolph and Pistol for stealing his purse when he was drunk, and FalstafF's airy way of deciding it. Falstaff would seem to have carried out the humour of the thing by presenting some of Shallow's venison to his host Page, who thanks Shallow tor it, as if it had come from himself. He is evidently mollified somewhat thereby, but grumbles, " It was ill- killed." Even in Windsor, Shallow is still poorly attended. Childless and single, he seems affectionate towards the foolish young kinsman who appears to be his heir presumptive. The idea of a rich marriage for him changes the current of his ideas. Slender, awake to his chances, is willing to do anything in reason to please Shallow, even to the extent of marrying the well-endowed daughter of Falstaff's host. Shallow's wrath cools, his sense of importance is satisfied, and he henceforth becomes entirely subordinate to the prin- cipal characters. One has only to use Hamlet's words, "Look here upon this picture and on this."
In all this, there is only one point suggesting Lucy, the talk about the coat of arms. There was an oppor- tunity of a play on words such as always delighted the London groundlings, and Shakespeare might have meant a little pleasantry in this discussion, or even a little bitterness. It is quite possible that Sir Thomas Lucy had been at the back of those who opposed the grant of arms to Shakespeare's father ; and he might want to show that all associations of an old coat were not necessarily dignified. Lucy did not bear the dozen white luces, but only three luces argent. Other families bore the same, such as "Way" and the family of "Geddes." The representation of twelve for three made a "patible difference," the phrase the heralds
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 39
used of the Shakespeare coat when objectors said it was too like another's. Shakespeare's humour may have lain in illustrating the meaning of a "patible difference" between the resembling crests of Shallow and Lucy, men so different in other points.
Much difficulty has been made of Shallow's remark, "The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat." Shakespeare may have done this to show his ignorance of heraldry in using the term " salt " instead of" haur " ; or he may have intended an allusion to the "Company of Stock Fishmongers," whose coat of arms also bore "two luces in saltire argent," and perhaps he meant to suggest that Shallow's money had come from a Stock Fishmonger.
I may add, further, that the acting copy of The Merry Wives of Windsor is taken from the Folio Edition of 1623. But a Quarto Edition was allowed to Busby in January, 1601-2, printed by Creede 1602, "as it had been divers times acted by my Lord Chamberlain's Company both before her Majesty and elsewhere." A second issue appeared in 1619, but in neither is there the slightest allusion to the coat of arms. Of course this was a pirated edition, taken down in rough notes by one of the audience. But we may be perfectly certain that all the points that tickled the ears of the ground- lings would have been seized, as it was "played divers times."
It may be suggested that the passage was added after the publication in 1602. But Sir Thomas Lucy died in 1600. Can we imagine Shakespeare base enough to wait to take his revenge until after a man was dead .'' Nothing else in the play would have suggested Sir Thomas Lucy. He never had a deer park to steal from, as we may learn from his father's will, from Leland's "Itinerary," and from his grandson's purchase of
40 Shakespeare s Wafwickshire Contemporaries
Fulbrooke in after years.* Even Fulbrooke in his time was disparked, and the Act of 5 Elizabeth only- concerns deer taken in a chase enclosed, and made a statutable park by Royal permission. His free warren could not count. Manwood has noted "The hare, the conie, the pheasant, the partridge, and none other, are accompted beasts or foules of warrens."
Sir Thomas Lucy never presented deer to the Cor- poration of Stratford-upon-Avon as other neighbouring park holders did. The park of Sir Thomas Lucy was of his wife's inheritance, far away in Worcestershire. That Shakespeare might have chased and slain many a deer is quite possible, as that was considered a proper part of the training of every youth of spirit. f And there were so many loopholes of escape. Even in the Forest Laws it is said, "And although men may kill such wild beasts in their wildness, when they are found wandering, being out of a forest, parke, or chase, yet no
* "A fayre park called Fulbrooke. In this parke was a praty Castle made of Stone and bricke. There is a little lodge or Piece of Building in this parke, called Bargeiney, made, as I conjecture, by some Lord or Lady Bargeiney. This Castle of Fulbrooke was an Eyesore to the Earles that lay in Warwick Castle, and was cause of displeasure between each Lord. Sir William Compton, keeper of Fulbrooke Parke and Castle, seeing it go to ruine, helped it forward, taking part of it (as some say) for the Building of his house at Compton by Brayles in Warwick- shire, and permitted others to take pieces of it down. ... A mile and a halfe lower down the Avon leaveth Charlecotc, Mr, Lucie's ancient manor place on the left ripe." — Leland's "Itinerary." No park mentioned.
Fulbrooke was granted to John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, by Edward VI. Mary gave it to Sir Francis Engleheld, but disparked it. He went abroad on Elizabeth's accession, as he was a Catholic. His estate was seized in 1571, Sir Thomas Lucy's grandson bought it in James's reign.
-{■In Sir Philip Sidney's "May-Lady" deer-stealing is described as " a pretty service."
Francis Osborne, born 1589, regrets he had not had the chance of such a training.
The students of Oxford had always been notorious poachers. An Act in the fifteenth century banished "disorderly hunters" from the university. But this seems to have been ignored. Their depredations led to the disparking of Radley Park near Abingdon, four miles from Oxford, in the time of Henry VIII. (see Leland). Dr. Forman relates how two students in 1573 "never studied or gave themselves to their books, but to go to schools of defence, to the dancing schools, to steal deer and conies, and to hunt the hare"; and one of these was John Thornborough, afterwards Dean of York and Bishop of Worcester. — (See Halliwell- Phillipps' "Outlines.")
Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder 41
man hath any property in them until they have killed them." If, therefore, there was no penalty possible even had Shakespeare been clever enough to secure one of Sir Thomas's home-stalled deer, how could the story arise of Shakespeare's flight to London, when it should have been Sir Thomas's chase to London ? Doubtless out of the materials of The Merry Wives of Windsor^ by some realistic romancer. (See my article in the Fortnightly^ February, 1903, "Sir Thomas Lucy not the original of Justice Shallow.") The ballad on Sir Thomas Lucy needs only to be analysed to be discredited. The production is evidently of later date, and the story is based on the play, except in the particulars regarding Lucy's value as a Parliament member, which we have seen to be untrue. "Poets are born, not made." Even in his youth Shakespeare could never have written these poor lines — disconnected, far-fetched, unjust, and untrue.
Other causes guided Shakespeare to London.
Is it possible that Sir Thomas Lucy demeaned his character for justice in personal revenge for some such off'ence } Is he likely to have warped the law to suit his own ends } I cannot think it. He must have been too well acquainted with the letter of the law, too much experienced in its bearing, to have attempted anything of the kind, which would have defamed the honour of a noble race and the credit of the Bench. There is not a trace of any prosecution either in the Records of Stratford, Warwick, or the Star Chamber.
The one play that above all others gives Shakespeare's dreams and thoughts about a forest and the chase is As Ton Like It^ and there, I think, is to be found the nearest approach to a portrait that Shakespeare has given us of Sir Thomas Lucy, as a justice, the reverse of thin,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances.
( 42 )
CHAPTER III
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second: 1551-1605.
Some confusion has arisen, even in high quarters, owing to the fact that three succeeding Sir Thomas Lucys were contemporary with Shakespeare. Of the second considerably less is known than of the first and third. Dugdale does not give the date of his birth, nor have 1 been able to find it in any other printed notice. Malone mentions the Inquisition Post-mortem of Sir Thomas Lucy the Elder, taken at Warwick, 26th September, 1 60 1, and speaks of its contents in the "Prolegomena." But at the Record Office only a fragment of the In- quisition remains, enough to identify the person and the place, but insufficient for literary criticism. The age of the heir has disappeared.
Butthe Inquisition Post-mortem ofDame Joyce Lucy, who died on the loth of February, 1595-6, was taken after the death of her husband (43 Eliz., 160 Wigorn., Part I.). This gives full details of her property, and states that at the time of his mother's death, her only son and heir Thomas was forty-four years old and more, which throws back the date of his birth to 155 1. As there is no entry of his birth in the Charlecote Register, it probably took place in Worcestershire. His parents must have been still very young, his father being nine- teen and his mother seventeen. Perhaps Sir William Lucy saw his infant grandson before he died that year.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second 43
This second Thomas was probably educated at home, like his father. There is no notice of his having travelled, though he seems to have been studious and literary. As Dugdale says of one of his ancestors, there is nothing noticeable about him except his marriages. He first married Dorothy, the heiress of Nicholas Arnold, Esq., of Kingsholm, Highnam, and Upleaden Manor, county Gloucester. She is always stated to have been the daughter of Sir Nicholas, but I find from a Chan- cery case that she was not. She was the only daughter of his eldest son Roland, who died before his father. The date of their marriage is given in the Charlecote Register. " Mr, Thomas Lucye, Esquier, was maried to Dorothee Arnoll sonc (j/V) to Sir Nicholas Arnoll Knight 27 Jan. i574[-5]-" The estates were delivered to Thomas Lucy, Esq., in right of his wife (see Rudder's "Gloucestershire," p. 342). In the State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., 1 17, f. 8, is preserved a "Brief of Mr. Richard Arnold's proofs that there was an entail of the lands of his brother. Sir Nich. Arnold, with Mr. Lucy's answers to the same, about 1580." By Dorothy Arnold Thomas Lucy had a son, named Thomas, who died young. Among the young gentlemen willing to serve in arms in Warwickshire, 1583, appears the name of "young Lucie" (see State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., 165, f. 46). I used to consider this a reference to Thomas Lucy the Second, but since I found the dates of his birth and marriage I think the entry must refer to some other member of the family. The young couple had also a daughter : " Mrs. Joyes Lucye, daughter of Mr. Thomas Lucye Esquier was baptized y^ 8 of July 1578." She was married* to William Cooke,
* A Chancery case arose from this wedding in 1607. Sir Thomas Lucy the Third and his mother Damu Constance Lucy, executors of the will of Sir Thomas Lucy the Second, and a number of tenants appealed against the husband of Joyce, now sir William Cooke, that he would not repair dilapidations, or confirm leases and made forcible entries on copyhold tenures. That Sir Nicholas Arnold, seised
44 Shakespeare's IVarwickshire Contemporaries
a relative of Sir Francis Bacon. An interesting letter, probably written in 1597, to Sir Thomas, in connection with this affair, is preserved in Spedding's " Life of Bacon."
To Sir Thomas Lucy. Sir, — There was no news better welcome to me this long time than that of the good success of my kinsman ; wherein if he be happy he cannot be happy alone, it consisting of two parts. And I render you no less kind thanks for your aid and favour towards him than if it had been for myself, assuring you that this bond of alliance shall on my part tie me to give all the tribute to your good fortune upon all occasions that my poor strength can yield. I send you, so required, an abstract of the lands of inheritance, and one lease of great value which my kinsman bringeth, with a note of the tenures, notices, contents, and state, truly and perfectly drawn ; whereby you may per- ceive the land is good land, and well countenanced by scope of acres, woods and royalties ; though the total of rents be set down, as it now goeth, without improvement ; in which re- spect it may differ somewhat from your first note. Out of this what he will assure in jointure I leave it to his own kind- ness; for I love not to measure affection. To conclude, I
of Highnam, &c., had left it to his heiress Dorothy, who married Sir Thomas Lucy deceased, and held her lands after her death by the courtesy of England. And shortly after the marriage of his daughter Joyce in 39 Eliz., she and her husband agreed that Sir Thomas Lucy should continue the tenure, and grant leases of twenty-one years. But since his death they refuse to act on their agreement. The answer to this Bill of Complaint was signed by Francis Bacon as well as by Sir William Cooke and his wife. It states that Sir Nicholas Arnold did not die seised of the lands, as he had conveyed them to his wife first and then to Dorothy and her heirs ; that his wife died before him, that Sir Nicholas died 22 Eliz., and Dorothy five or six months later, that Dorothy had not entered into possession, and her husband could not hold the lands by the courtesy of England. It further stated that Sir Thomas Lucy had asked the right to make leases, &c., before their marriage, which Cooke refused, thinking it to be very unreasonable ; that Sir Thomas Lucy had acquainted his daughter Joyce of this, and said that Sir William Cooke only sought the marriage for her wealth and lands, and seemed to be discontented, and to dislike the marriage, and tried to persuade Joyce to refuse Sir William. But Sir William, by entreaty of Lady Joyce, gave in, to win the favour of Sir Thomas, and agreed to be as good to him as he could, and allowed him the courtesy of England in the lands for his life. But Sir Thomas had allowed great waste, had cut down timber to the amount of 500/., and the property, which amounted to 15,000/. at least during the minority of the said Joyce, had been much depreciated. That the executors of Sir Thomas should pay the waste and damages, and give up all claim to leases, — 6 Oct. 1607. Chan. Proc. James I., L. xiii. 55.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second 45
doubt not your daughter mought have married to a better living, but never to a better life; having chosen a gentleman bred to all honesty, virtue, and vv^orth, with an estate conveni- ent. And if my brother or myself were cither thrivers or for- tunate in the Queen's service, I would hope there should be left as great an house of the Cookes in this gentleman as in your good friend, Mr. Attorney-General. But sure I am, if Scriptures fail not, it will have as much of God's blessing, and sufficiency is ever the best feast.
(See "Resuscitatio" Supplement, p. 92, Spedding's "Life," ii., 369.)
Mrs. Dorothy Lucy, we see, did not live very long, and the young widower married secondly, Constance, daughter and heir of Richard Kingsmill, Esquire. They had a large family, six sons and eight daughters. There is little recorded of their married lives, but everything points to domestic happiness. In the absence of other details one little incident may be noted in connection with the great flood of the Avon on the 1 8th of July, 1588. In the Parish Registers of Welcombe it is men- tioned that the Avon drowned the bridge, broke down Grange Mill, washed away much hay and many carts, " and three wains with the furniture of Mr. Thomas Lucy." He would therefore seem at that time to have been moving his residence.
He was knighted in 1592-3, as may be seen in Met- calfe's " Book of Knights." (This entry does not occur in the Cotton MS.) The young couple appear to have stayed occasionally with Mr. Kingsmill at Hurstborne. The Dictionary of National Biography states that their fourth son, William, was born there.
On 28th November, 1595, among "the gentlemen of account living in London," I find in " Tower Warde, Sir Thomas Lucye, of the county of Gloucester, knight " (Lansd. MS. 78, f. 67). He would be entered thus on account of his first wife's possessions in Highnam.
