20 Charles William Wallace 
London. It is around this alleged contempt of November 16, 
1590, when the trouble at the theatre door occurred, that the liti- 
gation of the parties and numerous court orders and depositions 
centred for the next two or three years. 
In the midst of the Court’s long investigation, in the latter 
part of April, 1593, Margaret Brayne died, before a decision was 
reached. By her will, dated April 8 and proved May 3, 1593, she 
left all the property she had to Robert Miles as executor and sole 
legatee, and said that not even that could repay him. She speci- 
fically bequeathed him the moiety she claimed in the Theatre, 
and, as a matter of course, he fell heir to the litigation that he 
had already taken so active a hand in for her. Near the close 
of the same year 1593, Miles accordingly filed a bill of revivor, 
and carried the case on till May 28, 1595, when the Court of 
Chancery hung it up by sending him to the Common Law for 
relief. That practically ended the case, which had no solid 
foundation in law or equity, and never would have come into 
court except for Miles’s spite against Burbage and his determina- 
tion to back the widow at all costs. Such a case could have no 
standing in the Common Law, and consequently Miles appears 
never to have attempted to introduce it there, even after the 
Chancery’s suggestion to try it. 
During the long litigation, great question was made as to costs 
and profits to Burbage and his late partner Brayne. In July, 
1591, Burbage again had the property viewed, by Ellam, Hudson, 
Clerke, and others, as they testified on February 25, 1592, and 
it was found by the viewers that he had spent 240/. or at least 
230/. for new buildings and repairs, aside from the Theatre. 
Besides, between January 1 and February 25, 1592, Burbage or 
his son Cuthbert, as Hudson and Ellam, the workmen, testified, 
had spent 30/. to 40/. in repairs on the Theatre. On September 
30, 1591, attorney Henry Bett, of Lincoln’s Inn, deposed that he 
had often seen and copied out the accounts between Bur- 
bage and Brayne. Burbage’s books showed expenditures of 220]. 
for buildings near the Theatre, 230/. for rent and repairs of the 
Theatre, 220/. 13s. 4d. for bonds, debts, etc., paid since Brayne’s 
death. One half of all these amounts were due to Burbage from 
20 
