Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

"Crossing the Bridge" The first part of this chapter examines other reasons why Shakespeare might have felt compelled to leave. The author refers to a long-believed story that Shakespeare engaged in deer poaching, a test of manhood, skill and cleverness for many young men of the time, on the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy. The story is that Shakespeare was caught and threatened with severe punishment by Lucy, but left for London before that punishment could be enacted (see "Quotes", p. 152). However, the author puts forward evidence to suggest that Lucy had other reasons for threatening punishment - he was among the most prominent and powerful of the Protestant nobility, involved in government planning and plotting to rid England of the Catholic influence. If, as has been previously discussed (Chapter 3, "The Great Fear") Shakespeare and his family had Catholic leanings and...