NEW FACTS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 676, 29 November 1909, Page 4

NEW FACTS ABOUT SHAKESPEARE

' Considerable interest' has been. displayed in' two. articles in "The Times," giving some nbw facts about Shakespeare. • - •' f "Dr.- C".; W." Wallace, an American scholar, who haa : for.- several; years been . occupied in researches 'among '■; legal documents' of the; time; for fresh information bearing on Shakespeare and Elizabethan theatres, has been regarded for his ; pains .by a; now find which puts in shadow all his previous discoveries," says the "Manchester Guardian." ■ . -■ - . Theso new! facts, "are "of a quality—not usual; in the far-sought finds of these latter-day seekers-rwhioh'.makes them interesting-not 'only , to the specialist but to the layman, and of more than ;merely archaeological importance.. The -.matter of the doouments is-, nnromantic enough, :being nothing more than, the suit at -common .tlie widow.of a dcfupcl.actor named William ;Osteler against" her- father John Hemyngs for trespass,..whioh trespass appears; ;iti Have; consisted in misdealings : .with securities held'.by him in trust.; Only—and here ;the/reader...6teps ; from :the : surrounding darkness ;into'a'lane of light—tho securities in question; hnpjen. to have heen shares 'in! the Globe and Blackfriare Theatres (the theatres of Shakespeare's .company), jand John'. Hemyngs is no less a'-person than the joint editor of . tho first folio• collection .-of Shakespeare's, plays, a ,boneficiary. in' his. will, 1 and a prominent meni-. ber of . tbe band of actors to'which Shakespeare belonged ~> ■ ••;. . /'From the papbrs put in then by the plaintiff's attorney,, we'; learn; . all at - a . blow,. who. held , the shares of these properties, and in what proportion they held them; how some of tho shares changed hands as time went, on, -and whose holdings wero\:cdded to or; diminished ; .what •'was tho average. profit firoin the .enterprise. and how much Shakespeare himself, drew. We learn by the way, too."for the first time, where the Globe Theatre actually stood.; • "Dr. Wallace ;has -shown that, allowing,' for llio necessarily conjceturnl; naturo of calculations as to interest on capital, Shakespeare, who; bad a -share' of'the : Blackfriare and a: fourteenth-at tho Globej.drew not more than A'3oo from each, and was;, consequently the possessor; of an income from theatrical investments of 'a year. . This is much'leas than the kind 'of-conjecture which" has delighted in picturing him .as. tho capitalist man of affairs has been in the habit of assigning, him; but as it must probaby be multiplied by at least four, (and-probably more) to bring it to our.money, it will bo' seen that it, is a very respectable income indeed.. ;■ . 1 "Shakespearo now; appears- as the bolder of a fourteenth' share of. a 'property of Which tho; Burbages held half, a3 holding simply, that is,a .share of tho risk of a syndicate largely oc-. cupied r in .'producing'.'his own plays." • ' The Times" declares that the discovery, it publishes "is undoubtedly the' most important that has been made: in the field of Shakespearean; research since the Rev. Joseph Green lighted/on Shakespeare's will.", ■ ■ ■'Dr. Wallace, the, discoverer, has .. a. very elevor wifo, his holpraate in nil he does, to whom :he ; expresses': his indebtedness for literary help," says, the; "Westminster.". "Their work has been; spread over some four', years in England. The' two have lived in the simplest fashion in a flat in Bernard Street, Bloomsbury,'cooking their, own meals and entirely dispensing with servants." ; ,- ' ; .