Both of the letters to Shakespeare have disappeared; that to Mainwaring has been preserved.
For the corporation did not take the proposal easily. Even in the present they would lose, and in the future, when Barker’s lease fell in, they would lose very much more, for the composition made with the leaseholders was personal, and would not descend to them. In the midst of the heavy losses caused by the recent fires, the danger assumed large proportions in the eyes of those who had sworn to do their best in trust for the town. They resisted it determinedly, and were finally successful. Thomas Greene, their clerk, proved a faithful and energetic official, yet he too was tempted. He did not seem to have been told at the time, but he records in his Diary:
9 Ja: [1614.] Mr. Replyngham 28th October, articled with Mr. Shakspeare, and then I was put in by T. Lucas,
who drew up the articles.
On Wednesday, being the 11th day [January.] At night Mr. Replingham supped with me, and Mr. W. Barnes was to beare him company, where he assured me before Mr. Barnes that I should be well dealt withall, confessyng former promisses by himself, Mr. Manyryng, and his agreement for me with my Cosen Shakspeare.
Yet during the whole of the struggle Thomas Greene honestly threw himself into the duties of defending the rights of the town which had reposed trust in him, “and was much excepted to for his opposition” by the other side. It is probable that Shakespeare was in the same position.
Now we come to the last entry of his name. It is known to all Shakespeareans that Dr. C. M. Ingleby was so interested in this that he had a photographic facsimile made of Greene’s Diary; had it transcribed by Dr. Edward Scott, wrote an Introduction and Appendix himself, and published these in a thin folio.
I referred to the copy at the British Museum to save going down to Stratford to check my former notes made at the Record Office there. After a great deal of time spent through an unexpected confusion I found in it, I was forced to make a careful comparison, line by line, between the facsimile and the transcript. At first this did not clear up my difficulty; but, on my going through a second time, referring to the dates alone, the cause of the confusion flashed on me: one of the pages of Greene’s Diary had been placed out of order in the facsimile, and Dr. Scott, who was supposed to have worked from the original, must have followed the facsimile. I went down to check the original last month, and to see if there was anything to account for the mistake. But there was nothing. The four leaves are written down one side and up another, making in all eight pages. It could only be the photographer’s blunder by misnumbering the pages. Page seven should be read as page six, and the dates then read consecutively. My difficulty had lain in the fact that the year 1615 was made to have had two springs. My re-arrangement, which has been noted and initialed by Mr. Barwick in the Museum copy, restores order. But this late correction does not put right the blunder based on it by Dr. Ingleby, who says (p. vi, Introduction) that this entry “records, five months after the death of Shakespeare, the statement of Shakespeare himself.” Now this statement was not recorded five months after, but seven months before, the poet’s death.
Two other important points must be noted concerning this entry: first, that though it was somewhat crowded in, it was intended to be read straight on; and second, that the memorandum of a man’s death was associated with it, and has some relation to it. As it is written, it should be read:
14 Aug. 1615. Mr. Barker [?] died.