46 Shakespeare's IVarwickshire Contemporaries
The same manuscript curiously enough gives the name of another Warwickshire contemporary of less note. "An examination of certain idle and masterless men and women at the Old Bailey by the Commissioners, July 22, 1595." "Agnes Robinson, a poor lame woman, dwelleth at StafFord-upon-Raven {sic) Warwickshire, and was sent thither with a passeport." (Lansd. MS.
78, f. 53I-)
Sir Thomas the Second was therefore in London
when the new poems of the Earl of Southampton's pro- tege were stirring the literary world. Already they had been noticed in William Herbert's "Epicedium of Lady Helen Branch," in " Willobie his Avisa," in Drayton's " Matilda," in W. Clarke's " Polimanteia," in " L'Envoy to Narcissus," by Thomas Edwards, and (probably) in Spenser's "Colin Clout's come home again." Sir Thomas Lucy could not but have heard of his Warwick- shire neighbour. Probably he returned to Charlecote on his mother's death, 10th February, 1595-6, remained with his father, and succeeded there on 7th July, 1600. His first act was to solemnise with great mag- nificence the funeral ceremonies of his father on 7th August in Charlecote Church. Three heralds came down from London, among whom was William Camden, Clarencieux, the author of the "Britannia." But Sir Thomas, by some oversight, placed no epitaph on his father's tomb. The only son and heir, he was handi- capped by no brothers' portions, and no mother's dowry. His sister Joyce had already received her portion. So he proceeded at once to make his will on 13th August, 1600, in "perfect health of body and mind." He left his heir his due share of "Landes, tenementes and here- ditamentes" (no park), made arrangements for the maintenance and education of his younger sons, and assigned property for the "preference in marriage" of his daughters. He left "to his entirely beloved wife,
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second 47
the Lady Constance, the house of Charlecote, with all demesnes and as much copse wood out of Hampton Woods as is yearly cut for Charlecote, for fuel. The use of all the household stuff in Charlecote," though she was "to leave it there for the heir." "I give to my wife all my plate, goods, and chattels at Overton in Wiltshire, and all the plate, goods, and chattels I have in all England, except such as I otherwise dispose of." "To my son and heir Thomas, the gilte bason and ewer graven, which was my father's, with the two gilded engraven lyverye potts, and a nest of gilded holies, with a cover, and a gilded saulte, together with a dozen of gilded spoones, to whom I also give all my household stuff at Sutton and my best horse and furniture at his choice, bothe to be chosen by him. And all my Frenche and Italian bookes." "To my second son, Richard, my second best horse and furnyture, to whom I appoynte no porcion of land, for that his grandfather, my most lovyng father-in-lawe, hath promised to assure him in Hurstborne. But towards his placing there I give him one hundred pounds of current English money." There is no mention of his third son, but he may have been "placed" during his father's lifetime. Dugdale merely names him George. " I give my fourthe sonne, William Lucie, part of my lease at Rudforde, which I hold of the Deane and Chapter of Gloucester for three lyves, whereof his life is one ; the lyvinge that Richard Restall holdeth from me in Rudford; the lyvinge which Robert Griffith holdeth from me in Rudforde, and the myll which Geoffrey Suckley holdeth from me in Rudford, paying the Dean and Chapter their old rent." "I give to my fifth son, Robert Lucye, the remainder of Rud- ford. I give unto my sixth sonne, Francis Lucy, when he shall accomplish the age of one and twenty yeares, the mannor of Cherington, in Warwickshire, and the rent of Hugford Myddleton, in the county of Salop,
48 Shakespeare s tVarwickshire Contemporaries
or thirtye pounds by the yeare. And until theis my three laste younger sonnes shall he possessed of their several livingcs, to have for their mayntenance and breeding up in learning the profits of the manors of Cherrington and of Hugford Mydleton and Wooten Howe, and twenty pounds a yeare out of the mannor of Kingston in Herefordshire." To all his daughters he left one hundred marks for a jewel. To his "trustie and true servant Thomas Gwillim fortye pounds of current English money and my best trotting gelding." To his servant Thomas Addis thirty pounds. All other servants to have one year's wages. The executors were to be "Lady Constance Lucie and my heir, Thomas Lucy . . . my approvers, my good friend Mr. William Walter, and my moste kinde, and loving brother-in- lawe, Mr. William Wroughton." For their pains they were to have one hundred marks each. "And the overseer of my will, my most loving father-in-lawe, Richard Kingsmill, Esq., my best ambling gelding and a hundred pounds in money." The witnesses were William Walter, Geoffrey Suckley, his marke, Richard Hailc, William Cleeve, John Llad.
He was lieutenant of the county in 1601 (43 Eliz.). Dugdale says that he died in i James L (1603). But the Charlecote Register gives the date as two years later : — " Sir Thomas Lucy, Knight, departed this life the Sixteenth day of July, 1605, and was buried the XX day of August, 1605, in the 3rd year of the King's Majesties reign."
The will was proved in London on the 20th of November, 1605, by Lady Constance Lucy. On the sumptuous monument in Charlecote Church there are carved neither dates nor epitaph. Perhaps Lady Lucy thought the fourteen kneeling children and the sorrow- ing wife in marble sufficient record of the many virtues of the deceased. The Inquisition Post-mortem of his
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second. 49
goods was taken at Warwick before Thomas Leigh and William Hart. It is blotted at the date, but it took place on the 15th of July, a year all but a day after his death.
Though the dates are contradictory, the facts men- tioned regarding the second son in the Dictionary of National Biography are: "Richard (i 592-1 667) matri- culated from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1607, aged 15, and graduated Bachelor of Arts from Exeter College in 161 1. He became a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1608. Through his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Cock, and widow of Sir Robert Oxenbridge (d. 1 61 6), he became life-owner of Broxbournbury, Hert- fordshire. He was knighted at Whitehall 8 January, 1 61 7-1 8, and was created a baronet on 11 March following."
Elizabeth Kingsmill left by will on 9th December, 1605,* "To my cousin, Richard Lucy, my whole game of Swannes in the river."
He and his wife had a suit in Chancery (Chancery Proceedings, Jac. I., L. x. 18, 5th July, 1622) against Edward Turner, of the Middle Temple, London, who had been formerly steward in the demesnes of Brox- bourne, Cheshunt, and Austen, in the county of Hertford, and had retained the Court rolls, charters, and muni- ments. As they cannot give the dates, and do not know how they are kept, they cannot apply to Common Law for redress. He had another suit later (Chancery Proceedings, Jac. I., L. xiii., loth February, 1622-3).
In the State Papers, 8th May, 1 639, there is an amusing contretemps recorded between him and Lord Ker at Ware, when the latter was carrying letters to the Queen. He was elected Member for Old Sarum to the Long Par- liament in 1647, and sat in Cromwell's Parliaments of 1654 and 1656 as Member for Hertfordshire. His
* Somerset House, iS, Stafford.
50 Shakespeare's JVarwickshire Contemporaries
son, Kingsmill, of Facombe, Hampshire, the second baronet, was a Fellow of the Royal Society and Doctor of Civil Law. He married Theophila, second daughter of George, Earl of Berkeley. His son. Sir Berkeley, also a Fellow of the Royal Society, died the 19th of Novem- ber, 1759, and the title became extinct.
Burke says that George was slain in France, but in Charlecote Register there is the entry, "Mr. George Lucye was buried the 19 day of August, in the year of our Lord 1646."
The fourth son was William Lucy, whose dates the Dictionary makes 1 591-1677 (it must mean 1594 or 1595, seeing his elder brother was born in 1592). He was born at Hurstbourne, entered Trinity College, Oxford, 1 6 10, graduated Bachelor of Arts 13th Novem- ber, 1 6 13, and the following year studied at Lincoln's Inn. He afterwards studied at Cambridge, 161 5, and became Master of Arts in 161 9. He lived for several years there upon his estate, and then took the degree of Bachelor of Divinity. By the special recommendation of the King he was made chaplain to George Duke of Buckingham, and took his doctor's degree at once. Some objections were made to this. There is a curious state- ment among the State Papers for July, 1623, by his brother, that William Lucy, being descended from an ancient and honourable family of barons, came within the limits of the statute enclosed, and was admitted at once to a doctor's degree, which certain ignorant persons appealed against. Dr. William wrote a letter with this statement to Secretary Conway, thanking him for his favours, and requesting a continuance of the same. He was granted the living of Burgh Clere and of High Clere in Hampshire, where he quietly studied for some
years.
He was dispossessed during the Civil Wars, when he lost his library, which he had been at great pains to
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second 51
collect (see Tanner MS., 146, 133; Hobbes' "Levia- than," 1657, Epistle to the Reader; Clarendon State Papers, No. 664 ; Walker's "Sufferings of the Clergy," p. 298). After the Restoration he was appointed Bishop of St. David's on i8th November, 1660. He had rather a stormy time in his See, as he expressed his views very definitely, and would not submit to any infringement of his rights. He wrote several philoso- phical and religious works (see Wood's "Athenae Oxonienses," vol. iii., 1127). He was the ancestor of the Castle Cary Lucys.
Of the fifth, Robert, Dugdale says nothing. The only point I have found that may refer to him is from Le Neve's "Book of Knights." He states that Sir Edward Atkins, of Kensington, Gloucestershire, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, married the
daughter of Lucy, of the Strand, brother of Sir
Richard Lucy, Baronet. Probably Robert was the "orphan" his mother mentions. One entry in Charle- cote Register may refer to him : — "Bridget Lucye, the daughter of Robert Lucye, Esquier, and Margaret, his wife, was baptised the 6th of September, 1655."
Francis, the sixth son, matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, 5th May, 16 15, aged 15, became a Barrister-at-Law at Lincoln's Inn in 1623, and was elected Member for Warwick in 1624, 1625, 1626, and 1628. Of his affairs, besides what is mentioned in his father's will, I have only found the notice in the State Papers, July 3rd, 1632. "Mr. Corderoy desires to sell Conholt Farm. Francis, the son of Lady Lucy, offered him two thousand three hundred pounds for it." The will of Martha Lucy, one of Sir Thomas's daughters, is preserved at Somerset House, dated 1 6 1 8 (27 Meade).
Lady Constance survived her husband many years. Besides the Chancery case already mentioned (see foot- note, p. 43), she had another in regard to property at
52 Shakespeare 5 Warxichhire Contemporariei
High Gere, Hampshire, in i6c8. There was a little wood at Asmersworth in the parish of East Woodhay in the county of Southampton, of which two shares belonged to her father, and the third to her mother, Alice. Sir Robert Oxenbregge (Oxenbridge) had got hold of some p>apers, claimed the right of the woods, had cut down the trees, and had taken up for trespass the servants she had sent to protect them. She, as heir to her father, prayed relief. (Chan. Proc., Jac. I., L. xii. 51.) Vanous notices of her occur in the State Papers. "On Nov. 3c, 161 1, from Blackfriars, Con- stance, Lady Lucy, writes to thank Earl Salisbury for accepting her orphan son to his service."
Another Chancer}^ case was initiated by Lady Con- stance against Sir John Hungerford, whose son, Sir Anthony, had married her daughter Elizabeth. Her late husband. Sir Thomas Lucy, had assured his daughter of two thousand pounds after marriage, and Sir John had promised them two hundred pounds a year and the ri£{ht to live in his house; but since her husband's death ^Sir John Hungerford had been stirred up against his son and his wife, and had turned them out of his house, without making any provision for them to dwell elsewhere. When they had found a home in the house of their brother-in-law, Sir John had entered in their absence, broken open a desk belonging to Sir Anthony, taken out the obligation he had signed, and had removed some of their furniture. (Chan. Proc., Jac. I., L. xv., 48, 1 61 7.) I have not found the decision. She had yet another suit about letting some propert)' in Clifton, Warwickshire, 26th June, 1623. (Chan. Proc, Jac. I., L. xviii., 1 1.)
On the 26th of November, 1624, a warrant was drafted permitting Dame Constance Luc)', widow, of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate, to reside in London on account of her age and infirmities. In this was enclosed
Sir Thomas Lucy the Second 53
;i certificate by Dr. William Paddy and Dr. Thomas MoLiiitford that Lady Constance Lucy, of St. Giles, Cripplegate, was too ill to be removed from her house into the country, 19th November, 1624.
The Lady Constance was in the habit of having a grandchild to stay with her. It seems suggestive of un- healthy surroundings that two of these died in her care. Dugdale mentions the tomb and epitaphs of both, as also does Fisher. On the south side of the Choir of St. Giles, Cripplegate, is the inscription : "To the memory of Constance Whitney, eldest daughter to Sir Robert Whitney, of Whitney, the proper possession of him and his ancestors in Herefordshire for above five hundred years past. Her mother was the fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, in Warwickshire, by Constance Kingsmill, daughter and heir of Richard Kingsmill, Surveyor of the Court of Wards. This Lady Lucy, her grandmother, so bred her since she was eight years old as she excelled in all noble qualities, becoming a virgin of so sweet proportion of beauty and harmony of parts ; she had all sweetness of manners answerable, a delightful sharpness of wit, an offenceless modesty of conversation, a singular respect and piety to her parents, and religious even to example. She de- parted this life most Christianly at seventeen, dying to the grief of all, but to her grandmother an unrecoverable loss, save in her expectation she shall not stay long after, and the comfort of knowing who she is, and where in the resurrection to meet her."
In the same choir lies her cousin, whose tomb is also mentioned in Fisher's "Monuments." "Here lies Margaret Lucy, the second daughter of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecot, in the county of Warwick (the third by immediate descent of the name of Thomas) by Alice, the daughter and heir of Thomas Spencer, of Claverdon, in the same countie, Esq., and Custos Brevium of the
54 Shakespeare' 5 tVarwickshire Contemporaries
Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who departed this life the i8th of November, 1634, and about the nineteenth year of her age. For discretion and sweet- ness of conversation not many excelled, and for piety and patience in her sickness and death few equalled her, which is the comfort of her nearest friends, to every of whom she was very dear ; but especially to her old grandmother, the Lady Constance Lucy, under whose government she died, who having long expected to have gone before her, doth now trust by faith and hope in the precious blood of Christ shortly to follow after, and be made partaker together with her and others of the unspeakable and eternal joys in His blessed kingdom," &c.
Lady Constance died in 12 Charles I. The Charlecote Register says, "Domina Constantia Lucy, obiit apud High Clere in Comitatu Hamptoniensi, cujus corpus hinc translatum magna cum solemnitate sepultum fuit vicesimo octavo die Martij 1637." The Inquisition Post-mortem of her goods was taken in 13 Charles I., though entered at the Record Office as i 5 Charles L (Part II., 112, Southampton.) The name of Thomas Cooke is mentioned. The acje of the heirs is not clear.
