Shakespeare's Insomnia, and the Causes Thereof Part 2

INNER TEMPLE, LONDON, Feb. 15, 1593.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

Mr. Moses Solomons, an honored client of our firm, has placed with us, that payment may be straightway enforced, a bill drawn by John Heminge, for 10, due in two months from the date thereof, and the payment of which was a.s.sured by you in writing. This bill has been for some days overdue, and Mr. Solomons is constrained to call upon you for payment at once. Your prompt attention to this will save the costs and annoyance of an arrest.

The second letter is from the same parties, and bears date four days later than the first.

Inner Temple, Feb. 19, 1593. Mr. William Shakespeare:

Recurring to certain statements made by yourself at our chambers yesterday, we have considered the same, and have likewise the opinion thereon of our client, Mr. Solomons. As we do now recall them, you nominated three princ.i.p.al grounds why you should not be pressed to pay the bill drawn by Mr. Heminge. First, that you received no value therefor, having put your name to the bill upon the a.s.surance that it was a matter of form, and to oblige a friend.

To this we rejoin, that by the law of estoppel you are precluded to deny the consideration after the bill hath pa.s.sed into the holding of a discounter unnotified of the facts.

Second, That, as our client paid but 1 for the bill, he should not exact 10 thereon. To the which we reply, that, so a valuable consideration was pa.s.sed for the bill, the law looketh not to its exact amount. It is also a.s.serted by our client that, beyond actual coin given for the bill, he did further release to John Heminge certain tinsel crowns, swords, and apparel appurtenant to the representation of royalty, which had before then--to wit, two weeks before--been pledged to him for the sum of 8 s.h.i.+llings, borrowed by the said Heminge.

Third, That it was impossible for you to pay the bill, you having no money, and receiving no greater income than 22 s.h.i.+llings per week, all of which was necessary to the maintenance of yourself and family. We regret again to call to your notice the Statute of 16 Eliz., ent.i.tled, "Concerning the Imprisonment of Insolvent Debtors,"

which we trust you will not oblige us to invoke in aid of our suffering client's rights. To be lenient and merciful is his inclination, and we are happy to communicate to you this most favorable tender for an acquittance of his claim. You shall render to us an order on the Steward of the Globe Theatre for 20 s.h.i.+llings per week of your stipend therein. This will leave to you yet 2 s.h.i.+llings per week, which, with prudence, will yield to you the comforts, if not the luxuries, of subsistence. In ten weeks the face of the bill will be thus repaid. For his forbearance in the matter of time, which hath most seriously inconvenienced him, he requires that you shall pay him the further sum of 2 as usury, and likewise that you do liquidate and save him harmless from the charges of us, his solicitors, which charges, from the number of grave and complicated questions which have become a part of this case and demanded solution, we are unable to make less than 4. We should say guineas, but your evident distress hath moved us to gentleness and mercy. These added sums are to be likewise embraced in the Steward's order, and paid at the same rate as the substance of the bill, and should you embrace this compa.s.sionate tender, in the brief period of sixteen weeks you will be at the end of this indebtedness.

The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard, an apparent p.a.w.nbroker.

QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:

These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since pa.s.sed in which you were to repay me 8 s.h.i.+llings, and thereby redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. s.h.i.+rt of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 s.h.i.+llings and the usance thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the sundry articles named.

The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career (1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.

FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

I have been active in the way you some days since besought me; namely, the procuring for you of a loan of 5, that you might retire a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man, who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me to take your bill at two months,--for him, mind you,--for 10, the payment to be a.s.sured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new plays in ma.n.u.script,--"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet,"--for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because you are a friend to me, give 5. My charge for services in this behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be 1, which I shall straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.

The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are dated in a more reputable portion of the city.

THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of the stock of the Globe Theatre for 100, and inasmuch as you had not available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the 60 wanting, paying yourself 40 of such purchase price, and giving me in pledge for my 60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not longer be salable at the price of even 60, and I therefore must importune that you forthwith do make a payment of 20 on your said bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.

The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.

THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell 5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in further pledge of your bill of 60, as was engaged between us yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty, money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at 15; and inasmuch as yours were bought at 25, should you acquire other shares at 15, it would serve to equate your havings.

The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.

THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three shares in the Globe Theatre for 15 each, using in such purchase the 15 given me by you, and 30, not of mine own, but which was furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that shares were offered at 10 each, perchance from the efforts of forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay me, therefore, as much as 40, on the morrow I shall be constrained to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the guild.

The next letter is also from the same Mordecai Shylock, and is dated four days later.

THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 16, 1602.

To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

My earnest epistle to thee of four days since having elicited no response, I did on the following day offer at the meeting of the Brokers' Guild some of the shares of the stock in the Globe pledged to me, and three shares were bidden at 9 each by my brother, Nehemiah Shylock. As I offered next all the rest, one Henry Wriothsley, Earl of Southampton, did ask to whom the shares belonged, and when he was enlightened, did straightway take all the shares and pay me the whole balance owing, and called me divers opprobrious names. I answered not his railing with railing, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe, but such slander is illy bestowed on one who has been your friend for long, and who was but striving to avert his own destruction.

The next letter in order is from one William Kempe, who would seem to be the business manager of the Globe Theatre, or the person having in charge the unskilled labor connected with the playhouse.

GLOBE PLAYHOUSE, EMPLOYMENT BUREAU, May 25, 1602.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he now receives but 6 s.h.i.+llings each week, while you are become a man of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as 100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken, and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at your especial order he was paid 6 s.h.i.+llings per week, which was double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4 s.h.i.+llings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their stead. They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays; that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Oth.e.l.lo," and fifteen pages from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good heed.

The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.

AT THE ELEPHANT & MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.

TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his "Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for 10, and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an a.s.s therein?

Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 s.h.i.+llings per week when he can get 10 or even 11 for a beggarly play, which is nought unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who, affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst frown upon thy townsman. Delay not to send me sundry s.h.i.+llings for the publican, who believes you will discharge, as often before, my reckoning. This, and much more of like tenor, saith Nicholas Bottom to William Shakespeare by your wors.h.i.+p's humble servant,

JOHN LELY.

The letters in the third period bear date in 1609, seven years later than those last quoted. The first is from Rev. Walter Blaise, who appears to be the clergyman at Stratford-on-Avon.

STRATFORD, Feb. 23, 1609.

TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:

John Naps, of Greece, who did recently return to his home here from London, safely has delivered to Anne, your wife, the package entrusted to him for carriage. As your wife hath not the gift of writing, she does desire that I convey to you her thanks for the sundry contents of the hamper. She hath also confided to me as her spiritual adviser that she did diligently ply John Naps with questions as to his visit to you in London, and that said John Naps, under her interrogatories, has revealed to her much that doth make her sick at heart and weary of life.

_Item_. He doth report that you do pa.s.s among men as a bachelor, and, with sundry players and men of that ilk, do frequent a house of entertainment kept by one Doll Tearsheet, and do kiss the barmaid and call her your sweetheart.

_Item_. He doth also report that you did give to the daughter of the publican at whose house you do now abide, a ring of fine gold, and did also write to her a sonnet in praise of her eyebrows and her lips, and did otherwise wickedly disport with the said damsel.

_Item_. He doth further report of you that you did visit, with one Ben Jonson, on the Sabbath-day, a place of disrepute, where were c.o.c.k-fights and the baiting of a bear, and that with you were two brazen women, falsely called by you the wife and sister of Ben Jonson.