means of livelihood, and his course of life in the years
that immediately followed implies that he bore his domestic ties with
impatience. Early in 1585 twins were born to him, a son (Hamnet) and a
daughter (Judith); both were baptised on February 2. All the evidence
points to the conclusion, which the fact that he had no more children
confirms, that in the later months of the year (1585) he left Stratford,
and that, although he was never wholly estranged from his family, he saw
little of wife or children for eleven years. Between the winter of 1585
and the autumn of 1596--an interval which synchronises with his first
literary triumphs--there is only one shadowy mention of his name in
Stratford records. In April 1587 there died Edmund Lambert, who held
Asbies under the mortgage of 1578, and a few months later Shakespeare's
name, as owner of a contingent interest, was joined to that of his father
and mother in a formal assent given to an abortive proposal to confer on
Edmund's son and heir, John Lambert, an absolute title to the estate on
condition of his cancelling the mortgage and paying 20 pounds. But the
deed does not indicate that Shakespeare personally assisted at the
transaction. {26}

Poaching at Charlecote.

Shakespeare's early literary work proves that while in the country he
eagerly studied birds, flowers, and trees, and gained a detailed
knowledge of horses and dogs. All his kinsfolk were farmers, and with
them he doubtless as a youth practised many field sports. Sympathetic
references to hawking, hunting, coursing, and angling abound in his early
plays and poems. {27} And his sporting experiences passed at times
beyond orthodox limits. A poaching adventure, according to a credible
tradition, was the immediate cause of his long severance from his native
place. 'He had,' wrote Rowe in 1709, 'by a misfortune common enough to
young fellows, fallen into ill company, and, among them, some, that made
a frequent practice of deer-stealing, engaged him with them more than
once in robbing a park that belonged to Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote
near Stratford. For this he was prosecuted by that gentleman, as he
thought, somewhat too severely; and, in order to revenge that ill-usage,
he made a ballad upon him, and though this, probably the first essay of
his poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter that it
redoubled the prosecution against him to that degree that he was obliged
to leave