In the State Papers, 25th January, 1637-8, we find on a list, signed by John Button, late Sheriff of Hamp- shire, of persons in arrear for Ship-money, "Hurstborne Tarrant, Lady Constance Lucy, deceased, 3/." Eleven others had refused to pay. She must have attained a good old age before she departed, and left her dowry in Charlecote back to her husband's heir, Sir Thomas Lucy the Third.
( 5S )
CHAPTER IV
Sir Thomas Lucy the Third: 1585-1640.
In the Inquisition Post-mortem of his father, Sir Thomas Lucy the Third is entered as being " 19 years and 50 weeks old" at the time of his father's death. If (as Dugdale states) this happened in 1603, he would have been born in 1584. This date is supported by the epitaph on his tomb, which says that he was fifty-six at his death in 1640. If his father's death took place in 1 605, as the Charlecote Register gives it, the date of his birth would be 1586. This latter date is supported by the Students' Register in Oxford, where he matricu- lated from Magdalen College, the 8th May, 1601, aged fifteen. The heraldic visitation of Warwickshire, taken in 161 9, states that Sir Thomas was thirty-three at that date.
He became a student at Lincoln's Inn about 1602, and was knighted early, though at what place and under what circumstances I have hitherto been unable to find. Metcalfe's "Knights" does not inform us. He was fond of travelling, delighted in riding, and studied all the arts and accomplishments of the fashionable young knights of the period. He became much more a public man than his father or grandfather. His great friend was the young Lord Herbert of Cherbury, famous alike for his philosophic thought and his personal vanity.
56 Shakespeare's fVarwickshire Contemporaries
From the " Autobiography " of that young nobleman we learn something of the travels, in 1609, of his friend, Sir Thomas Lucy the Third. At page 107 of the edition by Mr. Sidney Lee, he says : —
Having passed thus all the winter until the latter end of
January (1609) ^ ^ook my leave of the French King
at which time the Princess of Conti desired me to carry a scarf into England and present it to Queen Anne on her part, which being accepted, myself and Sir Thomas Lucy (whose second I had been twice in France, against two cavaliers of our nation, who yet were hindered to fight with us in the field, where we attended them), we came on our way as far as Dieppe in Nor- mandy, and there took ship about the beginning of February, when so furious a storm arose that with very great danger we were at sea all night.
The master of our ship lost both the use of his compass and his reason ; for not knowing whither he was carried by the tempest, all the help he had was by the lightnings, which, together with thunder very frequently that night, terrified him, yet gave the advantage sometimes to discover whether we were upon our coast, which he thought by the course of his glasses we were near approached. And now towards day we found ourselves, by great providence of God, within view of Dover, to which the master of our ship did make. The men of Dover, rising betimes in the morning to see whether any ship were coming towards them, were in great numbers upon the shore, as believing that the tempest, which had thrown down barns and trees near the town, might give them the benefit of some wreck, if perchance any ship were driven thitherwards. We coming thus in extreme danger straight upon the pier of Dover, which stands out in the sea, our ship was unfortunately split against it ; the master said, Me$ amisy nous sommes perdus ; or. My friends, we are cast away. When myself who heard the ship crack against the pier and then found by the master's words it was time for every one to save themselves, if they could, got out of my cabin (though very sea-sick) and climbing up the mast a little way, drew my sword and flourished it.
Sir Thomas L.ucy the Third 57
They at Dover having this sign given them, adventured in a shallop of six oars to relieve us, which being come with great danger to the side of our ship, I got into it first with my sword in my hand, and called for Sir Thomas Lucy, saying, that if any man offered to get in before him, I should resist him with my sword ; whereupon a faithful servant of his taking Sir Thomas Lucy out of the cabin, who was half dead of sea-sickness, put him into my arms, whom after I had received, I bid the shallop make away for shore, and the rather that I saw another shallop coming to relieve us ; when a post from France, who carried letters, finding the ship still rent more and more, adventured to leap from the top of our ship into the shallop, where, falling fortunately on some of the stronger timber of the boat, and not on the planks, which he must needs have broken, and so sunk us, had he fallen upon them, escaped together with us two unto the land. I must confess myself, as also the seamen that were in the shallop, thought once to have killed him for this desperate attempt ; but finding no harm followed, we escaped together unto the land, from whence we sent more shallops, and so made means to save both men and horses that were in the ship, which yet itself was wholly split and cast away, insomuch that in pity to the master Sir Thomas Lucy and myself gave thirty pounds towards his loss, which yet was not so great as we thought, since the tide now ebbing he recovered the broken parts of his ship.
After being received at Court and performing his commission, Lord Herbert returned to his wife and studies. He delighted in riding the great horse.
No horse yet was so dear to me as the jennett I brought from France, whose love I had so gotten, that he would suffer none else to ride him, nor indeed any man to come near him, when I was upon him, as being in his nature a most furious horse. ... Sir Thomas Lucy would have given me 200/. for this horse, which, though I would not accept, yet I left the horse with him when I went to the Low Countries, who not long after died.
Mr. Sidney Lee, the editor of this autobiography,
58 Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries
makes an error in adding a note to the effect that this Sir Thomas was the son of Shakespeare's Sir Thomas. "Richard Lord Dorset" had Lord Herbert's portrait, which he had got as " a copy of a picture which one Larkin (or Lockie) a painter drew for me, the original whereof I intended before my departure to the Low Countries for Sir Thomas Lucy" (p. 127). This portrait, painted on copper, is still preserved at Charlecote.
Sir Thomas Lucy was a great patron of literature. We may notice the epigram of John Davies of Hereford, written in 16 10, in "The Scourge of Folly," n.d., printed by E. A. for Richard Redmer : —
To my much honoured and beloved Sir Thomas Lucy^ Knight.
Epigram 103.
Bright sparke of Wit and Courage ; yet ynow
To set a world of hearts in love, on fire ; Whose influence provokes my Muses Plow
To cast thy Beames abroad, that be intire, Thou all-belou'd and highly-prized Jemme That in the Courts Browes (like a Diamond Or Hesperus in Heaven) dost lighten them For men to see their way on glorie's ground ; Of thy most honoured nature, take in gree This offer of my Muse to honour thee.
He seems to have been more interested than any of his family in game as well as horses. He made a Star Chamber matter of a deer-stealing case in his Worcester estate of Sutton Park. He petitioned, July, 16 10, against those who had unlawfully taken the deer from his en- closed park, that the " pernicious example " might be checked, praying that the punishment might be awarded the offenders which had been decreed in 3 James L ; and that the severer punishment might be added of contempt of law. He indicted William Wall, of Rooke, in the county of Wigorn, gentleman, Rowland Harnage,
Sir Thomas Lucy the Third 59
of Kynlctt, in the county of Salop, gentleman, and other abettors. William Wall pleaded "not guilty" (June, 161 1). (See Notes and Queries^ Third Series, vol. xii,, p. 181.) The extremely bitter form of the petition has suggested to my mind a possibility that some of the parties prosecuted might have written on him "the satirical ballad," and might have fixed it to his park gates : might, indeed, have suggested the comparison to Justice Shallow, afterwards fathered on Shakespeare. Thus many a picture, first modestly entitled "after" Rubens, Teniers, or Titian, in later days takes the credit of a master's name. This Sir Thomas purchased Fulbrooke Park, had it united to Hampton Woods, enclosed, and licensed by King James.*
He was also more politically inclined than his imme- diate predecessors. He sat as knight of the shire in six successive Parliaments — in 16 14 along with Sir Richard Verney ; in 1620 with Sir Fulke Greville ; in 1624 with Sir Clement Throckmorton, and in 1625, 1628, and in April and May, 1640. He seems to have taken a thoughtful and disinterested view of his duties to his country. He was lieutenant ot the county in 10 James I. and in 9 Charles I. That he was also justice of the peace is evident from the State Papers.
On the 20th of July, 16 13, there was a grant to Sir Thomas Leigh, Baronet, of Stoneleigh, and Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, Warwickshire, of an annuity of 200/. for the use of Lady Alice, the wife of Sir Robert Dudley (son of the Earl of Leicester), during her life.
On the 26th of November, 1622, a letter was written from Warwick by Sir Thomas Leigh, Sir Richard Verney, and Sir Thomas Lucy to the Council about
* He was the first Lucy to give a buck to the Town Council of Stratford-upon- Avon : — "Item, given to Sir Thomas Lucie his keeper for his fee, and in wyne bestowed on him whenas he brought us a buckc, izs. 6J." (Chamberlain's Accounts, Stratford-upon-Avon, 1632.)
6o Shakespeare's IVarwicksbire Conteniporaries
the dispute regarding a coal mine owned by some Coventry men.
On the 5th of July, 1625, a demise of property was drawn up by Henry Lord Worley and Monteagle, Richard Catesby, Walter Stafford, and Anthony Pen- ruddock to Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote and John Penruddock as sureties.
On the 19th of October, 1635, Bishop Wright of Coventry and Lichfield invited the sheriff. Sir Thomas Puckering, Sir Thomas Lucy, and Mr. William Purefoy to meet him at Coventry about martial affairs.
In April, 1639, an indenture was signed between Sir Thomas Leigh, Sir Thomas Holt, Sir Thomas Lucy, and William Boughton, deputy-lieutenants of the county of Warwick, with Lieutenant Moses Tresinell to conduct two hundred and thirty men newly pressed in the county to Selby, Yorkshire.
On the 24th of February, 1639-40, letters of attorney were written by Sir Thomas Lucy and Richard Catesby of Drury-lane, to William Ewer and Ursula Catesby against Sir William Saunders and others to recover money due. These entries are from State Papers. The last notice is touching to read. On the 25th of March, 1 640, Sir Thomas writes : —
I have received commandment from the Council to give my personal attendance for some reasons to be communicated to me at my coming up. The truth is for this ten w^eeks I have been so indisposed that I have scarcely peeped out of my chamber, and a short journey of four miles on Monday last to Warwick completely distempered me, so that I find, without much danger, I shall not be able to endure so long a journey. I pray you, therefore, if occasion be offered to move the Board that I may be dispensed with until I may undertake the journey with probable safety ; but if I must come, it is fit, though I had a hundred lives, I should hazard them all to testify my obedience.
He died on the loth of December, 1640.
Sir Thomas Lucy the Third 6i
On the 3rd of January, 1640-41, from Ragley, Fulke Reed wrote to Edward Viscount Conway:
Though it be conceived somewhat early to send to Chalcot about what you commanded me, there being a heavy house, and the funeral not yet finished, yet I sent Mr. Prescot, a friend, to know what purpose there is for disposing of such of Sir Thomas Lucy's estates your lordship is desirous to deal with.
The entry in the Register runs thus: — "Dominus Thomas Lucy placide dormivet in Christo, 10 die Decembris, et summo cum honore sepultus fuit 20 die Januarij, 1640. Anno Regis Caroli xvj."
Sir Thomas married about 16 10 (see funeral sermon) Alice, only daughter and heir of Thomas Spencer, of Claverdon, and granddaughter of Sir John Spencer, of Althorpe, Northamptonshire, by whom he had a large family. The sons were Spencer, Robert, Richard, Thomas, William, George, and Fulke. Of the daughters, Constance married Sir William Spencer, of Yarnton, and afterwards Sir Edward Smith; Margaret died unmarried (see her epitaph in last chapter); Bridget married Sir Bryan Broughton; Anne, Sir William Underbill; Mary, Sir Matthew Herbert ; and Elizabeth, Sir John Walcot. There was also a Theophila, born 1 632, and buried 1638; and an Elizabeth, born 1633. Fulke was born in 1630, and William was buried in 1631.
Sir Thomas Lucy's will is in Somerset House. It had been drawn up on the 20th of September, 1639. In order "to advance his wife Dame Alice" and his children, he leaves to her, "all those my pastures and grounds inclosed, commonly known by the name of Fulbrook Grounds or Fulbrooke Parke, with appur- tenances" for her life, and after her, first to Spencer Lucy, second to Robert Lucy, third to Richard Lucy, fourth to Thomas Lucy, fifth to George Lucy, sixth to Fulke Lucy.
62 Shakespeare's IVarwickshire Contemporaries
"All the lands belonging to Fulbrooke, and not within the Parke, lately impaled, shall be liable for annuities. To my good friend, Mr. James Prescott .... that he may be assistant to my wife and family in their needs, an annuity of 40/. .... I give to Mr. Franchin, who is beyond the seas with my sons, if he bring them safe home again, an annuity of 30/. to himself and his assigns for three-score yeares. To my servant Launcelot Granger an annuity of 20 marks for life, 13/. 6s. ^d. To my servant William Lawrence the living he dwelleth in at Hampton for three-score years. To my servant William Matthews the living in Hampton he now dwells in for three-score years. To my servant Robert Wootten the living he now holds at Hampton and 40J. within three months. To all my servants double wages.
"I bequeath to my dear wife Alice all her jewels and plate, and the use of all the household stuff in Charlecote, to be there used and not elsewhere, and after to such of my sonnes as the house shall fall unto. 1 bequeath to my worthy cosen, Mr. John Hales,* a diamond ring of fifty pounds price, which I would intreate him to weare in my remembrance, and one of my best mares he shall choose. To my most dear brother Sir Richard Lucy my bay ambling horse and one other of my mares he shall best like." "To Susanna Clarke, the wife of Thomas Clarke, immediately on decease of Thomas, for three-score years, the living now in tenure of Thomas Clarke in Hampton." "To my loving brother, Dr. Lucy my gray Barbary ambling horse." "The rest of my goods I leave to my dear wife, to
* For a short time after I read the will of Sir Thomas I hoped that I might find the beloved John Hales the same as the "ever-memorable" John Hales, of Eton, who appreciated Shakespeare ; for Boase, in his Oxford Registers, gives only two "John Hales" in the century, both of Warwickshire, Armig. But I fear Btiase is wrong, as Wood only speaks of the John Hales of Somerset, of the same colleges and dates. The Combes and the Lucys alike had wedded members of the Hales family. But I cannot prove the one point I started to investigate.
