The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard, an apparent pawnbroker.
QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:
These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the sundry articles named.
The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career (1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.
FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
I have been active in the way you some days since besought me; namely, the procuring for you of a loan of £5, that you might retire a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man, who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that repayment be made on the day named in the bill. He hath empowered me to take your bill at two months,—for him, mind you,—for £10, the payment to be assured, as you wished, by the pledge of your two new plays in manuscript,—"Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Romeo and Juliet,"—for which bill he will at my strong instance, and because you are a friend to me, give £5. My charge for services in this behalf, which hath consumed much time, will be £1, which I shall straightway pay out in the purchase of a new gown, much needed by my little daughter Jessica, who loves you and recalls often the pleasant tales you do repeat for her diversion.
The letters in the second period (1602) are nine years later than those just read. The first is from the same Mordecai Shylock, who, with the poet, seems to have prospered in worldly affairs, as his letters are dated in a more reputable portion of the city.
THREADNEEDLE STREET, LONDON, April 17, 1602.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
In January last past you purchased of Richard Burbage four shares of the stock of the Globe Theatre for £100, and inasmuch as you had not available the whole means to pay therefor, borrowed from me the £60 wanting, paying yourself £40 of such purchase price, and giving me in pledge for my £60 such four shares of stock. Owing to special attractions at Blackfriars' Theatre, the stock of the Globe hath greatly declined in value, and I fear these four shares may not longer be salable at the price of even £60, and I therefore must importune that you forthwith do make a payment of £20 on your said bill, or the four shares of stock will be sold at public vendue.
The next letter is from the same writer, and is dated nine days later.
THREADNEEDLE STREET, April 26, 1602.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
I acknowledge to have received from you by the hand of Henry Condell £5, and two of your own shares in the stock of the Globe Theatre in further pledge of your bill of £60, as was engaged between us yesterday. It pains me to make known to you that, owing to the great demands recently made upon the goldsmiths by her sacred Majesty, money hath become very dear; and as it was not my own lent you, I have been obliged to pay above the usance expected a further premium of seventeen in the hundred, which I pray you to presently repay me. I am told that shares in the Globe can now be bought at £15; and inasmuch as yours were bought at £25, should you acquire other shares at £15, it would serve to equate your havings.
The next letter, from the same broker, is written but a few days later.
THREADNEEDLE STREET, May 12, 1602.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
Acting as requested by you, I did one week ago buy for you three shares in the Globe Theatre for £15 each, using in such purchase the £15 given me by you, and £30, not of mine own, but which was furnished me by a goldsmith of repute. Yesterday I learned that shares were offered at £10 each, perchance from the efforts of forestallers, as also from the preaching of a dissenter, who fulminates that the end of the world is but three weeks away, which hath induced great seriousness among the people. Unless you can pay me, therefore, as much as £40, on the morrow I shall be constrained to offer such shares to the highest bidder at the meeting of the guild.