A hand-colored woodcut of a fallow 
deer appears in Edward Topsell’s 
Historic of Foure-footed Beastes 
(London, 1607). A legend originating 
after Shakespeare's death has him 
poaching such deer on the grounds of 
Sir Thomas Lucy’s estate, four miles 
upstream from Stratford. 
of the arboretum. Shakespeare names, among others, 
elm, pine, box, ash, oak, and aspen. The oak, although 
vulnerable to lightning, betokens strength; Coriolanus, in 
the Watch’s words, is “the rock, the oak not to be wind- 
shaken.” In all, Shakespeare’s plant inventory comprises 
more than 150 varieties, according to one tabulation. 
Bird references, while less numerous, occur often 
enough to keep a drowsy ornithologist awake. They 
include birds of prey and carrion (eagle, kite, raven, 
vulture, and owl), as well as game birds (woodcock, 
partridge), waterfowl (swan, wild goose, loon, dive- 
dapper, and mallard), and such familiar songsters as the 
blackbird, redbreast, and thrush. For his birdlore, as has 
often been noted, Shakespeare also draws upon inherited 
typologies: the phoenix rises from its ashes; the pelican 
feeds her young with her own blood. 
Some of the other creatures the young Shakespeare 
would have encountered on, or near, his Warwickshire 
doorstep were the harmless, necessary cat; the farmer’s 
dog barking at the beggar; the “breeding jennet, lusty, 
young, and proud” that “rushes, snorts, and neighs 
aloud.” On neighboring farms, such as the one his Uncle 
Henry worked in Snitterfield, Shakespeare would have 
seen the livestock with their offspring. Poor Wat, the 
relentlessly hunted hare in Venus and Adonis, is part of a 
vernal world Shakespeare fondly evoked. Outrunning the 
wind, turning and crossing, bounding through gaps in 
hedges and fences, he reaches the illusory safety of the 
hilltop where he “stands on his hinder legs with list’ning 
ear, /To hearken if his foes pursue him still.” The poet’s 
sympathies notwithstanding, Shakespeare may well have 
hunted. Certainly other high-spirited youths of 
Warwickshire did so, and the plays and poems yield a 
sufficiency of knowledgeable allusion. 
London offered different attractions. There 
Shakespeare acted, as well as wrote plays for his acting 
company. During his idle hours he could plunge into the 
life of the town. London, which conferred no degrees, 
became his university, providing the nonacademic 
context for that knowledge of the human heart, unrivaled 
in range and depth, which for many remains the most 
astonishing aspect of the Shakespearean achievement. 
Around him he could see a fair city full of folk and 
observe the inexhaustible pageant of everyday life. 
Shakespeare saw the country folk come to town with 
their wares, on foot or in their carts, and he heard the 
market bell ring. To Grace Church Street, husbandmen 
brought corn and malt to sell at their standings in the 
great corn market, situated there since the Middle Ages. 
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