Sir Thomas Li{cy the Third 63
distribute among my children at her discretion, my debts and funeral expenses being paid. Only I be- queath to Spencer Lucy all the stufF in the house of High Cleere, in Hampshire, and those two horses called the Hobby and Mingnon, with two colts and two mares. To my son Richard my bookes at Charlecote and two such of my great horses he shall like. To my son Robert all my household stuff in my house of Sutton in Worcester. I nominate my most deare wife, the Lady Alice Lucy, my worthy kinsman and friend, Mr. John Hales, of the Priory, in Coventry, and my approved and loving friend, Mr. James Prescott, execu- tors, and I give unto every of them for their care 40/." This was proved by Dame Alice Lucy, John Hales, and James Prescot on the i8th February, 1640-41. At the margin is noted, "Received this 29th day of August, 1657, the originall will of the sayd Sir Thomas Lucy deceased, by me, Richard Lucy, Esq., son of the said deceased, and one of the executors of the will of Dame Alice Lucy, relict, and one of the executors of the said Thomas Lucy." I have not been able to find the Inquisition Post-mortem at the London Public Record Office. It is probably in Warwick or Worcester. His funeral sermon was preached in 1640 by Robert Harris, B.D.,* pastor of the Church of Hanwell, Oxon., printed 1641, and dedicated to "the honour- able and virtuous Lady Lucie of Charlcot." It is entitled "Abner's Funerall," and consists of a far- fetched parallel between the death of Abner and David's mourning and the death of Sir Thomas Lucy, mourned by his country. We cannot explain the connection fully now, but we can note some special phrases in relation to Sir Thomas Lucy. " I have my hands and
* There was a John Harris, who had been appointed to the living of Cheriton by Sir Thomas Lucy, who had died this same year. His executors appointed in his place Christopher Smith. (See Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 589.) Probably this Robert was his brother, and interested in that way in the family.
64 Shakespeare's Warwickshire Contemporaries
heart full with our present instance. Our friend Lazarus sleepes, and we cannot wake him. In this one bottom we have all our interests and suffer a wrecke. A noble lady hath lost, not an husband (as shee saith), but a father. Many children have lost, not a father, but a counsellor. An household have lost, not a master, but a physitian who made (as I am informed) their sickness his, and his physick and cost theirs. Townes full of tenants have lost a landlord that could both protect and direct them in their owne way. The whole neighbour- hood have lost a light, the countie a leader, the country a patriot, to whom he was not wanting, till he was wanting to himselfe, in his former vigour and health."
His mourning wife raised a noble tomb for him, in which his t^gy is represented half reclining. In the background to the right are shelves of books, to the left the representation of a barn, a river, and a gentle- man on horseback, probably meant to illustrate his two chief tastes of reading and riding. The epitaph is in Latin, and sounds very like the funeral sermon. A contemporary translation was printed.
Sir Thomas Lucye, Knight, one of this countie's greatest glories. An extract of a most Antient Familie. But a dis- esteemer of Birth in respect of worth. Whcrin hee outshone the brightest of his noble ancestors. A singular and much honored Patriot. Witness the supreme Court of the Kingdom, whither he was frequently sent by the unanimous and fervent suffrages of his endeared countrie. His great estate none could either better manage or be less servant to. What Frugalitie laid up Liberalitie and Magnificence laid out. A loyal con- sort, a numerous offspring, and great abundance of Attendants were never blessed with a better governor. His servants' sick- nesse was his Sympathie, and their Recoverie his cost. Beeing thus a father in a master towards his servants, what must hee bee in a father toward his most lovelie children, and in a Husband toward his well-beloved Ladie? To his Table (which was always choisly sumptuous) all good men were ever most
Sir Thomas T.ucy the Third dc^
welcum ; especially if Professor of either Sacred or Secular Learning. Wherein, though he were so rare proficient that hee was accounted a I^iving Librarie, yet was hee uncessantly acted with an impetuous desire after a greater height. His gate was no less propitious to the Poor; whose valediction to it was a Benediction, their farewel an Heartie Praier for the master's welfare. Manie poore laborers hee daily employed, chiefly that they might not by doing nothing learn to do worse. Manie neighbor-towns hee yearly refreshed, sending unto them delightful provision. The great Horse was his great delight. Manic he had, as generous and elegant as anie were ; which hee frequently backed with as much skill as anie could. Had hee not better known to moderate his Horse then Himself (for from his Delight arose his disease), he in whom his Familie, Friends, Countic, Countrie were so happie and then whom none was more happier on earth, had not yet been most happie in heaven. Our happiness set, and his arose, Dec. 8, 1640, in the 56 yeer of his age.
This quaint translation is produced on broad black- bordered paper — one of the earliest examples of that sign of mourning that I have noted — and occurs on signature H 2 of the funeral sermon of the Lady Alice, which was preached on August lyth, 1648, printed in 1649 by Mr. Thomas Dugard,* and dedicated to Messrs. "Spencer, Robert, Richard, Thomas, Fulk Lucie, and to the Ladie Constance Spencer, Mrs. Briget Broughton, Mrs. Marie, Mrs. Alice, Mrs. Elizabeth Lucie, the remains of that Honourable Pair." The sermon is a general one upon "Death and the grave," closed by a special notice : — "Wee use to say to them that comming from London bring no news with them they deserve to bee sent back againT Many have said of her noble hus- band's epitaph, "It is true all that is said of him, everie word." " Much more might have been said there of
* In the Warwickshire Visitation, 1682, the Rev. Thomas Dugard, of Barford, was among the Disclaimers, or one of those not entitled to bear arms. This ap- pears in SirThomas Phillipps' manuscript notes at the end of his index to visitations, f. 72.
66 Shakespeare^ s tVarwickshire Contemporaries
him, but specially of her. But such was her modestie, that althousrh in that magrnificent monument which she erected for him she caused herself to bee layed by him in full proportion, yet shee would not suffer her epitaph to bear anie proportion with his. She conceived the most that could be said of him too little, and the least that could bee said of her too much." She was " a good wife for thirty years."
Her epitaph was added also in Latin, and this is trans- lated in the black-bordered sheet at the end of Dugard's sermon as —
And Lady Alice his wife, daughter and heir to Thomas Spencer, of Claverdon, Esquire, whose exquisite virtues are forbidden by her excessive modestie to appear in this marble. Nor can they be comprehended in it. She permitteth no more than this : that shee was most observant of her dearest husband while hoc lived ; hath erected this monument for him being dead ; and through love and lamentation is herself (as you see) become marble.
We must with her close the notices of the Lucys*
* Only for local interest I may add that in Add. MS. 24, 121, is a letter from a Lady Lucy at Charlecote, 24th March, 1746, to Thomas Wotton about the pedi- gree, which she notes as Dugdale does. The private letter accompanying it says: — "My dear nephew .... There is no pedigree preserved in ye family. Ye best account I know of ye family is in ye Baronetage, but it takes no notice of the Charlecote Arms, nor did I ever hear what they were. You know the present Baronet, Sir Berkeley Lucy, is a collateral branch, and in him ye title will be ex- tinct. Ye present Mr. Lucy is ye only heir male remaining yt that is directly descended from ye last Sir Thomas, to whom he is great grandson, as your friend observes. Spencer left no issue. Robert ye next brother left only a daughter Bridget, yt marryed Lord MoUineux, father to ye present Lord; she married to her second husband, Lord Arundel of Wardour. Richard ye next brother married Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Urry, Esq., and had a son Thomas and a daughter Constance, yt married Sir Burgoine of Wroxhall, great grandfather to ye present Sir Roger. Ye son Thomas married Catherine daughter of Wheatley, Esq., of Bricknol, in Berks, and had only one daughter. Elizabeth Lucy married first to Clement Throckmorton, of Haseley, in the county of Warwick, and having no male issue, the estate devolved upon Davenport Lucy, Esq., eldest son of Sir Foulke Lucy, (who married Isabella, sole daughter and heir of John Davenport, Esq., co. Chester) who was youngest son of Sir Thomas. He was killed at the siege of Limerick in Ireland, and his brother George succeeded. He had no issue, and the estate descended to William Lucy, Prebend of Wells and rector of Hampton Lucy, a living in the gift of the family. He died in his house at Red Lion Square, London,
Sir Thomas Lucy the Third 67
that were contemporary with Shakespeare. I believe that I have shown some reason for my opinion that the relations between them and Shakespeare have been misunderstood. It would be strange indeed that Sir Thomas Lucy the Third, with so many kindred tastes, should not have become acquainted with Shakespeare in his latter days at New Place. But we do not know anything about this, and imagination must not run riot in critical studies of Shakespeare.
February 19th, 1723-4, and was buried nt Hampton Lucy without monument. He settled his estate upon Thomas the eldest son of Fulke Lucy, his youngest brother. He died 1744, and his estate came to George the present possessor, a bachelor, and it is entailed upon Sir Berkeley Lucy, of the Castle Gary family."
( 68 )
CHAPTER V
John Somerville of Edreston : 1 560-1 583.
We must turn from the busy and prosperous lives of the Lucys, who seem to have had no skeleton in their cupboard, and no sword hanging by the proverbial hair at their feasts, to the fortunes of another family, also ancient and honourable, whose escutcheon was stained with blood in the year that Shakespeare christened his first child.
The Somervilles were a family of the highest antiquity. Walter de Somerville came over with the Conqueror, and settled soon after the Conquest at Wichnour, in Staffordshire. A younger branch acquired the property of Aston Somerville, in Gloucestershire, before 45 Henry III., and on the failure of the elder branch of Wichnour, they became the chief English family of the name. In the time of Edward III. their coat of arms bore "Argent upon a fesse gules three Leopards' Heads Or, between three Annulets of the second."
Thomas Somerville, of Aston Somerville, had, in the reign of Henry VII., married Joanna, daughter and heir of the noble Warwickshire family of the Aylesburys, and settled with her at her family seat at Edreston or Edstone, in the parish of Wootton Wawen in the hundred of Barlichway, near Bearley. There he died in 16 Henry VII. His son and heir, Robert, married Maria, daughter of John Greville, of Milcote (see Harl.
Juhn Somerville 69
MS., xii. f. i^T^)^ of whom 1 have hereafter something to say. Several of the family appear among the mem- bers of the Guild of Knowle. Robert died on the 13th December, 29 Henry VIII., and his son John succeeded, marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of William Corbet, of Lee. Some pedigrees state that she was his first wife, but I have been unable to find trace of any other. The State Papers mention that she was an invalid at the time of her son John's arraignment in
1583-
John Somerville, the elder, died on the ist of April,
20 Eliz., and the registers of Wootton Wawen say that he was buried there on April 6th, 1 578. The Inquisition Post-mortem of his goods was taken at Warwick, 24th May, 20 Eliz., before Sir Thomas Lucy, Sir Fulke Greville, Edward Aglionby, Esquire, and Arthur Gregory. The j urors were Thomas Olney, gent., Christo- pher Knight, Thomas Allen, Thomas Saunders, Anthony Clements, John Burton, William Ives, Robert Weste, Roger Webbe, Robert Green, Hugerius Palmer, and John Barret.
John Somerville held Edreston or Edstone and Bere- ley, thirty messuages, a thousand and fifty acres ; 200 acres meadow, 1,000 acres pasture, 40 acres wood, and 20 arable in the messuages of Edstone, Wootton Wawen, Knoll, and Claredon ; one messuage in Halford, three messuages in Lapworth, and one tenement in Wydney super Bentley Heath. He had made an indenture on the 1 6th Oct., 10 Eliz., with Sir Fulke Greville, Sir Thomas Lucy, Thomas Blount, Esq., Ralph Sheldon, Esq., George Bromeley, Esq., William Sheldon, jun., Esq., that his property, after his decease should remain to his wife Elizabeth until the heir, John Somerville, or any other son that should become heir, should attain the age of twenty-four years ; that after the heirs male of John Somerville, it should descend to the heirs male of
yo Shakespeare's fVarwickshire Contemporaries
William Somerville, son to John Somerville, senior, then to the heirs male of Robert Somerville, then to the heirs male of Thomas Somerville, sons of John Somerville, senior, and Elizabeth his wife. There was no mention in this indenture of Elizabeth and Margaret, the daughters alluded to in the State Papers, yet they surely must have been born by that time. The Inqui- sition notes that some of the property was held under the Earl of Warwick, of the castle of Beaudesert; some under Robert, Earl of Leicester; the tenement in Hal- ford, of the heir of William Banwell; that in Lapworth of Sir William Catesby; a tenement in Wootton Wawen of Francis Smith ; the tenements in Claredon directly of the Queen. The Inquisition, which is signed by Sir Thomas Lucy and Sir Fulke Greville, states that the heir, John Somerville, junior, was of the age of eighteen years and more at the date of the Inquisition.
It was a good thing for his family that he was not of age, because it saved the estates for his brother.*
John Somerville had been educated at Hart Hall, then a favourite College for Catholics in Oxford. Wc hear nothing of his doings until he was dragged forth into the lurid light of a trial for high treason. He married, probably soon after his father's death, Margaret, second daughter of Edward Arden, of Park Hall. By the Harl. MS., xii., f. 33, we know that he had two little daughters: Elizabeth, who afterwards married Philip Warwick; and Alice, who married an Arden. Even had their father not been attainted, his lands, which came with a daughter, would not have gone to a daughter, through the terms of the grandfither's inden- ture, or entail in the male line. By that same indenture, John Somerville, at the date of his death, had not yet become practically of age, nor had he fully entered into
* Mr. French, in his "Shakcspcareana Genealogica," says that half of the manor of Kingston belonged to young John Somerville, and at his attainder fell to the Crown and was bestowed on Mr. Abel Gower.
John Someruille 71
possession at Edrcston, though we see, from the State Papers, that his mother was both mentally and bodily incapable of enjoying her privileges.
We nowadays can calmly consider alike the heresies and treasons of other ages, and can seek the causes of both. Very complex causes drove John Somerville the younger to his fate. The action of Henry VIII. lay at the root of all. Most of the Catholics, and even some of the Protestants, considered Elizabeth illegitimate, and disputed her right to reign, even under the will of a despcftic father and the support of the majority of her subjects. But the majority was uncertain. Only about a third of her subjects were Protestants by conviction; another third were Catholics by faith, and the remaining third were of the religion, or no religion, of the strongest hand. But all preferred peace to war.
"The first blast of the Trumpet against the mon- strous regiment of women," was published by John Knox abroad in 1558. It was directed against "that horrible monstre Jesabel of England a traitresse and a bastard." But it included all women. "To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion, or empire above any realme, nation, or citie, is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious to His revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, and of all equitie and justice." Though this was written against Mary, it came over in time to greet Elizabeth ; and there is no doubt it affected much of the opinion of the country on both sides. John Aylmer answered it in a little book, "Ane Harborowe for the faithful, and trewe subjects, against the late blowne blaste, Strasburg, 1559"; for which he was afterwards made Bishop of London.
