Lett them that are affrayd to forfayte or loose their estats looke to yt, and amongst them see the said rente be truely and duelye paid, for they doubte but they shall doe well enough with the executours and assignes of the said Jo. Barker; further excusinge their not paieinge anie rent at all for the residue of the premisses other then the said moytyes, by sayeinge that yf they could find anie thinge in anie of their deeds of assignments or conveyaunces chargeinge them precisely with any part thereof, or in any wise declaringe howe much they are to pay, they would willingly as is fitt pay such rate and porcion as they were soe bownd unto, but because they find noe such matter to charge them (excepte the said parties excepted, which by the deeds of their estats are directed for the said severall moytyes to pay the said severall yearely rents of v.li. apeece), therefore they will not pay anie thinge at all towards the said residue of the said rente of xxvij.li. xiij.s. iiij.d. untyll by some legall course or proceedinge in some courte of equity yt shalbe declared what part or porcion in reason and equity every severall owner of the said severall premisses owght to pay towards the same, and be judicially ordered thereunto, which lett them that thinke that a good course endevour to bringe to passe, when they shall see good, or words to such lyke effecte; soe as your oratours, their said respectyve estats and interests of and in their said severall premisses aforesaid and the estats of divers of the said partyes, which would gladly pay a reasonable parte towards the said rente, but doe nowe refuse to joine with your said oratours in their then said suite, for feare of some other of the said parties which doe soe refuse to contry bute, doe remayne and stand subject to be forfeyted by the negligence or willfullnes of divers or anie other of the said partyes, which manie tymes will pay nothinge, whereas your oratours Richard Lane and William Shackspeare, and some fewe others of the said parties, are wholly, and against all equity and good conscience, usually dryven to pay the same for preservacion of their estats of and in the parts of the premisses belonginge unto them, and albeyt your said oratours have taken great paynes and travayle in entreatinge and endevoringe to bringe the said parties of their owne accords, and without suite of lawe, to agree every one unto a reasonable contribucion towards the same residue of the same rente of xxvij.li. xiij.s. iiij.d. accordinge to the value of suche of the premisses as they enjoy, and onely for their respectyve tymes and termes therein, yet have they refused and denied and styll doe refuse and deny to be perswaded or drawen hereunto, and some of them being encoraged, as yt should seme, by some frendly and kind promise of the said Henry Barker, assignee of the said John Barker, that they should find favour, thoughe their said estats should be all forfeyted, have given yt forth that they should be glade and cared not a whitt yf the estats of some or all the said premisses should be forfeyted, for they should doe well enough with the sayd Henry Barker. In tender consideracion whereof, and for soe much as yt is against all equytye and reason that the estats of some that are willinge to paye a reasonable parte toward the said residue of the said rente of xxvij.li. xiij.s. iiij.d. havinge respecte to the smalnes of the values of the things they doe possesse, should depend uppon the carlesnes and frowardnes or other practices of others, which will not paie a reasonable parte or anie thinge at all toward the same, and for that yt is most agreeable to all reason, equity and good conscience, that every person, his executors and assignes, should be ratably charged with a yearely porcion toward the said residue of the said rente, accordinge to the yearely benefitt he enjoyeth or receaveth, and for that your oratours have noe meanes, by the order or course of common lawes of this realme, to enforce or compell anie of the said partyes to yeald anie certayne contrybucion towards the same, and soe are and styll shalbee remediles therein, unles they may be in that behalf relieved by your Lordshipps gracious clemency and relyef to others in such lyke cases extended; May yt therefore please your good lordshippe, the premisses considered, and yt beinge also considered that very manie poore peoples estats are subjecte to be overthrown by breach of the condicion aforesaid, and thereby doe depend uppon the negligences, wills, or practices of others,* and shall contynue in