to
shoot at, and would do us much good.' Richard Quiney, another townsman,
father of Thomas (afterwards one of Shakespeare's two sons-in-law), was,
in the autumn of the same year, harassed by debt, and on October 25
appealed to Shakespeare for a loan of money. 'Loving countryman,' the
application ran, 'I am bold of you as of a friend craving your help with
xxx_li_.' Quiney was staying at the Bell Inn in Carter Lane, London, and
his main business in the metropolis was to procure exemption for the town
of Stratford from the payment of a subsidy. Abraham Sturley, writing to
Quiney from Stratford ten days later (on November 4, 1598), pointed out
to him that since the town was wholly unable, in consequence of the
dearth of corn, to pay the tax, he hoped 'that our countryman, Mr. Wm.
Shak., would procure us money, which I will like of, as I shall hear when
and where, and how.'

Financial position before 1599.

The financial prosperity to which this correspondence and the
transactions immediately preceding it point has been treated as one of
the chief mysteries of Shakespeare's career, but the difficulties are
gratuitous. There is practically nothing in Shakespeare's financial
position that a study of the contemporary conditions of theatrical life
does not fully explain. It was not until 1599, when the Globe Theatre
was built, that he acquired any share in the profits of a playhouse. But
his revenues as a successful dramatist and actor were by no means
contemptible at an earlier date. His gains in the capacity of dramatist
formed the smaller source of income. The highest price known to have
been paid before 1599 to an author for a play by the manager of an acting
company was 11 pounds; 6 pounds was the lowest rate. {197a} A small
additional gratuity--rarely apparently exceeding ten shillings--was
bestowed on a dramatist whose piece on its first production was
especially well received; and the author was by custom allotted, by way
of 'benefit,' a certain proportion of the receipts of the theatre on the
production of a play for the second time. {197b} Other sums, amounting
at times to as much as 4 pounds, were bestowed on the author for revising
and altering an old play for a revival. The nineteen plays which may be
set to Shakespeare's credit between 1591 and 1599, combined with such
revising work as fell to his lot during those eight years, cannot
consequently have brought him less than 200 pounds, or some