During the first twelve years of Elizabeth's reign, when she was consolidating her position and enjoying her life, as the Court-Lady describes it in "Leicester's
72 Shakespeare's fVarwicksbire Contemporaries
Commonwealth," there seems to have been compara- tively little active repression of the Catholics. But the Pope's ill-omened Bull of February, i 569-70, had been translated into English, and had been fastened on the Bishop of London's gate on the 15th May, 1570. It was practically a declaration of war. Elizabeth, advised by Burghley, was forced to make reprisals. Elizabeth's relations to rclig^ion were more like those of her father than those of her sister. It was the passion tor Catholi- cism in Mary's heart that kindled the fires of Smithfield for her heretics; it was jealousy of her politixral and religious supremacy that determined Elizabeth to despatch her heretics, not by fire but by the traitor's death. Anxieties abroad were kept alive by the attitude of Philip of Spain ; perplexities at home centred round the Scottish Queen, a prisoner in the sanctuary to which she fled.
The Parliament of 158 1, in order to keep Elizabeth's subjects in due obedience, had added new penalties to the exercise of the Romish religion, and new terrors to the preaching thereof. Fines for nonconformity were increased. The penalty for saying mass was to be two hundred marks ; for hearing it, one hundred marks and imprisonment. For neglecting to attend church, twenty pounds a month. Priests or persons practising to with- draw her subjects to the Romish religion were declared guilty of high treason; abettors, of misprision of treason. New powers were given to the justices of the peace in regard to checking recusants. Their houses might be searched upon the slightest suspicion, and the darkest construction put on all that might be found there. Spies and informers for the Privy Council were spread over the land.
The high-strung religious fervour in the hearts of those who clung to the proscribed religion was only deepened by fine and forfeiture. They prayed all the
John Someruille 73
more earnestly from their purgatory on earth for the help of Mary, Mother in Heaven. Their chivalric instincts were stirred by the continued imprisonment among them of the Queen of Scots, a princess of their own faith, with stainless pedigree, the natural heir- apparent, at least, to the throne of England. Without thought of treason in any true sense the hearts of many Catholics turned to her, and their dreams pictured her on her accession reversing Elizabeth's policy as Mary Tudor had reversed her brother's.
And 'then Elizabeth took a more severe step. Arch- bishop Grindal died in 1582, blind, old, and in disgrace with his Queen for his incapacity to check noncon- formity. To restore unity in the Church, the Queen appointed the sterner Whitgift as his successor, and gave him powers as great nearly as those of the notorious "Inquisition." A commission was appointed, with plenary jurisdiction over the kingdom, to reform all heresies, schisms, errors, vices, and sins, by fines and imprisonment at discretion. There were to be forty-four commissioners, of whom twelve were to be ecclesiastics. Sir Edward Coke pronounced this innovation as con- trary to law. (See Sir James Mackintosh's "History of England," iii., p. 288.) The Commons mildly remon- strated against the tyrannical act, but Elizabeth thereby asserted her spiritual supremacy. The Commissioners administered oaths, dealt out fines and imprisonments to both Puritans and Catholics, though the latter bore the chief brunt of the attack. The Puritans were, after all, English subjects, and had no foreign Pope to stir them up into political action (though John Knox's book on "The Monstrous Regiment of Women" was not out of print). But the Catholics had a Pope ; and his emis- saries, young priests, trained specially abroad for secret service in England, scorning martyrdom, swarmed through the land, and under the cloak of religious
74 Shakespeare 5 fVarwickshire Contemporaries
guidance, often excited discontent with things as they were, and hopes that were disloyal to their excom- municated Queen.
In the midst of all this, an ever-increasing crop of slanders against the Queen arose on account of her in- judicious partiality for the Earl of Leicester, whose known character was sufficient to foster them. Some of this floating gossip took shape in a letter purporting to be written by a Cambridge student to a friend, which, in 1584, was expanded and published as "Leicester's Commonwealth," popularly called " Father Parsons' Greenbacks " (from the colour of its binding and the leaf edging).*
It openly speaks of Leicester's low origin, his vicious life, his frequent poisonings, and calls him " the chained bear, who had claws that can pierce and his bite is cureless." The Queen was indignant at its appearance, and the Lords of the Council sent a reprimand to the justices of the peace for Lancashire and Cheshire for allowing such a book to circulate, " both the Queen and they knowing the Earl of Leicester to be perfectly clear of the aspersions it contains," 20th June, 1585 (see Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa," i., 158). Sir Philip Sidney, the Earl of Leicester's nephew, answered the book with great indignation, especially against the dero- gation to the pedigree of the Dudley family. "Great honours it is true, came to the race by the mother, which had been allowed in all Ages, but the descent through
* Father Parsons always denied its authorship and printed his denial in his preface to "Warnword to Sir Francis Hastings Wastword." There were many varying manuscript copies, some made possibly long before this date. The only clue to an author I have found is in one called "A Letter from a Cambridge Student to a friend in London," which is signed " R.F." (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., Addenda xxviii., 1 13). The book was twice reprinted in 1641, in 4to and in izmo, and was published as "The Secret Memoirs of the Earl of Leicester 1706," with a preface by Dr. James Drake. It was also printed in the "Harleian Miscellany," 1809 ; and in the "Collectanea Adamantaea," vol. xxiv., Edinburgh, 1887, where it is assumed that it had not been printed before.
John Somerville 75
the father was also honourable " (Collins' "Letters and Memorials of State," p. 64).
We must not forget the statements of this book in studying the causes that led up to John Somcrville's fall. He had stayed from Christmas till Easter at Coventry, and a friend of his there, Harry Goodyere, with whom he had often conversed, had been talking romance to him about the captive Queen Mary of Scots, and had boasted of the souvenirs she had given him for his service and suffering for her sake. When he had been with his wife at Park Hall (the residence of his father- in-law), the priest, Hugh Hall, whom he met there, seems to have spoken to him not only of the views and doctrines of the Catholic Church, but of the society gossip of the day. He seems to have lent him books of an insidious and seditious character, and to have spoken approvingly of the attack of Jaureguy on the Prince of Orange, the account of which had been translated and published in 1582.* Later, his wife repeated to him some things the priest had told her that concerned her Majesty much in honour.
Then a new book was put into his hands by his sister Elizabeth, a young woman of very decided views, who had been in a convent abroad without Royal leave, and had apparently returned to see her invalid mother. It was nearly a year and a half before the story of that book was fully discovered, and I took longer to learn its name.f
* " A brief discourse of the assault committed upon the person of the Most Noble Prince of Orange by Juan Jaurcgui a Spaniard of Bilbao in Biscay i8th March 1582," translated and published in London by Thomas Dawson. It notes that the priest absolved him in advance for the deed, if he did not do it for mere gain, but only for the glory of God and zeal for the Church.
f A mild and diminutive book called "Meditations" had been published at Douay in i 576. Another called " Certeyne Meditations and Prayers very necessary for a Christyane to read and meditate on," by F. Stacey, is preserved in manuscript in the British Museum (Add. MS. 35, 974). In 1582, "with privilege," but with no printer's name, appeared a little book by the Jesuit Caspar Loartcs, translated into English by Father Robert Parsons, called " The first book of Christian Exer-
76 Shakespeare's fVarwickshire Contemporaries
Edward Grant, son of Edward Grant of Northbrook, who had married Anne Somerville, John's aunt, was apparently also a Catholic. He had tried to get a cer- tain " Book of Meditations " from one Crowder, a prisoner in the Marshalsea, who had not a copy by him, but promised to send him one, and Grant had paid 5i. \d. in advance. It was duly delivered, and, when he was reading it in the park, his cousin Elizabeth joined him, read a little, and was very importunate that he should lend it to her. He refused, as he had not read it himself, but on his going home next day to his own house of " Kingswood, in the parish of Rownton in Warwickshire," Elizabeth found the hidden book, took it away, and showed it to her brother John. This he read, and it evidently impressed him profoundly. Several passages in the book make me think that Shakespeare had read it.*
John Somerville did not have very much to occupy him ; he had good servants and abundant leisure. The energies of known Catholics were restrained within their own homes, public service was refused them,
cises pertaining to resolution." In none of these is the sedition very evident to the modern eye.
By the help of Professor Arber I at last found the book bought by Grant, bor- rowed by Elizabeth Somerville, and read by John Somerville. It is " The Book of Prayers and Meditations," fourteen in number, written in Spanish by F. Lewis de Granada and translated into English by Michael Hopkins. It was published in Paris, 1582, dedicated to the Four Law Courts. This kindles the spirit which warms martyrs. "The Cross of Christ makes His followers seek a cross, and encourages and strengthens at this daye all holie Catholic men and women to suffer pains, in- justice, wrongs, povertie, subjection, discipline, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness and in shorte all the troubles, calamities, afflictions, persecutions, imprisonments, tor- ments of the world,"
* For instance, in "The Meditation on the Grave," page 192, we find "but marveil to see unto how bas a condition such a noble creature as man is now come; and to consider with whom he must keep companie there, even fellowe and fellowe, like who in his life-time had no fellowe or equal." About the death of a prince, p. 102, "Where is that royal behaviour and glorious magnificence? How quickly is all this gay pompe utterly overthrown and come to nothinge, as if it had been a mere drcame or a plaie on a stage that is despatched in an hour?" ... p. 104, "Is this the end of the glorie of the world ? the cndc of the Majestic of Princes* Sceptres and of Royall Crownes?" . . . "Then shall our earthly pleasures be our hangmen," &c.
John So7nerville 77
foreign travel denied them ; even kindred society was limited in various ways. Further, the fact that the exercise of their faith was prohibited added acute friction to their sense of repression. The thought seems to have risen in John Somerville's own excitable brain that one weak hand might set the country straight, deliver it from the thraldom of the illegitimate oppressor, re- store the true faith, elevate the captive Catholic, the Queen of Scots, to the throne, and free from shame and tyranny thousands of his fellow-countrymen. And he dreamed that that hand might be his own. There was here no self-seeking, nothing save the natural desire of action and recognition, and the educated desire of an earned salvation through a meritorious act.
But it was the dream of a visionary, not of a politician or a warrior. There was no method in his arguments ; there was no practical attention to a sound basis of action or any organisation of detail. He spoke of it to Sir John Conway, his wife's relative, to his wife and others ; but they either made no answer to his words, treating them as folly, or advised him to lay his fancies aside and go to sleep.
He sent for Hugh Hall, the priest, to come and confess him, but he feigned an excuse, knowing the man or fearing the risk. Therefore, the sense of lone- liness seems to have weighed on his soul. He became unreasonably jealous of his wife. The times were out of joint for him. He, John Somerville, was standing alone in front of his whole generation of fellow-country- men to do battle, single-handed, for the sake of the common weal, and he had not received absolution for what he wanted to do. The idea was enough to unsettle his feverish brain. He could not sleep at nights, his health failed, and apparently his reason gave way before the terrible strain.
Of the different accounts of his actions, all incomplete,
78 Shakespeare's fVarwickshire Contemporaries
we may say that Stow's was the most impartial. Speed uses very strong language of him, and traces his reso- lution to the instigations of his "wicked wife," without any foundation. Dugdale and Camden say what they can in his excuse. Miss Strickland is picturesque. Froude,who has taken some trouble to find the originals, does not take enough trouble to master their trying caligraphy ; therefore, he is inexact in details, and directly wrong regarding the dates. He says that "at the beginning of October ^Somerville's plot exploded,'" whereas, had he read the papers, he would have seen that by some scribe the first paper of the series was dated in error the 6th October instead of the 26th, as it ought to have been.
On Tuesday, 22nd October, more gossip about Queen Elizabeth was added to Somerville's other causes of dis- content. On Wednesday, the 23rd, he first thought of the plan of assassination. On the evening of Thursday, 24th October, he was apparently so excited that his wife had fetched some of her relatives to see him in his bed- room. To them he disclosed his plan, but they advised him to lay aside these thoughts and go to sleep. He seems to have lain quiet after this, sleeping or simulating sleep. But early next morning, Friday, the 25th, he arose, and, with a single lad as attendant, insufficiently provided with funds, he set out for London without notice or farewells. He soon scared the boy away, and pursued his solitary way by devious paths, until he came to a village about four miles from Aynho-on-the- Hill, where he put up for the night. As soon as she knew of his departure, his wife pursued him along the London road as far as Aylesbury ; but, hearing no news of him, she sent her servant on to London, and returned to her children. The servant soon brought back news of his arrest.
On that Friday night, in the village inn, he must
John Somerville 79
evidently have been talking aloud to himself in bed, and thus have attracted attention, for again his room became filled with startled auditors of his frenzied ex- clamations that he was going to London to shoot the Queen through with his dagg or pistol, that she was a serpent and a viper,* and he hoped to see her head set upon a pole.
No time seems to have been lost. A justice of the peace was summoned, he was apprehended, taken with much rough usage to Oxford, on Saturday, the 26th, and was committed to prison, where a preliminary ex- amination was made of the sleepless and travel-worn youth, and he was sent on to London at once. On Sun- day, the 27th, he was at Uxbridge. On Monday, the 28th, the articles for his formal examination were drawn up ; Tuesday, the 29th, and Wednesday, the 30th, he spent in the Gatehouse prison; Thursday, the 31st, he was examined again, and committed to the Tower. The dates I find noted at the side of his examinations, probably by Burghley. He seems to have been treated from the first as mad by his captors, and yet the full blame was awarded him, as if he were a sane, free agent.
There was much care used in preventing his escape, as we may see from the charges for his bringing up. " To John Doyly, Esquire, upon the like warrant, dated at St. James, Primo November, 1583, for his chardges in coming up from Burester to Oxforde to apprehend John Somerfelde gent., and for bringing him from thence to the Courte at St. James, having in his com- pany 12 men and 12 horses and for his attendance three days at Courte and so returning back againe, xiii/i. y\s. viii^." (Accounts of the Treasurer of the
* Mention is made of a picture found in the Catholic Earl of Arundel's trunk, of a hand bitten by a viper shaking it off into the fire, which, through a Biblical incident, was supposed to have a seditious meaning. This picture may have been the one that stimulated Somerville's imagination. (See Hargrave's "State Trials," Vol. I. 166, "Trial of Philip, Earl of Arundel, 1589.")
8o Shakespeare's fi^arwickshire Contemporaries
Chamber, 1583.) Mad as he seemed to be, his words were easterly received and acted on by sane men. Hasty meetings of the Privy Council had taken place. They sent down their secretary, Mr. Thomas Wilkes, with secret instructions to investigate the position of affairs in Somerville's neighbourhood. He was hospitably received at Charlecote by Sir Thomas Lucy, with whom he co-operated. Houses were searched, servants ex- amined, books and writings seized, all relatives of Somerville were either apprehended or commanded to appear before the court. It is evident that Mr. Thomas Wilkes advised torture as a means to simplify his difficulties in finding the roots of the plot.
