Globe. Newly corrected, augmented, and amended. London: Printed for Iohn Smethwick, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard, in Fleete streete vnder the Dyall. 1609.”

This copyright entry also appears this year:

“1609, 20 May. Tho. Thorpe, entred for his copie, vnder the handes of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lownes, warden, a Booke called Shakespeares sonnettes."

1610. In this year Shakespeare appears to be growing rich.

"The year 1610 is nearly barren of recorded incidents; but in the early part of it Shakespeare purchased twenty acres of pasture land from the Combes, adding them to the valuable freeholds that he had obtained from those parties in 1602. After this transaction he owned no fewer than a hundred and twenty-seven acres in the common fields of Stratford and its neighborhood. His first purchase consisted entirely of arable land, but although he had the usual privilege of common of pasture that was attached to it, the new acquisition was no doubt a desirable one. The concord of the fine that was prepared on the latter occasion is dated April the 13th, 1610, and as it was acknowledged before Commissioners it may be inferred that Shakespeare was not in London at the time. His company were at Dover in July, at Oxford in August, and at Shrewsbury at some period of the year which has not been recorded." (H.-P. i. 229.)

"The praecipe of the fine is dated May the 28th, 1610, -'Willielmo Combe armigero, et Johanni Combe, generoso, quod juste, &c., teneant Willielmo Shakespere, generoso, conventionem, &c., de centum et septem acris terre, et viginti acris pasture, cum pertinentiis, in Old Stratford et Stratford-super-Avon.' This property is mentioned in 1639 as 'all those fower yards land and a

halfe of arrable meadowe and pasture, with thappurtenaunces, lying and being in the townes, hambletts, villages, feilds, and grounds of Stratford-upon-Avon, Ould Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe,' and a like description is found in the later settlements. The extent of a yard land curiously varied even in the same localities of the same county; and the facts that a hundred and seven acres were taken as four of them in 1602, and twenty as a half of one of them in 1639, show that there was formerly no precise idea on the subject." (H.-P. ii. 331.)

The following is the Note of a Fine levied in Trinity Term (8 Jac. I. 1610) on the estate purchased by Shakespeare from the Combes:

"Inter Willielmum Shakespere, generosum, querentem, et Willielmum Combe, armigerum, et Johannem Combe, generosum, deforciantes, de centum et septem acris terre et viginti acris pasture, cum pertinenciis, in Old Stratforde et Stratforde-super-Avon; unde placitum convencionis summonitum fuit inter eos, etc., scilicet, quod predicti Willielmus Combe et Johannes recognoverunt predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis, esse jus ipsius Willielmi Shakespere, ut illa que idem Willielmus habet de dono predictorum Willielmi Combe et Johannis, et illa remiserunt et quietumclamaverunt de ipsis Willielmo Combe et Johanne, et heredibus suis, predicto Willielmo Shakespere et heredibus suis imperpetuum; et preterea, idem Willielmus Combe concessit, pro se et heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo Shakespere, et heredibus suis, predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis, contra predictum Willielmum Combe, et heredes suos, in perpetuum. Et ulterius idem Johannes concessit, pro se et heredibus suis, quod ipsi warantizabunt predicto Willielmo Shakespere, et heredibus suis, predicta tenementa, cum pertinenciis, contra predictum Johannem, et heredes suos, imperpetuum. Et pro hac, etc., idem

Willielmus Shakespere dedit predictis Willielmo Combe et Johanni centum libras sterlingorum.”

Of the play of "Othello" Mr. Phillipps (i. 214) says:

"A performance of 'Othello' at the Globe in April, 1610, was honoured with the presence of the German ambassador and his suite; and it was again represented at Court before Prince Charles, the Princess Elizabeth, and the Elector Palatine, in May, 1613. These scattered notices, accidentally preserved doubtlessly out of many others that might have been recorded, are indicative of its continuance as an acting play, a result that may, without disparagement to the author, be attributed in some measure to the leading character having been assigned to the most accomplished tragic actor of the day, Richard Burbage. The name of the first performer of Iago is not known, but there is a curious tradition, which can be traced as far back as the close of the seventeenth century, to the effect that the part was originally undertaken by a popular comedian, and that Shakespeare adapted some of the speeches of that character to the peculiar talents of the actor."

Gildon ("Reflections on Rymer's Short View of Tragedy," 1694) says of this tradition :

"I'm assur 'd, from very good hands, that the person that acted Iago was in much esteem of a comedian, which made Shakespear put several words and expressions into his part, perhaps not so agreeable to his character, to make the audience laugh, who had not yet learnt to endure to be serious a whole play."

The following is copied from the original manuscript Journal, in the British Museum, of the

Secretary to the German Embassy to England in April, 1610:

"Lundi, 30.-S. E. (minence) alla au Globe, lieu ordinaire ou l'on joue les commedies; y fut representé l'histoire du More de Venise."

"The Scourge of Folly, consisting of satyricall Epigramms and others in honor of many noble and worthy Persons of our Land," by John Davies of Hereford, was entered at Stationers' Hall on October 8, 1610. The following lines are addressed "To our English Terence, Mr. Will. Shake-speare":

"Some say (good Will), which I in sport do sing,
Had 'st thou not plaid some Kingly parts in sport,
Thou had'st bin a companion for a king,
And beene a King among the meaner sort.
Some others raile; but raile as they thinke fit,
Thou hast no rayling, but a raigning wit;

And honesty thou sow 'st, which they do reape,
So to increase their stocke which they do keepe."

The same author's "A Scourge for Paper-Persecutors," etc., appeared this year, and contained the following:

"Another (ah, Lord helpe mee!) vilifies,
With Art of Love and how to subtilize,
Making lewd Venus, with eternall Lines,
To tye Adonis to her love's designs.

Fine wit is shew 'n therein; but finer 't were
If not attired in such a bawdy Geare.

But be it as it will, the coyest Dames
In private reade it for their Closset-games;
For, sooth to say, the lines so draw them on
To the venerian speculation,

That will they, nill they (if of flesh they bee),
They will think of it, sith loose thought is free."

Edmund Bolton, in 1610, wrote "Hypercritica; Or, a Rule of Judgment for writing or reading our Histories," from which the following is copied :

“The choise of English, as, for example, language & style (the apparell of matter), - hee who would penn our affaires in English, and compose unto us an entire body of them, ought to have a singular care ther of. For albeit our tongue hath not received dialects, or accentuall notes as the Greeke, nor any certaine or established rule either of gramer or true writing, [it] is notwithstanding very copious, and fewe there be who have the most proper graces thereof, in which the rule cannot be variable. For as much as the people's judgments are uncertaine, the books also out of which wee gather the most warrantable English are not many to my remembrance, of which, in regard they require a particular and curious tract, I forbeare to speake at this present. But among the chiefe, or rather the chiefe, are in my opinion these: Sr Thomas Moore's works; . . . George Chapman's first seaven books of Iliades; Samuell Danyell; Michael Drayton his Heroicall Epistles of England; Marlowe his excellent fragment of Hero and Leander; Shakespere, Mr. Francis Beamont, & innumerable other writers for the stage, and presse tenderly to be used in this Argument; Southwell, Parsons, & some fewe other of that sort."

No plays were published in 1610.

The Douay Bible was published this year.

1611. Of Shakespeare's growing popularity Mr. Phillipps (i. 229) says:

"There are an unusual number of evidences of Shakespeare's dramatic popularity in the year 1611. We now first hear of his plays of 'Macbeth,' the Winter's Tale,' Cymbeline,' and the Tempest.' New impressions of 'Titus Andronicus,' 'Hamlet,' and 'Pericles' also ap