Three London Theatres of Shakespeare's Time 9 



of the profits, and 50.?. yearly for one-seventh of the rent of the 

 theatre of the Red Bull. Woodford claims that the profits on 

 one share or seventh part amounted yearly to about 30 1. Ap- 

 proximately three months after his purchase, Woodford went 

 beyond the seas, and left the business of the Red Bull in the 

 hands of his agent, Anthony Paine, and Holland. During his 

 absence, Paine, he says, failed once to pay the rent on the day 

 it was due. whereupon Holland claimed forfeiture of the share. 

 So, when Woodford a few months later, in 161 3, returned, fail- 

 ing to agree with Holland in an equitable settlement, he brought 

 suit against him in the Court of Requests. He asks full restitu- 

 tion of his share, as well as the position of gatherer attached to 

 it, and the profits, which he estimates at about 30 /. yearly. 



The documents themselves best tell the long, hard fight in dif- 

 ferent suits and courts for a period of nine years to establish 

 what Woodford believed to be his rights. In the main, the Court 

 of Requests sustained Woodford, and the Kings Bench overruled 

 both him and the Court of Requests. Had it not been for the 

 bitter feeling of these two courts toward each other, this case and 

 many another would have been settled shortly. To a student of 

 the English judicature in one of its most visible and rapid periods 

 of evolution, with Sir Edward Coke on one side and Sir Julius 

 Caesar on the other, this case is highly instructive merely from 

 the legal point of view. But the Smith-Beeston case is illuminat- 

 ing in showing how even the parties summoned were affected by 

 the war of the courts in their contempt for the judicial authority 

 of the Court of Requests. I shall later present another in which 

 the contempt becomes comical. 



The market value of a share in the Red Bull and its profits 

 furnishes a new basis for estimating the incomes of theatrical 

 shareholders. The Osteler-Hemynges documents, just referred 

 to, estimate the annual profits of one-fourteenth of the Globe at 

 300/., and one-seventh of the Blackfriars at 300/. But I have 

 previously pointed out that this is an excessive estimate and can- 

 not be taken as a proper basis. I am publishing still other docu- 

 ments which show a very conservative and quite accurate esti- 

 mate of the profits in the Globe. As I deal there with the present 



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