Somehow or other, sufficient was discovered for the purpose. John Somerville and his wife, his father-in- law and mother-in-law the Ardens, of Park Hall, Mr. Francis Arden, of Pedmore, and Hugh Hall, the priest, were indicted at Warwick on 2nd December as traitors, and Elizabeth Somerville, his sister, as abettor of treason. All were tried in London. Somerville and Arden, Mrs. Arden, and the priest were condemned on the i6th December. On the 19th, John Somerville and his father-in-law were taken from the Tower to Newgate, in preparation for the execution next day, and were lodged in separate cells. Two hours later Somerville was found strangled, either by himself or by some friendly hand, and thus he escaped the horrors of a traitor's death. His head was set up on London Bridge ; but his body was buried in " the Moorfields, near to the Windmill." This Warwickshire traitor, first of the series, died at the age of twenty-three, leaving his baby girls homeless and destitute ; for the Queen claimed his lands. They were fortunately settled on his mother until he came of age at twenty-four, so nothing was his own to forfeit, except the little estate of Widenhay, which provided his private income. This was at once seized.
John Somerville 8i
One point in the pedigree I ought to notice, as no one else has done so. His grandmother was a daughter of John Greville, of Milcote, whom Elizabeth Wil- loughby refused to marry. Some strain of homicidal madness seems to have run in the family, which John's other grandson Ludovic Greville displayed, and Ludovic was John Somerville's cousin.
That his madness was not denied in the highest quarters is amply proved, not only by the letter of Thomas Wilkes in the State Papers, but in that curious tract of Burghley's written to support the execution of Edmond Campion, but dated the day after Somerville's condemnation, and three days before the date fixed for his execution, "The execution of justice in England, for maintenance of publique and Christian peace, against certeine stirrers of sedition, and adherents to the tray- tors and enemies of the realme, without any persecution of them for questions of Religion, as is falsely reported and published by the fosterers of their treasons 17th December, 1583." Lord Burghley says : "And where the seditious trumpeters of infamies and lies have sounded forth and entituled certain that have suffered for treason to be martyrs for religion, to this nomber they may, if they seek nombers, also adde a furious young man of Warwickshire, by name Somerville, to increase their Kalendar of y^ Pope's martyrs, who of late was discovered and taken in his way, comming with a full intent to have killed her Majestic (whose life God always have in His custodie). The attempt, not denied by y'^ traitor himself, but confessed, and that he was moved thereto in his wicked spirit by inticements of certaine seditious and traitorous persons, his kinsmen and allyes, and also by often reading of sundry sedi- tious vile books,* lately published against her Majesty."
The pamphlet was answered next year by " A true,
* See Note f Seditious Books J on p. 88.
82 Shakespeare's TVarwickshire Contemporaries
sincere, and modest defence of English Catholics that suffer for their faith, both at home and abroad, against a false, seditious, and slanderous libel entitled ' The Execution of Justice in England.'" "Therefore, when the adversarie chareeth D. Sanders and D. Bristowe with treason, for affirming such to be martirs in this sense, he sheweth himself to be ignorant as he is malitious in bidding us enroule Somerville in the number of our martirs, as perhaps before God he is, if he were distract of his wittes, or furious (as all men say, and the libeller confesseth), to whom can not be im- puted whatsoever he did in alienation of mind ; and to his enemies shall be imputed murther what so ever was done against him in that his state." "Unsound mind" would have been the verdict of posterity.
The story of Somerville's "kinsmen and allyes " that were draofSfed down along with him in his fall throws even a stronger light on the various mysteries in the methods of examination and trial at the time.
The State Papers mention that Mrs. Somerville, his mother, was found very ill, "in the house of Hall, of Idlicote."
One of John Somerville's servants, John Purton, was imprisoned in the Marshalsea Prison for having told William Somerville that one of the clerks of the Privy Council was searching his brother's house. He petitioned Walsingham for release, as he did this in ignorance ; and after confession of all he knew, he was pardoned.
The Council were not however satisfied that they had discovered the whole " plot." They therefore sent for William Somerville to answer questions ; but he does not seem to have been severely dealt with, or even to have been imprisoned at all. In the Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber there appears the payment, " William Somerville, gent., upon the Counsell's War-
John Someruille 83
rant, dated at Whitehall, xxii Dec, 1583, being sent for at her Majestie's commandement unto the Courte, and appointed to attend there, for his own diet and the charge of horsemeat, cxvij." Another relative, prob- ably an uncle, received a similar payment the next day, " To Edward Somerville, gent., upon the Counsell's warrant, dated at Whitehall xxiiird Dec, 1583, beinge by her Majestie's commandment sent for unto the Courte and appointed to attend for hir Majestie's ser- vice, viz., for his chardges and diet, Ixvii. viii<^."
This Edward was buried at Wootton Wawen, 22nd May, 1587. William, at some early date after the trial, succeeded to the chief properties. He married Elizabeth Ferrers, and had a son, William, baptised at Wootton Wawen, 25th September, 1588. The same registers also record the baptism of "Thomas Somerfield \_sic\ May 13th, 1599," and the burial of "Ferry Somer- field, June 24th, 1 601."
The family kept quiet during the reign of Elizabeth ; but William was knighted on 23rd July, 1603. He was appointed sheriff of the county in 8 James I., and was buried at Wootton Wawen, July 23rd, 161 6.
He was the owner of what has been called " the Hilliard Portrait of Shakespeare." I do not believe in the attribution. It is much more likely to have been the likeness of one of the younger Somervilles. William was said to have been friendly with Shakespeare in his later years. Possibly he was.* Had not John Shake- speare married an Arden, as John Somerville had done } Many a time, probably, in later conversations, would they go over the terrible circumstances of the trial.
Fuller information regarding the case of John Somer- ville may be gleaned by comparing Speed's " Chronicle,"
* In Henry VI., Part III., Act v., sc. i., Sir John Somerville enters before the walls of Coventry, then supported by the Earl of Warwick, as a friend to King Henry VI. Rut I cannot fin<l a "John" of that period (147 1) among the militant Somervilles.
84 Shakespenris IVcu-wickshire Contonpoy-a^ies
ch. 24, p. I 155 (82) ; Stow's "Annals," p. 697 ; Bridge- water's " Concertatio," 1583, pt. 3, f. 409 ; Miss Strick- land's "Lives of the Queens of England" (Elizabeth, p, 478); "AThankful Remembrance of God's Mercies," by George Carleton, 2nd ed., 1625, ch. 7, p. 67 ; Dug- dale's "Warwickshire," p. 907 ; Froude's "History of England," vol. xi., p. 609 ; Camden's "Annals of Eliza- beth," p. 257 ; French's "Genealogica Shakespeareana," p. 450 ; " The Favourable Dealings of Her Majestie's Commissioners," by Lord Burleigh, 1583. But much more satisfactory than any of these, to those who have patience and skill to read them, are the State Papers themselves. See the Domestic Series, Elizabeth, clxvii. 4, 21-23, 26-28, 47-49, 53, 55, 70, 72, 78, 86, 180; clxxx. 59; the accounts for the Treasurer of the Cham- ber for 1583; and other papers at the Record Office.
I have lately discovered a Chancery case which throws a strange light on the family history, never before sug- gested. The son and heir, William, who had been born in 1588, had through some action unrecorded deeply offended his father shortly before his death in 1 61 6. The transactions concerning the will made the heir perplexed and indignant. The trustees were Sir Thomas Lucy the Third, William Coles, Esq. (de- ceased). Sir Robert Lee, and Humphrey Coles. The chief family property of Edreston had been granted Lady Somerville for life; and he had devised his Glouces- tershire lands to the trustees for twenty-one years for the payment of his settlements, charges and debts. His daughter Grace was to have a portion of 1,500/., and until 600/. of this was paid and 200/. apiece to his younger sons Edward, Henry, John and Thomas, Grace was to have 60/. a year and the younger sons 20/. a year for their maintenance, William being only con- firmed in a small portion of land until all were paid.
John Somerville 85
As he was twenty-eight, and apparently had visions of matrimony, he thought himself very hardly used. Blaming his mother and Humphrey Coles for sinister information which had roused his father to such bitter anger, he filed a bill against them in Chancery. He also filed a bill against the other executors, on the plea that his father died possessed of less property than when he drew up his will, and he considered it only fair that the other heirs should suffer in due proportion with him- self. He was knighted in 16 17 along with Sir Richard Lucy at Warwick, and his title is mentioned in the legal proceedings.
These Chancery proceedings become interesting be- cause a good many Warwickshire names are mentioned. The case against his mother is preserved (Chancery Depositions, Eliz. to Charles I., Cat. v. 7,8. No. 12 [12]). William Chandler, mercer, of Stratford-upon-Avon, was called as a witness, who shewed that Lady Elizabeth Somerville had a mourning gown and other wares amounting to about 12/., and Mistress Grace Somer- ville had a mourning gown costing about 61. ; while Sir William had himself spent about 8/. I2J. in his shop.
John Sheppard, of Warwick, yeoman, gave definite information concerning the amount of property which Lady Elizabeth had inherited from her husband. He also stated that he had paid Mr. Anthony Nash, of Stratford, 105/., which was the debt of the late Sir William Somerville ; another debt to Mr. Daniell Baker, of Stratford, 52/. los. ; and a debt to Edward Sowter, of 40J. more, and had brought the receipts to " Sir William Somerville that now is."
William Lapwood, of Ryton-upon-Dunsmore, hus- bandman, gave details of Lady Elizabeth's croft.
Thomas Yates, of Wootton Wawen, knew the furni- ture left to Lady Elizabeth, with a coach and horses. He had been present when Sheppard paid the 105/. to
86 Shakespeare 5 IVarwickshire Contemporaries
Mr. Anthony Nash, and, further, said that the present Sir William had promised to pay a further debt of his father to Mr. Thomas Combe, of Stratford.
William Whateley, of Henley, yeoman, spoke about the corn and the loss of the complainant. Mr. Edward Somerville and Mr. John had driven the cattle of their brother from the pasture, though he had offered rent for it.
Mr. Thomas Somerville, aged twenty-three, said that his mother only put the corn into her own barns until the Commissioners had decided upon it. Mr. John, aged twenty-five, was also examined.
Francis Sly, of Henley-in-Arden, yeoman, aged sixty, save further information about the corn and about James Prescott, gent., of Warwick, who knew all the parties concerned, and knew that there had been two judgments of 200/. each against the late Sir William Somerville at the suit of John Brown, Esq.
The two suits against Sir Thomas Lucy and others are in Chancery Proceedings, Ser. II., Bundle 324, No. 16, and Bills and Answers, James I., Bundle S. 16, 30.
Sir William Somerville pled that the will was void because the third part, at least, of his father's property should come to him as heir, but the executors had taken upon them the sole power, and had filed a bill in Chancery on behalf of the younger sons. Sir Richard Verney, Sir Clement Throckmorton, and Roger Bur- goyne, Esq., had been appointed to consider his case last July, and he had agreed to allow the 20/. a year to his brothers.
The answer on 4th July, 1622, from Edward and Thomas Somerville, on behalf of their sister, Grace Somerville, a/ias Harrison, is that she did not wish her brothers to be vexed for her sake.
Sir Thomas Lucy and Humphrey Coles answered that
John Somcrville 87
Lady Elizabeth had her jointure in Edreston for life, and the younger sons from Cockbury; that Sir William Somerville the elder "had some displeasure with his son," which made him devise this will and settlement ; but that the younger brothers had been reasonable. Sir William Somerville had only been debarred making a jointure until they all came of age and could join with him in doing so, and they had allowed him to enter the premises.
There had been already a Chancery case which had cost them eighty pounds. The cause of his father's dis- pleasure is not revealed. Possibly the heir had refused a rich heiress of his father's choosing. Whether faulty or not, we cannot but sympathise somewhat with a young man thus cabin'd, cribb'd, confined. He apparently had been able to arrange a jointure with his brothers, be- cause he married Cecilia, daughter and co-heir to Sir John Sturley, of Isfield, Sussex. But he did not live to succeed to his property or to see his only son and heir, William, who was born after his father's death in 1628.
After that, a long minority, and no younger brothers, allowed the property to develop again for the enjoyment of this third William, who made the old place lively enough, for by his marriage with Anne, daughter of Lord Tracey, of Tedington, he had a family of eleven sons and five daughters. He saw his grandson, William, the poet of the "Chase," before he died, and his memory is preserved by a tombstone in Wootton Wawen Church, He died 13th December, 1676, being forty-eight years of age.
Edreston has long since passed from the Somerville family.
88 Shakespeare 5 IVai-wickshire Contemporaries
Note.
Seditious Books.
On loth January, 1583-4, William Carter, printer, was indicted and condemned of high treason for printing the sedi- tious book, "A Treatise on Schisme," and was the next morn- ing taken from Newgate to Tyburn and there executed as a traitor. The author of the book was suspected but not dis- covered. See Camden's " Annals."
Lansdowne MS., xliii,, 78, contains a list of "Traitorous and Popish Books intercepted 1584."
" A treatise of treasons against Queen Elizabeth and the Crown of England," printed January, 1572.
" Motives to the Catholic Faithe, by Richard Bristowc, priest. Licentiate in Divinitie, Antwerp, 1574."
" The Holy Sacrifice of the Masse, translated by Dr. Butler, Antwerp, 1570."
"The Hours of the Holy Virgin, Antwerp, 1572."
"The History of the Church of England by Bede, trans- lated by Thomas Stapleton, 1565."
" A Fortresse of the Faith first planted amongst English- men, 1565."
" A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, Sir Thomas More, Antwerp, 1573."
" A great number of Sheets of Miracles printed at Bruxelles,
I573-"
Books found in the Recusant's Cliamber in the gaol at
Winchester, iith January, 1582.
" Gregory Martyn's Discouerye."
" Allen on Purgatory."
" A Booke Called Beware of Mr. Jewell."
" Smythc's Buckler of ye Catholiquc Faithe."
" Ric. Saunders on the Supper."
( 89 )
CHAPTER VI
Edward Arden: 1533-1583.
Among Shakespeare's Warwickshire contemporaries, none touches our sympathy more powerfully than does Edward Arden, of Park Hall, the representative of the old Warwickshire family that traced its lineage back through Turchill de Arden to Guy of Warwick. He was connected by marriage and descent with many noble families.*
In the Athenaum of August loth, 1895, ^^"^ "Mary Arden's Arms," opposing Mr. Nicholls's theories in the Genealogist^ I think I proved his connection with Shakespeare, in a pedigree which I worked out more fully in my " Shakespeare's Family." The Walterf that married Eleanor Hampden had for heir his eldest son, John, and his second son was Thomas, of Wilmcote. The Thomas,! son of John Arden, of Park Hall, who died in 1563, would be cousin to the Robert Arden of Wilmcote, son of Thomas of that place. The William
* Among the entries of the Guild of Knowle many concern the Ardens : — 1457. Walter Arden and Alianor his wife. 1460. John Arden and Agnes his wife of Long Itchington. 1496. Robert Arderne, Master of Arts, Rector of Lapworth. 1504. Richard Arden and Margaret his wife, and for the souls of John and Johanna
their parents, of Long Itchington. I 506. For the soules of John Arderne and his wife.
