to-day) would be
Shakespeare's average annual revenue before 1599. Such a sum would be
regarded as a very large income in a country town. According to the
author of 'Ratseis Ghost,' the actor, who may well have been meant for
Shakespeare, practised in London a strict frugality, and there seems no
reason why Shakespeare should not have been able in 1597 to draw from his
savings 60 pounds wherewith to buy New Place. His resources might well
justify his fellow-townsmen's opinion of his wealth in 1598, and suffice
between 1597 and 1599 to meet his expenses, in rebuilding the house,
stocking the barns with grain, and conducting various legal proceedings.
But, according to tradition, he had in the Earl of Southampton a wealthy
and generous friend who on one occasion gave him a large gift of money to
enable 'him to go through with' a purchase to which he had a mind. A
munificent gift, added to professional gains, leaves nothing unaccounted
for in Shakespeare's financial position before 1599.

Financial position after 1599.

After 1599 his sources of income from the theatre greatly increased. In
1635 the heirs of the actor Richard Burbage were engaged in litigation
respecting their proprietary rights in the two playhouses, the Globe and
the Blackfriars theatres. The documents relating to this litigation
supply authentic, although not very detailed, information of
Shakespeare's interest in theatrical property. {200} Richard Burbage,
with his brother Cuthbert, erected at their sole cost the Globe Theatre
in the winter of 1598-9, and the Blackfriars Theatre, which their father
was building at the time of his death in 1597, was also their property.
After completing the Globe they leased out, for twenty-one years, shares
in the receipts of the theatre to 'those deserving men Shakespeare,
Hemings, Condell, Philips, and others.' All the shareholders named were,
like Burbage, active members of Shakespeare's company of players. The
shares, which numbered sixteen in all, carried with them the obligation
of providing for the expenses of the playhouse, and were doubtless in the
first instance freely bestowed. Hamlet claims, in the play scene (III.
ii. 293), that the success of his improvised tragedy deserved to get him
'a fellowship in a cry of players'--a proof that a successful dramatist
might reasonably expect such a reward for a conspicuous effort. In
'Hamlet,' moreover, both a share and a half-share of 'a fellowship i