Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/381

 alienated to creditors. Shakespeare permitted his mother to reside in one of the Henley Street houses till her death (she was buried 9 Sept. 1608), and he derived a modest rent from the other. On 1 May 1602 he purchased of the rich landowners William and John Combe of Stratford, for 320l., 107 acres of arable land near the town. The conveyance was delivered, in the poet's absence, to his brother Gilbert, ‘to the use of the within named William Shakespere’ (, ii. 17–19). A third purchase quickly followed. On 28 Sept. 1602, at a court baron of the manor of Rowington, one Walter Getley transferred to the poet a cottage and garden which were situated at Chapel Lane, opposite the lower grounds of New Place. They were held practically in fee-simple at the annual rental of 2s. 6d. It appears from the roll that Shakespeare did not attend the manorial court then held at Rowington, and it was stipulated that the estate should remain in the hands of the lady of the manor until he completed the purchase in person. At a later period he was admitted to the copyhold, and he settled the remainder on his two daughters in fee. In April 1610 he purchased from the Combes 20 acres of pasture land, to add to the 107 of arable land that he had acquired of the same owners in 1602.

As early as 1598 Abraham Sturley had suggested that Shakespeare should purchase the tithes of Stratford. Seven years later he became their part owner, and thus conspicuously extended his local influence. On 24 July 1605 he bought for 440l. of Ralph Huband an unexpired term of thirty-one years of a ninety-two years' lease of a moiety of the tithes of Stratford, Old Stratford, Bishopton, and Welcombe. The moiety was subject to a rent of 17l. to the corporation, who were the reversionary owners on the lease's expiration, and of 5l. to John Barker, the heir of a former proprietor. The investment brought Shakespeare, under the most favourable circumstances, a net income of 38l. a year, and the refusal of persons who claimed an interest in the other moiety to acknowledge the full extent of their liability to the corporation led that body to demand from the poet payments justly due from others. After 1609 he joined with two interested persons, Richard Lane of Awston and Thomas Greene, the town clerk of Stratford, in a suit in chancery to determine the exact responsibilities of all the tithe-owners, and in 1612 they presented a bill of complaint to Lord-chancellor Ellesmere, with what result is unknown.

Shakespeare inherited his father's love of litigation, and stood rigorously by his rights. In March 1600 he recovered in London a debt of 7l. from one John Clayton. In July 1604, in the local court at Stratford, he sued one Philip Rogers, to whom he had supplied since the preceding March malt to the value of 1l. 19s. 10d., and had on 25 June lent 2s. in cash. Rogers paid back 6s., and Shakespeare sought the balance of the account, 1l. 15s. 10d. During 1608 and 1609 he was at law with another fellow-townsman, John Addenbroke. On 15 Feb. 1609 Shakespeare, who was apparently represented by Thomas Greene, obtained judgment from a jury against Addenbroke for the payment of 6l., and 1l. 5s. costs, but Addenbroke left the town, and the triumph proved barren. Shakespeare avenged himself by proceeding against one Thomas Horneby, who had acted as the absconding debtor's bail (, ii. 77–80).

With an inconsistency that is more apparent than real, the astute business transactions of these years (1597–1611) synchronise with the production of Shakespeare's noblest literary work—of his most sustained and serious efforts in comedy, tragedy, and romance. In 1599, after abandoning English history in ‘Henry V,’ he produced in rapid succession his three most perfect essays in comedy—‘Much Ado about Nothing,’ ‘As you like it,’ and ‘Twelfth Night.’ Their good-humoured tone seems to reveal their author in his happiest frame of mind; in each the gaiety and tenderness of youthful womanhood are exhibited in fascinating union; while Shakespeare rarely put his lyric gift to better advantage than in the songs with which the three plays are interspersed. The first two were entered on the ‘Stationers' Registers’ before 4 Aug. 1600, on which day a prohibition was set on their publication, as well as on the publication of ‘Henry V’ and Jonson's ‘Every Man in his Humour.’ Probably the acting company found the publication of plays injurious to their rights in them, and sought to stop the practice. Nevertheless, ‘Much Ado,’ like ‘Henry V,’ was published before the close of the year. ‘As you like it,’ like ‘Twelfth Night,’ was not printed till it appeared in the folio.

In ‘Much Ado,’ which appears to have been written in 1599, the brilliant comedy of Benedick and Beatrice, and of the blundering