Richard Salway and Estelle his wife, and for the soul of John Ardcrn. 1 512. Alicia Ardern and for the soule of William Ardern, &c.
\ See Note A, page 108.
j Among the Commissioners of the Peace for Warwickshire, 1539, were Thomas Arden, Edward Conway, John Grevillc, Fulke Grcville (Patents 31 Hen. VIIL, p. 2, M. 4 a).
90 Shakespeare' 5 fVarwickshire Contemporaries
of Park Hall, who died before his father, would be half-cousin to Robert's seven daughters ; and Edward would be a cousin removed by another degree to William Shakespeare. 1 think it necessary to be clear on this point as so much has been written to oppose it.
Edward's father, William, had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Edward Conway, of Arrow. He made his will in "St. Brigydes' Parish, London," where he wished to be buried. It was proved by Sir John Conway, 14th April, 1546. (Somerset House. 7 Alen.) He left his young son on his death in 1545 to the care of Sir George Throgmorton or Throckmorton, of Coughton, son of the Robert who appears in Mayowe's transfer to Thomas and Robert Arden of the land at Snitterfield, 16 Henry VII. (See "Mary Arden's Arms," referred to above.) Sir George had married the daughter of the first Lord Vaux of Harrowden, and in his home, near the seat of his mother's relatives at Arrow, young Edward was brought up in all the knightly exercises of the period, and in an enthusiastic love for the old fliith, tempered with that loyalty to the Crown which had been the main point insisted on by Henry VIII. Sir George's eldest son and heir. Sir Robert, had married Muriel, daughter of Thomas Lord Berkeley, and it was his daughter, Mary Throckmorton, who was married to young Edward Arden. His grandfather, Thomas, died in 1563, and he succeeded to Park Hall then, at thirty years of age. He was, therefore, about the same age as Leicester and Elizabeth and Sir Thomas Lucy.
During the first few years of Elizabeth's reign he seems to have led a happy and uneventful life. His uncle, Simon Arden, was sheriff of the county in 1569, the year the Pope issued his disastrous Bull against Elizabeth. But it did not seem to have brought much trouble to Park Hall, because in 1575, the year of the Kenilworth festivities, Edward was elected sheriff of
Edward Arden 91
the county. That the council selected him from the three gentlemen chosen by the shire that year is a strong proof that by that time at least he had done nothing to annoy the Queen or any of the Queen's courtiers. Possibly in what he considered the due exer- cise of his office that year, he first offended Leicester. Many men of high position in the county wore his livery to do him honour and to win his favour. Edward Arden scorned to wear the livery of a man, " noble only in two descents, both of them stained by the block." His office, also, he might have thought, precluded him from wearing any other livery than that of his Sovereign. Therefore he did not cut a figure in Leicester's train on any of the famous seventeen days of the Kenilworth festivities. Had he contented himself with that slight it would have been better for him and his race.
But the Earl of Leicester's admiration was well-known for Lettice, the Countess of Essex, whose husband was then in Ireland. Leicester was said to have visited her at the house of George Digby and elsewhere. Arden's code of morality was different from that of the favourite, and he did not scruple to speak his mind freely of the great Earl. Camden says that " he with- stood Leicester in all that he could in the county," and that he further offended him " by refusing to sell some of his patrimony at his desire." The only action* con- nected with land that I can find any trace of his being involved in, is one in which he made a Star Chamber affair of an attempt by some of his neighbours in Curdworth to make enclosures of some common lands (23 Elizabeth). Edward Arden was plaintiff against Raffe Rugeley, John Baskerville, gents., Thomas Feylde, Reginald Tuckey, Nicholas Pearson, Thomas Brookes, John Hill, John Johnson, and Edward Bucknam,
* There is also a Chancery case (A. a. 9 Eliz. 18, Edward Arden contra Joyce Massey) about deeds and evidences concerning the Manor of Berewood and Rectory ot Curdworth, Warwickshire.
92 Shakespeare' s IVarwickshire Conte?nporaries
defendants. It was a lengthy trial, and no decision is recorded in the State Papers. Probably the men were creatures of Leicester. Doubtless the enclosers had their own way after Arden's fall, and no " decision " was ever necessary, for troubles of his own soon ab- sorbed his attention. After the severe legislation of 1 58 1 against Papists, Camden says in his "Memorials of the Reign of Elizabeth," p. 411, "that it was diffi- cult for the most loyal and cautious to avoid the snares that were laid for their destruction." Hitherto Edward Arden had been able to steer himself and his family safely through the storm. But the Earl of Leicester never forgave or forgot, and opportunities come to those who have power to watch and wait. And all the more quickly to those who have power to create opportunities.
Edward Arden had married Robert, his son and heir, to Elizabeth Corbet, daughter of the Lord Chief Justice, some time before 1578, because in that year was christened " John Arden, son of Mr. Robert and Mrs. Elizabeth," in the Parish Church of Pedmore by Ped- more Hall, near Stourbridge, Worcester. (See my "Shakespeare's Family," p. 182.) Edward had married his eldest daughter Katherine to Sir Edward Devereux, nephew to Viscount Hereford ; his third, Muriel, to William Charnells of Snarson in Leicestershire ; and his fourth, Elizabeth, to Simon, second son of Mr. Shuck- borough of Napton, Warwickshire. But for his second daughter, Margaret, he arranged a marriage that proved disastrous for her and fatal to himself. John Somerville (whose mother had been a Corbet) became the heir of Edreston at the age of eighteen in 1578, and seemed a suitable husband in all respects for his daughter. The causes that led this young man, even after he was a husband and a father, to go forth as a Quixotic knight- errant and tilt against the troubles of his country and his time have been told in the last chapter.
Edward Arden 93
But Arden's associations with his son-in-law and with the conspiracy Somerville was supposed to have initiated are worthy of more careful consideration than has as yet been paid them. In the first examination, October 26th, 1583, probably taken at Oxford, the frenzied Somer- ville was led by questions to say " Y' he hath hard his father-in-lawe saye y^ the Queen would not suffar the Catholike Religion, and y' she dothe execute all good Catholics."
The carefully-prepared questions administered to him, probably in the Gate-house at Westminster on 28th October, do not suggest Arden's name, and there is no mention of him in Somerville's replies.
New articles administered to the prisoner, probably under torture or threat of torture, on the 31st, elicited the fact that the idea of murdering the Queen first struck him after hearing his wife's report of what Hugh Hall, the priest, had said at Park Hall, in the presence of Edward Arden and Francis his brother, " that touched her Majesty very greatly in honour."
The memoranda added to this State Paper note " To send for Arden, his wife, her daughter, and the two maydens, systers to Somervylle, and Joyce Hill, to apprehend suche as shall be any way in akin to all towcht, and to search their howses." The Council lost no time. Apparently Thomas Wilkes, their clerk, was sent at once to Sir Thomas Lucy, who rode off post- haste with him, to prove his loyalty, to Park Hall. On the 7th of November Wilkes wrote to the Council and told the story. He had received their letter of the 2nd, when he was at Park Hall on the 3rd. " Over uppon my departyng from that place and the sending away of Arden to your honors. Sir Thomas Lucy, Mr. Grifiin, the preacher, and myself took our voyage towards the house of Edward Grant, of Northbrookes, and Mr. Egliamby, accompanied with Mr. Burgoin, towards Hall's house
94 Shakespeare s Warwickshire Contemporaries
of Idlicote." " Although with all our travcll here we cannot attaine to the depth of this treason, the whole discoverie of it will rest altogether in Somerville and Hall, and of the Bookes and the Agnus Dei, in Somer- ville's wife and sister."
This letter, open to all the members of the Council, was accompanied by a private one to Walsingham. "I have thought good never the les to signifie unto y*" Honour that unless you can make Somerville, Arden, Hall the Priest, Somerville's wief and his syster to speke directly to those things which you desire to have discovered, that it will not be possible for us here to find out more than is found already, for that the Papists in this countye greatly do work uppon the advantage of clering their howses of all shews of suspition, and, therefore, onles you can charge them with mater from the mouths of your prisoners, looke not to wringe anythinge from them by finding mater of suspition in their howses." This earnest advice to make his prisoners speak, which is only the euphemistic method of naming torture, showed the weakness of the case.
Leicester had his private purpose to fulfil. Burghlcy was led to believe that there was a plot behind, and it was necessary to his peace to find it. Sir Thomas Lucy had his character as a vigilant justice of the peace to keep up under the new commission. Mr. Thomas Wilkes, Clerk of the Council, could best rise in office by finding what his superiors wanted to find. All these interests worked together, and by a travesty of justice Edward Arden was done to death.
Before the writing of this notable letter, on November 5th they passed a resolution for a commission of Oyer and Terminer, to send for William Somerville and "to examine Mrs. Somcrvylle, Arden, Hawle, and Elizabeth Somervylle." In examination, on the 5th, Mrs. Somer- ville was asked "whether she saw her father Arden, or
Edward Arden 95
received any message from him since the apprehension of her husband, and what is become of him." In Arden's examination the chief question was: "3. Whether did he make you privy to his repayre up to London and what was the cause thereof?" He was also asked " if Hall had married his daughter to Somervylle at a mass, and what were Hall's speeches about the Earl of Leicester ?"
It is probable that Edward Arden, for the conveni- ence of Mr. Thomas Wilkes or Sir Thomas Lucy or his servants, was brought through Stratford-upon-Avon on his journey from the moated park-surrounded hall of his ancestors, high set on the hill in the Hundred of Hcmlingford, through southern valleys in hot haste to the Court of St. James, and thence to the traitors' cell in the Tower of London. He was lodged there by the 7th November (see the Accounts of the Wardens of the Tower). By the 8th his captors were ready to return, and presented their bill, " To William Man, servaunte to Sir Thomas Lucie, upon a warrant signed as aforesaid, dated at St. James, viiith November, 1583, for the charges of himself and two others with four horses, in bringing a prisoner from Park hall, twentie miles beyonde Warwicke to the Courte of St. James, and for returning backe againe, xiii/i. v\s. viii<^."
The remainder of the month the prosecutors spent in attempting to find proof, the accused probably in prayer, for they knew no justice was possible ; no help or counsel was allowed them, nor were they allowed to confront accusers or witnesses, or plead their cause. " To Thomas Paynter, servaunte to Sir Thomas Lucie, Knight, by like warrant ciated at St. James xviiith November, 1583, as well for his chardges and paines in bringing letters in poste, for her Majestie's affairs from Colsell, in the countie of Warwicke, from his said M"^- to the Lords of the Counsell, being at ye chardge of two horses for himself and a guide, and also attending
96 Shakespeare' 5 Pf^arwickshire Contemporaries
at the Courte for answers, and returning back again, iiii//. xj." " To Henrie Rogers, gent., upon like warrant dated at St. James xx"^° November, 1583, being lately imployed in the countie of Warwicke for her Majestie's service in searching sondrie houses and places for bookcs and writinges dangerous to her Majestic and the State and so returninge to the Courte at St, James with answers and then returning againe to the saide Countie, Ixj."
The Stratford-upon-Avon accounts of the chamberlain about this date record — " Paid for Mr. Rogers at the Beare, for dinner, and supper, and fyer, when he went to Sir John Hawbalke, Knight, is. ; more for his horse- meat, IS. Sdy "To Sir John Browne, upon the like warrant, dated at St. James, xixth November, 1583, for the chardges and paines of himself, his guide, and two horses for ridinge in poste from the courte at St. James with letters to Mr. Wilkes, one of the Clerkes of her Majestie's Privy Council at Charlecot, in the Countie of Warwicke, and for attendance there twoe daies and then returninor iiii//."
At last Thomas Wilkes' impatience to return to town was gratified. "To Thomas Wilkes, Esquier, Clerk to her Majestie's Privy Counsell, upon the Counsell's warrant dated at St. James, 23rd November, who hath bene by her Majestie's speciall commandment im- ploied XV whole daies for her Majestie's service in the countie of Warwicke, with thre servaunts attending on him and two other persons from London to the said Countie, and also back againe xxxA." " To Edwarde Wingate, clerk of the Cheque of her Majestie's Guards, and Henrie Lanam, one of the yeomen of her Majestie's Chamber, upon awarrante signed by Mr. Vice-Chamber- lain dated at St. James, xxviiith November, 1583, for the charges of themselves, their two men and horses being sent by order of her Majestie's Privy Counsell
Edward Arden 97
from the Court at St. James into Northamptonshire for the apprehension and bringing upp of one Hugh Hall and his man from thence to be examined at the Courte, concerninge her majestie's affaires, and for the chardges of the said Hall, his man and their horses, in their coming up, v'di. xiiii. iiii^^." They seem to have been strangely delayed in finding out the whereabouts of Hugh Hall. Now they had got him to examine, and Wilkes to guide, things went on faster.
The examination of the servants, friends, and con- nections of the Ardens elicited nothing new. "The names of Somerfield's servants who came up with his wife Mrs. Somerfield and Mrs. Somerfield's sister, were Humphrey Morris, Richard Sheldon, Francis Emmes, William Thacker, Hugh Wright, servant to Sir John Conway."* (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., clxiii., 72, 2 1 Nov.).
The articles administered to William Thacker and answered by him show that he had formerly been in Mr. Arden's service, "whose cloth he had worn aboute sixe yeares as a retainer," that he had entered Somer- ville's service at his own request, that he had served him about three years, and "that Mr. Sergeant Pucker- ing and Mr. Cooke knowe him to have followed his master Somerfield's causes at law," that he knew no priests but Hall, that he had never heard of any masses or any conspiracy, and that he "went to service in the pub- lique church as it is now used, with the other servants."
Nicholas Wolf and others were also examined, De- cember 6th, 1583, as to their participation in the late pretended mischief by Somerfield against her Majesty (clxiii., 78-86 and clxiv., 10), but though much interest- ing matter was collected, nothing of any importance to the examiners came out of this either.
* There was also an " examination of Thomas Slye, of Bushvvood, before Mr. Job Throckmorton and Robert Burgoyne, toucliing Popish plots." (State Papers.)
