SECTION 18 - The Polesworth circle

Summary

The north-east corner of Warwickshire, in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the first of the seventeenth, was a very remarkable hive of literary activity, gathered about Polesworth Hall and the Goodere family. It may be questioned whether, within that half-century and in so limited an area, there could be counted, at any place outside London, so large a number of writers distinguished in their several lines—resident or visitors.

Bramcote Hall, now an old and substantial farmhouse, is situated in Polesworth parish, less than a mile from the church. It was the seat of the Burdet family, and in Shakespeare's youth was occupied by Thomas Burdet (d. 1603) whose monument in the neighbouring church of Seckington describes him as ‘secretarius e secretioribus consiliis’ to Queen Elizabeth. In his service at Bramcote, as steward of his estate, lived Raphael Holinshed, the chronicler, and there died in 1580. His great Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland had been published in 1578. Possibly he was known to the two pages, Drayton and Shakespeare. More likely his two stout volumes lay on some window seat in Polesworth Hall, and from them Drayton drew matter for his Heroical Epistles (1596) and Shakespeare for his early historical plays: but it was the second edition of the Chronicles, published in 1586, that supplied Shakespeare with materials for his later Histories.