The N cwly-D isc overed Shakespeare Documents 5 



inal records and abstract in one. Of course when an original 

 tract was split up into perhaps a dozen parcels, it was not pos- 

 sible to split the original documents also, nor divide them out 

 to individual owners. Hence the custom, exhibited in the present 

 documents, of several owners entrusting the original "letters 

 patent, charters," etc., to one and the same person, — probably 

 the largest owner. And hence also such a community suit as 

 the present one. It is likewise clear, therefore, that even if all 

 these records could be found, they would yield no evidence per- 

 taining to Shakespeare personally, and certainly no signature 

 of his. They should simply give definite and final locations. 



Ancient wills seem to offer the only definite starting point. 

 If found, they should enable us to get at the history of the per- 

 sons involved in the suit and possibly thus determine what, if 

 any, further relations existed between Shakespeare and the rest. 

 They might also help locate the properties, — a goal hardly allur- 

 ing enough in itself for long search. The identity of Sir Thomas 

 Bendish is already fixed by his title of "Baronet." He was an 

 Essex man of wealth and influence, and was the twenty-second 

 person raised by James I. to a baronetcy soon after the estab- 

 lishment of that order in 161 1. His son, also a Sir Thomas, was 

 one of the chief partisans of Charles I. The other names — 

 particularly Robert Dormer, the Bacons, and the Blackwells — 

 are met with often in other documents, but without identifying 

 or other helpful evidence. The titles "Esq." and "gent" are too 

 general to be of aid. 



Since the announcement and publication of the documents in 

 The Standard, numerous reviewers in their enthusiasm have 

 been over-generous in their hopes and expectations of unexplored 

 Shakespeare mines in the Public Record Office and elsewhere, 

 with a possible complete diary by Ben Jonson or other intimate 

 friend. It seems also quite generally believed that we know very 

 little about Shakespeare. The truth is, the hundred seventy-five 

 or more evidences on which his biography rests give us more 

 information than we possess concerning most of his contem- 

 porary dramatists. Also even the information in the present 

 discovery, meager as it is, exceeds the total sum of knowledge 

 concerning certain of his minor fellow writers and players. 



351 