H
98 Shakespeare's PFarwickshire Contemporaries
The examinations of Mr. Arden and his wife and daughter and of Hall the priest have not been pre- served. Probably they were sent to satisfy the Earl of Leicester, and were never returned to the Clerk of Council. Possibly they were destroyed. It is generally said that Hall had turned informer, and had sacrificed the rest. (See Froude's "History," vol. xi., p. 609.) I cannot find any trace of this in the recorcis, and a later allusion seems to tell the other way. But though the ordinary State Papers fail us at this critical point, more definite notices of the legal treatment of the case are preserved in the Baga de Secretis, Pouch xlv., mems. 9 and 10.
On the 2nd December, 1583, the prisoners, being in London, were indicted at Warwick. " Indictment found at Warwick against the said John Somervylle, Margaret Somervylle, and the said Edward Arden, late of Park Hall, aforesaid, gentleman, and Mary, his wife, Francis Arden, and the said Hugh Hall, for that on the 22nd October, 25 Eliz., at Edreston, they conspired to compass the death of the Queen, and change the pure religion established in the kingdom, as well as to subvert the Commonwealth, and in order to carry such their treasons into effect, the said Margaret Somcrvyle, Edward Arden, Mary Arden, Francis Arden, and Hugh Hall at Edreston, the 24th Oct., 25 Elizabeth, by divers ways and means incited John Somerville to kill the Queen, and thereupon the said John Somervyle traiterously said 'I will go up to the Court and shoot the Queen through with a pistol,' and on the following day he took a pistol, gunpowder, and bullets, and journeyed therewith from Edreston towards London, the Queen then being in her house called St. James, in the County of Middlesex, near the same city, in order to carry his treasons into effect."
On December 7th (Mem. 12), the Special Commis-
Edward Arden
99
sion of Oyer and Terminer was issued to try those persons "sent forward by our faithful friends Thomas Meade, Justice of the Queen's Bench, Robert Shute, of the Exchequer, Sir Fulke Greville, Sir Thomas Lucy, George Digby, Edward Egliamby, Anthony Shuck- borough, Esq., Justices, along with others lately assigned to inquire into the state of religion in Warwickshire," &:c. On the 9th of December (Mem. 11) appeared the Queen's writ of certiorari. The names of the jury are given, among whom are John Fulwood, of Tamworth, Richard Fulwood, of Tamworth, Thomas Astley, of Woolby, John Ensor, of Wilmcote, Roger Wigston, of Woolston, Robert Burgyn, of Wroxall, and Benedict Shuckborough, of Cubbington, who had agreed to the bill of indictment. The same day (Mem. 6 and 7) Sir Owen Hopton, Lieutenant of the Tower, was ordered to bring the prisoners before the justices at Guildhall on the 1 6th, the Warwickshire justices issuing a pre- cept for the return of the jury for the trial. I give the names of those proposed and those selected, as they were all Shakespeare's Warwickshire contemporaries. Those selected were "Sir Walter Ashton, Sir Richard Dyghtley, Sir Francis Willoughby, Edward Boughton, Thomas Revyngton, Gabriel Poolteney, George Pudsey, Thomas Beoffoy, Timothy Lucye, John Bretton, Stephen Slaney, and Humphrey Davenport." The un- selected were "Anthony Cooke, Humphrey Ferrers, Thomas Andrews, William Leigh, Henry Dimocke, Christopher Wright, Thomas Wightman, William Por- ter, Bartholomew Hales, George Corbun, Edward Skaring, and Ralph Blunt."
The Record of the Sessions held at Guildhall on 1 6th December (Mems. 1-3) before the justices ap- pointed to try the prisoners states that "John Somer- vyle, Edward Arden, Mary Arden, and Hugh Hall, being brought to the bar by the Lieutenant of the Tower,
lOO Shakespeare s Warwickshire Contemporaries
are severally arraigned. John Somervy-le pleads guilty, Edward Arden, Mary Arden, and Hugh Hall plead not guilty. Venire from the county of Warwick awarded instanter. Verdict guilty. Judgment against the male prisoners and the female prisoner as is usual in cases of high treason. Execution on the 20th." The State Papers here continue the story, and give us interest- ing information regarding the way in which Edward Arden spent his time, and of his last supper with his wife. On this eventful Monday, the 1 6th December, the keeper Neve procured Sir Owen Hopton's permis- sion, and the doomed pair were allowed to sup together. Arden's death was certain, but even then apparently there were expectations that his wife might be spared. He told her, if she lived, she must see Neve paid his twenty pounds for this meeting. The enfeoffment he had made for his wife's benefit would be all in vain, for she also had been proved a traitor, and a clause in the 1 58 1 Act had been prepared to circumvent such "fraudulent conveyances," as they had been called.
On Thursday, the 19th, Edward Arden and John Somerville were delivered to the Sheriffs of London, taken to Newgate, and locked in separate cells in pre- paration for their execution on the following day. Had there been an opportunity of a farewell, and had Edward Arden tried to encourage the drooping soul and dis- ordered brains of his son-in-law } We know not, but we know that two hours later Somerville strangled himself or was strangled in his cell ;* and Edward Arden went forth alone on the morrow to meet his horrible doom at Smithfield. He "suffered the full penalty of the law with his usual high spirit, protesting to the last his innocence of anything save of being a Catholic" (see Rishton's "Diary," Gillow's "Records of English
• A "Secret advertisement from Exeter suggests that Somerville was hanged by the Catholics to avoid greater evil." (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., i68, 24.)
Edward Arden loi
Catholics," vol. i.,p. 57). His head was set up on London Bridge among those of the other "traitors."
Execution over, the servants of the Tower were ex- amined, and certain secret letters were studied in hope of solving the mysteries of the plot that Burghley clung to. One of these was to Arden's son, entreating him to pay the twenty pounds he had promised Neve, the only "debt of honour" which the confiscation of his goods on his condemnation made him unable to pay ; another was about the affairs of his sister Barbara, married to Richard Neville, nephew of the deceased Lord Latimer, who claimed title and lands.
The examination of Neve showed that he had in his custody "seven or eight boxes of evidences of Edward Arden's, and a little bag of evidences" which Arden had sent him for to one Smallwood, a tailor without Temple Bar, and had asked him to give to his son or to his wife, but which yet remained in Arden's chamber. He had told the Lieutenant of the Tower of them, but they had not been used. The twenty pounds was due on account of a wager. Arden had said that if he and his wife should sup together before Christmas he would give Neve twenty pounds, and if they did not, Neve was to forfeit ten shillings. He had arranged the meet- ing by the Lieutenant's leave, and won the wager.
Arden said that his wife or his son would mve him
o
assurance of payment; "and yesterday when he was delivered to the sheriffs of London " he repeated this. Neve denied he had ever carried letters from Arden to his wife or son ; or that Arden and his wife had ever met until they were condemned. But he acknowledged that his comrade, John Kellam, had received a letter from Arden for his son the morning he was taken from the Tower to Newgate (the one referred to above). Arcien himself had never told him of the contents of this letter ; but about three days before his arraignment
I02 Shakespeare's l-Varwickshire Contemporaries
he asked Neve if he might trust him with a secret, and Neve agreed, if it was such as he should be trusted with. He said he had made certain conveyances of late for the benefit of his wife to " Mr. Atkinson and Mr. Sanford," which wanted nothing but the enrolment, which he wished Neve to tell his wife of and no one else. This he had done. But after they were condemned he had told Neve to say nothing about it.
Another examination of the priest Hall took place on December 31st, 1583, but very little was elicited from him. Burghley opened the new year by making a sum total of all the facts collected from the various exami- nations of the prisoners, and this is most important in determining the value of the evidence that had not been preserved in comparison with what we do possess. (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz,, clxvii., 59.)
John Neve had deposed what 1 have stated above, points about the wager, the letter, and the conveyance.
Robert Barrett had stated that he only knew Arden by taking him his meat sometimes ; that Arden had asked him to tell his wife not to repeat one speech he had made, or it would undo him. He had not deli- vered it, because Mrs. Arden would not hold speech with him, fearing he meant to undermine her, but she sometimes asked him to brinp: her word how her hus- band did, which he pretended to perform, but did not. Burghley also preserved an extract from Mary Arden's examination "That Barrett, Mr. Lieutenant's man, brought her a message from her husband that she should undo him if she uttered something. She was willed by her husband to be good to Neve, who had cheered him during his imprisonment." In an extract from Edward Arden's letter, it is noted, " he doubteth not but his sonne will perform what he had promised to Neve. To see his writings and letters delivered with speed." And this is all that the great statesman with all his powers of dis- covering things could bring together !
Edward Arden 103
Again they harrowed the feelings of the sorrowful widow on February loth, 1583-4 (State Papers, Dom. Ser, Eliz., clxviii., ii.). This time they wished to un- derstand another mystery about the communications between Mr. Neville and her late husband. She ex- plained that Mr. Richard Neville had married her husband's sister Barbara, and that on the death of Lord Latimer, without heirs male, Richard Neville, his nephew, had sued for his title and some of his lands. Barbara had induced her brother Edward to assist them with the expenses, and Neville had given his bond to repay at the conclusion of the suit. She did not know of any conveyance to Neville's son beyond the sea. Thomas Wilkes conducted this examination, and Mary Arden added to it her initials, "M.A." All that the Inquisitors found told in favour of Edward Arden, who had been always provident and thoughtful for others.
Mary Arden is said to have been pardoned and re- leased shortly after. But it was a poor pardon. She was always kept in poverty, because she was a recusant and a suspect. There is a letter, written ist April, i 593, by the Privy Council to Thomas Bigge, John Harryson, and Henry Dingley, Esquires, thanking them for "searching the house of Thomas Throgmorton in Coughton Park, where Mistress Arden, wife of the traitour Arden that was executed doth dwell at this presente. Because it should seem by your letter to Mr. Topcliffe there was resistance offered at soche time as you did searche the house, and that they of the householde then did not carie themselves with that dutyfull course and obedience they ought to doo, and that divers superstitious things and furniture for masse was there found, and it was confessed that a seminary priest was harboured there, who was conveyed out of the way, or lieth hid in some secret place. Wee have thought good to requyre you to commit to pryson as well the saide Mistress Arden as
I04 Shakespeare s IVarwickshire Contemporaries
the rest of her servants .... to be proceeded withal, according to the qualities of their offences, which we refer to your discrecion." The Queen and Burghley settled "the lands growen unto her by the attainder of Arden and Somerville" (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., clxxi., -x^^^ "upon the Darcies, but Edward's son, Robert, being a prudent person, and well versed in law, after- wards regained them," probably by legal advice, through an entail made at his marriage, and once more there were Ardens living at Park Hall, (See Dugdale's " War- wickshire," p. 931).
But he seems to have gone through much trouble after his father's death. In the search made in London in suspected houses, "in the house of John Specie in Powle's churchyarde were found 7 bokes tending unto papistry." "We found in the house of Gabriell Ca- wood, hymself, some men-servants, viz., Henry Kephor, Josias Parnell, John Snowden, and Robert Arden, who is committed" (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., clxxii., 102, 27th August, 1584). On the same day, in the search made at Southampton House, was " Robert Arden, who had lykewise been lately ymprisoned."
In 1596 he was in prison again. His petition to Lord Burghley shows that he was a prisoner in the Fleet, and had been committed with his servant, Wil- liam Frere, by the Court of Exchequer in Easter last for proceeding, contrary to a former decree, as was sup- posed, against Edward Darcy in an action of waste. He prays for release, "Mr. Darcy having answered to the charge and confessed that the petitioner had a remainder in tail for 21 acres of the land in question. 7th March, 1596" (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., cclvi., 78). That was about the time of the petition of his uncle, Simon Arden, of Longcroft, which clears up many knotty points. His great age made him an authority. (See my "Shakespeare's Family," Part II., p. 184.)
Edward Ardtn 105
On May i ith, 1599, there is a "Warrant to pay to Elizabeth and Mary Arden, daughters of Edward Ar- den, late convicted of High Treason, 40 marks a year each for life, out of revenue assured for life to their mother Mary Arden in lieu of dowry, and come by reason of her offence into Her Majesty's hands. This warrant was directed to the Late Lord Treasurer, 27 Eliz., and is now to pass the Privy Seal, directed to the Exchequer, as there is no warrant there to continue the annuities" (Acts of the Privy Council). Thus at the time John Shakespeare was applying for a grant to impale his wife's arms in his own new coat, the Arden fimily were not, as has been supposed, in very flourish- ing fortunes. The tide changed for them, as for others, in the next reign. Among the annuities granted by James L we find " Robert Arden, 3 7/. i is. Gd^ (Lansdowne MS., clvi., f. 113), which might, however, refer to another of the name).
Pedmore, Francis Arden's place, was given to Sir George Digby, but after the receiver's death Francis sued for it. (State Papers, Dom. Ser. Eliz., ccii., 40.) "Particulars by Richard Sutton of the state of the cause of Lady Digby and Richard, her son, against Francis Arderne, who sought to recover the lands of Pedmore and Whitmore, formerly leased to Sir George Digby, deceased." The accounts of the wardens of the Tower only mention Francis Arden's board until June 24th, 1585, when he was probably released. He could not, therefore, be the " Mr. Arden " who escaped with Father Gerard from the Tower on October 8th, 1597, by the assistance of John Lily and Richard Fulwood, unless he had been again imprisoned. Probably this Mr. Arden was one of Edward Arden's sons ; not his brother.
The fate of Edward Arden excited universal sym- pathy. Leicester bore out his attitude towards him by the formation next year of "The Association for the
io6 Shakespeare's fVarwickshire Contemporaries
Protection of the Queen's Person." In that same year there was printed abroad, and imported largely into this country, the little book called "Leicester's Common- wealth," in which the floating gossip of the period against Leicester was collected. Its date is verified by a slight allusion to this trial. "What say you to the device Leicester had of late to entrap his well-deserving friende Sir Christopher Hatton, in the matter of Hall his priest, whom he would have had Sir Christopher to send away and hide, being touched and detected in the case of Arden, thereby to have drawn in Sir Christopher him- self.?" (p. 1 66).
Burghley's relations to the case are very mysterious. In Somerville's story I have already noted that the day after the condemnation of Somerville and Arden, and three days before the date fixeci for their execution, he published the strange pamphlet, "The Execution of J ustice in England, &c.," 17th December, 1583. Though this was written to excuse the death of Campion, it was evidently intended to do double duty and support the execution of Arden, whose name is not mentioned therein, as is Somerville's. But it is found next year in the reply, "The true, sincere, and modest defence of the English Catholics," where a charge is made (p. 49), "of action for the prevention of the discoverie of