doubte to be turned out of doores, with their wives and familes, thorough the practice or wilfullnes of such others, to write your honorable lettres unto the said Lord Carewe, thereby requiringe him to appeare in the highe Courte of Chancery to answere to the premisses, and to graunte unto the said oratours his Majesties most gracious writts of subpena to be directed unto the said Sir Edward Grevill, Sir Edward Conway, and other the said parties before named, and to the said Henry Barker, whoe claymeth under the right and tytle of the said John Barker, and usually receyveth the said rente in his owne name, and usually maketh acquittances upon the receipt thereof, and under his owne hand and in his owne name, as in his owne right, and usually maketh acquittances of divers parts thereof, thereby commandinge them and every of them at a certayne day, and under a certayne payne therein to be lymitted, to be and personally appeare before your good lordshippe in his highnes most honorable Court of Chancery, fully, perfectly, and directly to awnswere to all and every the premisses, and to sett forth the severall yearely values of the severall premisses soe by them enjoyed, and to shewe good cause whie a comission should not be awarded forth of the said most honorable courte for the examininge of witnesses to the severall values aforesaid, and for the assessinge, taxinge, and ratinge thereof, that thereuppon yt may appeare howe much everye of the said parties, and their executors, administrators, and assignes, for and duringe their said severall respectyve estats and interests, ought in reason proporcionably to pay for the same towards the said residue of the said yearely rente of xxvij.li. xiij.s. iiij.d. that the same may be ordered and established by decree of your most honorable good Lordshippe accordyngly, and the said Henry Barker to awnswere to the premisses, and to sett forth what estate or interest he claymeth in the said rente of xxvij.li. xiij.s. iiij.d. and also to shewe good cause whie he should not be ordered to accept the rents ratably to be assessed as aforesaid, and to enter onely into the tenement * "Men obstinate and of froward and evill disposicion" inserted, and afterwards erased. and estate onely of such persons which shall refuse or neglect to pay suche parte of the said rente, as by your most honorable order there shalbe sett downe and rated uppon them severally to paye, and further to stand to and abide such further and other order and direccions touchinge the premisses as to your good Lordshipp shall seeme to stand with right equity and good conscience. And your Lordshipps said oratours shall dayly pray unto thalmightie for your Lordshipps health with dayly encrease in all honour and happines. Endorsed, Lane, Greene, et Shakspeare com. W. Combe et al. respond. The same year witnesseth the destruction of the Globe Theatre by fire, but it is not known whether Shakespeare was still a proprietor in that establishment. If this circumstance did not affect his pecuniary affairs, it is most likely that many of his manuscripts were then lost, and perhaps may have thus prevented the first collected edition of his works being as complete as could have been desired. The fire of London, and several fires at Stratford, may also afterwards have destroyed some of the poet's writings and copies of his plays;† yet it is extremely difficult to account. for their total disappearance, and I cannot help thinking that letters of Shakespeare must still be preserved in some obscure recesses. Not a scrap of any of his plays in his own handwriting is known to be preserved, but a contemporary manuscript of one was recently found in the archives "No longer since then yesterday, while Bourbege his companie were acting at the Globe the play of Hen. 8, and there shooting of certayne chambers in way of triumph, the fire catch'd and fastened upon the thatch of the house, and there burned so furiously, as it consumed the whole house, and all in lesse then two houres, the people having enough to doe to save themselves."-Letter from Thomas Lorkin, dated "Lond. this last of June, 1613," MS. Harl. 7002. According to Roberts (An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to Shakespear, 1729, p. 46), two large chests full of Shakespeare's loose papers and manuscripts were destroyed in the great fire at Warwick. They were, he says, "in the hands of an ignorant baker of Warwick, who married one of the descendants from Shakespear," and adds, that they "were carelesly scatter'd and thrown about as garret lumber and litter, to the particular knowledge of the late Sir William Bishop, till they were all consun'd in the general fire and destruction of that town." of Sir Edward Dering, a discovery which gives earnest of others of a similar kind.