28 Charles William Wallace 
other half. These five were thus joined with the Burbages in the 
new venture. It was a rare combination, consisting of the great- 
est dramatist, the best actors, and the most experienced managers 
of the time. Neither the Burbages nor their associates can have 
had much ready money by them, both from the circumstances of 
the partnership and from the statement of the Burbage family 
thirty-five years later, that they had to take up the money at” 
interest, which lay heavy upon them for many years. 
The young company was fortunate in finding a site for their ° 
new building. Southwark was the common resort for sports. 
There bear-baiting, bull-baiting, and other diversions had long 
been practised. It had become a popular theatrical centre since 
the building of the Rose there in 1587 by Henslowe, and the 
Swan in 1594-5 by Langley. On the Bankside just north of 
Maiden lane, on the same side of the street as the Rose and 
within stone’s throw to the east of the Rose, lay a waste piece 
of ground, formerly used as a lay-stall or dumping ground, and 
this they fixed upon. It had two little old two-room shacks on it. 
The owner was Sir Nicholas Brend, who was living in the parish 
of St. Mary Aldermanbury, where both Heminges and young 
Coudell were living, within a few doors of Shakespeare’s resi- 
dence at the corner of Monkwell and Silver streets. As every- 
body knew everybody else in the little parish, we may be sure 
that Heminges and Shakespeare were acquainted with the lawyer 
and large landowner, who, being a fellow after his own heart and 
head, and having accordingly married to suit himself secretly and 
contrary to his father’s wishes, had at first been disinherited but 
had finally, by the death of the elder Brend a few months before, 
just come into possession of a large inheritance. Brend was a 
member of the Inner Temple, and was most likely present at the 
Grays Inn performance of The Comedy of Errors by the Bur- 
bage-Shakespeare company, December 28, 1594, as one of the 
Templarians, who were invited and present in large numbers. 
The uninviting lay-stall in Southwark, which had only location 
to recommend it, was a part of Sir Nicholas Brend’s new pos- 
sessions, and it is quite likely that his near neighbors, Heminges 
and Shakespeare, or one of them, opened negotiations with him 
28 
