Shakespeare and his London Associates 47 



of one-seventh in the Red Bull, as presented in the new docu- 

 ments published in the Studies, October, 1909, and with another 

 similar amount of about 33 /. to 53 /. on one-sixth of the Black- 

 friars just before Shakespeare's company in 1608 took the lease 

 of that theatre. Other evidence also is available, rendering it 

 now possible to make a first tentative study of Shakespeare's 

 income on the basis of historical facts. The large fancy hitherto 

 exhibited, through which it has been romantically guessed out 

 that Shakespeare's income from his share in the Globe was 500 /. 

 to 600 /. a year was a pretty fancy, which must now for all time 

 be yielded up, even with pangs of regret to those who have built 

 Shakespearean reputations on a collection of similar romantic in- 

 ferences that pass current for fact in popular biographies of the 

 Poet. 



It is not my present purpose to analyze nor even to suggest 

 lines of analysis of these documents. They will tell various 

 stories to various interpreters according to the information, bent, 

 and analytic power brought to the study of them. 



[1-10] 



WITTER VS. HEMINGES AND CONDELL. 



Court of Requests Proceedings, James I, Uncalendared. Case 

 of John Witter vs. John Heminges and Henry Condell. (Recently 

 withdrawn from circulation and now preserved separately.) 



[Thres large skins, consisting of Bill, 21 X 17; Answer, 26X26; and 

 Replication, 26 X 26. Fairly well preserved. Ink generally clear, but in 

 some places partly or wholly gone, leaving its impress in the parchment 

 which can still be read with good light and a strong magnifying glass.] 



[I] 

 BILL. 



[In dorso] xx° die Aprilis Anno Rcgni Regis Jacobi 

 Angliae ffranda<? et Hibcmiae xvij° et Scotiae lij do ./ 



307 