* In the year 1614 Shakespeare was occupied on business relating to certain proposed enclosures in the common lands near Stratford, which were vehemently, and in the end successfully, opposed by the corporation. The following are memoranda in which the claims of the owners of the property are set forth, the land here mentioned as Shakespeare's being part of that which he had purchased of William and John Combe in 1602: 5 Septembris, 1614. Auncient freeholders in the fields of Old Stratford and Welcombe. Mr. Shakspeare 4 yard land, noe common nor grownd beyond Gospell-bush, nor grownd in Sandfield, nor none in Slow-hill-field beyond Bishopton, nor none in the enclosures beyond Bishopton. Thomas Parker in right of his wief half a yard land, noe land in Sandfield; qu. if Gospell-bush and Slow-hill-field; but hath common over all the fields. Mr. Lane in Perrye's occupacion half a yard land: hath some land beyond Gospell-bush, and hey in Welcombe-meadow. Sir ffrauncys Smyth 19 or 20 ridges in the ffields, wherof 6 in Watt-ffurlong neer Welcombe-medow, noe common, j. sleshing upon Johnsons gate, 5 at the upper end of the Dingles, and 5 sleching upon Mr. Nashe's inclosures. Mace 21 or 22 lands or therabouts, most of them lying in Sandfield, wherof 4 shetting upon the 4 elms into Bruncle way. And 5 leys in the Hame. Arthur Cawdrey half a yard lande. Mr. Wright, vicar of Bishopton, 4 leys in the Hame. The lease of the tithes which Shakespeare purchased in 1605 would also have been affected in value had the projected enclosures been carried into effect. This was probably the chief reason that caused the poet to exert himself so Sir Edward Dering's MS. was published by me in 1845, for the Shakespeare Society. The only other early MS. of his plays known to exist is a copy of the Merry Wives of Windsor, written during the Commonwealth, and containing many curious variations from all the printed editions. This latter MS. is in my own possession. energetically on the subject, and with a careful regard to his interests, the following agreement appears to have been executed in anticipation of the enclosure being made: Coppy of the articles with Mr. Shakspeare. Vicesimo octavo die Octobris, anno Domini 1614. Articles of agreement indented [and] made betwene William Shackespeare of Stretford in the County of Warwick gent. on the one partye, and William Replingham of Great Harborow in the Countie of Warwick gent. on the other partie, the daye and yeare abovesaid. Item, the said William Replingham for him, his heires, executors, and assignes, doth covenaunte and agree to and with the said William Shackespeare, his heires and assignes, That he the said William Replingham, his heires or assignes, shall, uppon reasonable request, satisfie content and make recompence unto him the said William Shackespeare or his assignes, for all such losse, detriment, and hinderance as he the said William Shackespeare, his heires and assignes, and one Thomas Greene gent. shall or maye be thought in the viewe and judgement of foure indifferent persons, to be indifferentlie elected by the said William and William, and their heires, and in default of the said William Replingham, by the said William Shackespeare or his heires onely, to survey and judge the same to sustayne or incurre for or in respecte of the increasinge of the yearlie value of the tythes they the said William Shackespeare and Thomas doe joyntlie or severallie hold and enjoy in the said fields or anie of them, by reason of anie inclosure or decaye of tyllage there ment and intended by the said William Replingham, and that the said William Replingham and his heires shall procure such sufficient securitie unto the said William Shackespeare and his heires for the performance of theis covenaunts, as shal bee devised by learned counsell; In witnes whereof the parties abovsaid to theis presents interchaungeablie their hands and seales have put, the daye and year first above wrytten. Sealed and delivered in the presence of us, Tho. Lucas. Jo. Rogers. A calamitous fire had happened at Stratford in the previous summer, and the corporation alleged the distress of the poorer classes on that account as a reason their sufferings should not be increased by the enclosure. They sent their clerk, Thomas Greene, to London on this business, and, in |