a Knot of young Deer-stealers, to rob the Park of Sir _Thomas Lucy_
of _Cherlecot_ near _Stratford_: the Enterprize favours so much of
Youth and Levity, we may reasonably suppose it was before he could
write full Many. Besides, considering he has left us six and thirty
Plays, which are avow’d to be genuine; (to throw out of the Question
those Seven, in which his Title is disputed: tho’ I can, beyond all
Controversy, prove some Touches in every one of them to come from
his Pen:) and considering too, that he had retir’d from the Stage,
to spend the latter Part of his Days at his own Native _Stratford_;
the Interval of Time, necessarily required for the finishing so many
Dramatic Pieces, obliges us to suppose he threw himself very early
upon the Play-house. And as he could, probably, contract no
Acquaintance with the Drama, while he was driving on the Affair of
Wool at home; some Time must be lost, even after he had commenc’d
Player, before he could attain Knowledge enough in the Science to
qualify himself for turning Author.

It has been observ’d by Mr. _Rowe_, that, amongst other Extravagancies
which our Author has given to his Sir _John Falstaffe_, in the
_Merry Wives_ of _Windsor_, he has made him a Deer-stealer; and that
he might at the same time remember his _Warwickshire_ Prosecutor,
under the Name of Justice _Shallow_, he has given him very near the
same Coat of Arms, which _Dugdale_, in his Antiquities of that
County, describes for a Family there. There are two Coats, I
observe, in _Dugdale_, where three Silver Fishes are borne in the
Name of _Lucy_; and another Coat, to the Monument of _Thomas Lucy_,
Son of Sir _William Lucy_, in which are quarter’d in four several
Divisions, twelve little Fishes, three in each Division, probably
_Luces_. This very Coat, indeed, seems alluded to in _Shallow_’s
giving the _dozen_ White _Luces_, and in _Slender_ saying, _he may