Sept. W. Shakspeares tellyng J. Greene that I was not able to beare the encloseinge of Welcombe.
5 Sept. his sendyng James for the executours of Mr. Barker [?] to agree as ys said with them for Mr. Barker’s [?] interest.
The subject of the old and only discussion about this was, Did the “I” refer to Shakespeare or to Greene? It is unlike the other letters of the first person generally used by Greene, but he does occasionally use that form as a capital. It could not be a mistake for “he” in writing; but it might be so in thought and word, as Greene’s style is very elliptical and careless in the Diary. The argument put forward by Dr. Ingleby was, Why should Shakespeare tell one brother what another said, as he was likely to know it, and why think this fact important enough to be recorded, unless it was a report that Shakespeare could not bear the enclosing of Welcombe? This is perfectly reasonable, but it may have been that gossip had said that Thomas Greene served the corporation when he gave them advice and wrote their letters, but that he naturally was friendly with the enclosers, and likely to benefit by the enclosure. It might be but a note of pleased surprise of Thomas Greene’s to find that the poet had read his honest heart better than his more worldly-minded brother had done.
But the new point I wish to add is that on 14th August there is the record of the death of an inhabitant, and the note for 5th September clearly carries on Shakespeare as the subject, and shows that he it was who sent for the executors to agree with them for the interest of the defunct. I wish I could accept Dr. Scott’s rendering, and read it as “Mr. Barker,” for the meaning would then be straight and clear—that, seeing Shakespeare had had so much trouble over that reserved rent of Mr. Barker for £27 13s. 4d. on the lease of the tithes, etc., he was about to buy this up and set his estate free from any future danger. But alas! on referring to the Stratford Burial Register I find the entry on the day after, 15 August 1615: “Burial. Mr. Thomas Barbor, gent.” I have had the entry tested by an expert, who assures me there can be no mistake there.
I referred to the baptisms, and found there were two children born to “Thomas Barbor, gent., of Shottery,” within a year or two before; and that five days before the burial of Thomas Barbor was entered the “Burial of Joane, wife of Thomas Barbor, gent.” So I am driven back to the earlier pages of original, and there I find, on
7th April, 1615, being Goodfryday, Mr. Barber commyng to Colledge to Mr. T. Combe about a debt he stood surety for Mris Quyney, W. Combe willed his brother to shew Mr. Barber noe favour, and threatned him that he should be served upp to London within a fortnight (and so yt fell out).
This is also rendered in the transcript as “Barker,” but is clearly “Barber” in the original, and it seems to me that the action here recorded broke Mr. Barber’s fortunes and health, his wife died, and he followed, and that William Shakespeare, still willing to invest in “an odd yard land at Shottery,” sent for the executors, to do what he could for the deceased and his children as well as for Mrs. Quyney, whose unlucky debt was the cause of Mr. Barber’s distress and ruin. Coming back from the registers and miscellaneous documents of Stratford-on-Avon, we must therefore read the name as “Barber,” and not as “Barker,” however like it may be. Mr. Barber had done some important work for the corporation previously, and may have been an attorney.[20]
It had always been a matter of surprise to me that Thomas Greene, who mentioned the death of Mr. Barber, did not mention the death of Shakespeare. Perhaps there was no need for him to make a memorandum of an event so important to the town and himself. He goes on in his dates regularly till he comes to the spring of 1616. Then he notes:
At Warwick Assises in Lent 1615-1616 my Lord Chief Justice willed him [i.e., W. Combe] to sett his heart at rest he should neyther enclose nor lay downe any earrable, nor plowe any auncient greensward.
And the last words which fell on Shakespeare’s ears were the news that his judgment was right, and “that nothing should be done.”