" The humblest scene-shifter could play
this character, as we shall shew later. What about being manager of a
Theatre? Shakspeare never was manager of a Theatre. What about being
master of a Shakespeare company of actors? There never existed a
Shakespeare company of actors. What about ownership of a Theatre? Dr.
Wallace, says in the _Times_ of Oct. 2nd 1909, that at the time of his
death Shakespeare owned one fourteenth of the Globe Theatre, and
one-seventh of the Blackfriars Theatre. The profit of each of these was
probably exceedingly small. The pleadings, put forth the present value
at L300 each, but as a broad rule, pleadings always used to set forth at
least ten times the actual facts. In the first case which the writer
remembers witnessing in Court, the pleadings were 100 oxen, 100 cows,
100 calves, 100 sheep, and 100 pigs, the real matter in dispute being
one cow and perhaps one calf. If we assume, therefore, that the total
capital value of the holding of W. Shakespeare in both theatres taken
together amounted to L60 in all, we shall probably, even then,
considerably over-estimate their real worth. Now having disposed of the
notion that Shakespeare was ever an important actor, was ever a manager
of a Theatre, was ever the master of a company of actors, or was ever
the owner of any Theatre, let us consider what Rowe means by the
statement that the top of his performance was the Ghost in "Hamlet.
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