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 or children subsequently alienated the profits from the company, had been their 'destruction'. The Lord Chamberlain, however, directed that the Burbadges should transfer two shares and Shank one to the three petitioners, 'at the usual and accustomed rates, and according to the proportion of the time and benefit they are to injoy'. This the order states, in the case of the Globe, as five years. Probably there is an error here. The terms bought by Shank were to expire in 1635, but at the time of the petition a suit was pending in the Court of Requests for the confirmation of a 'lease paroll' from Sir Matthew Brend for a further nine years from 25 March 1635. The original lease of 1599 from Nicholas Brend was for thirty-one years and would have expired in 1629. But on 26 October 1613, when the rebuilding of the theatre was in hand, a fresh lease extending the term to 1635 had been granted by Sir John Bodley as trustee for Nicholas's son Matthew, who was then a minor. Not content with this, the syndicate had procured a promise of a further extension to 1644 from young Matthew himself, which he now repudiated. I think that Bodley must have taken the opportunity in 1613 to raise the ground-rent from £14 10s. to £20. A draft for a return of new and divided houses, made for the Earl Marshal in 1634, has the following entry:

'The Globe playhouse nere Maid lane built by the company of players, with the dwelling house thereto adjoyninge, built with timber, about 20 yeares past, upon an old foundation, worth 14^{li} to 20^{li} per ann., and one house there adjoyning built about the same tyme with timber, in the possession of W^m Millet, gent., worth per ann. 4^{li} [In margin, Playhouse & house, S^r Mathew Brend's inheritance].'

A corrected return of 1637 runs:

'The Globe playhouse nere Maide lane built by the Company of Players with timber about 20 yeares past uppon an old foundacion, worth 20^{li} per ann. beinge the inheritance of S^r Mathew Brand, K^{nt}.'

The petitioners in the Sharers Papers declare that up to Lady Day 1635 the rent for the Globe and Blackfriars together was not above £65. The original rent of the Blackfriars was £40, but this also may have been put up on the expiration of the first lease in 1629. The Court of Requests finally confirmed the extension of the lease to 1644, apparently at a still further