" This manifestly refers to two things, one that Shakespeare when
he bought New Place, quitted London and ceased to act; the other that he
continually tried to exact more and more "blackmail" from those to whom
he had sold his name.
Now we begin at last to understand what we are told by Rowe, in his
"Life of Shakespeare," published in 1709, that is, 93 years after
Shakespeare's death in 1616, when all traces of the actual man had been
of set purpose obliterated, because the time for revealing the real
authorship of the plays had not yet come. Rowe, page x., tells us:
"There is one Instance so singular in the Magnificence of this Patron of
Shakespeare's, that if I had not been assur'd that the Story was handed
down by Sir William D'Avenant, who was probably very well acquainted
with his Affairs, I should not have ventured to have inserted, that my
Lord Southampton, at one time, gave him a thousand Pounds, to enable him
to go through with a Purchase which he heard he had a mind to."
This story has been hopelessly misunderstood, because people did not
know that a large sum had to be paid to Shakespeare to obtain his
consent to allow his name to be put to the plays, and that New Place had
to be purchased for him, 1597 (the title deeds were not given to him for
five or six years later), and that he had also to be sent away from
London before "W Shakespeare's" name was attached to any play, the first
play bearing that name being, as we have already pointed out, page 89,
"Loues Labor's lost," with its very numerous revelations of authorship.
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