E

From Wilkinson's _Theatrum Illustrata_ (1825). This site is still
advocated by some scholars. Compare page 245.]

In 1623 Heminges and Condell, with great "care and paine," collected
and published the plays of Shakespeare, "onely to keep the memory of
so worthy a Friend and Fellow alive"; and shortly after, they too
died, Condell in 1627 and Heminges in 1630.

After the passing of this group of men, whose names are so familiar to
us, the history of the playhouse seems less important, and may be
chronicled briefly.

When young Matthew Brend came of age he recovered possession of the
Globe property by a decree of the Court of Wards. Apparently he
accepted the lease executed by his uncle and guardian, Bodley, by
which the actors were to remain in possession of the Globe until
December 25, 1635; but in 1633 he sought to cancel the lease he
himself had executed as a minor, by which the actors were to remain in
possession until 1644. His purpose in thus seeking to gain possession
of the Globe was to lease it to other actors at a material increase in
his profits.[424] Naturally the owners of the Globe were alarmed, and
they brought suit in the Court of Requests. In 1635, one of the
sharers, John Shanks, declares that he "is without any hope to renew"
the lease; and he refers thus to the suit against Brend: "When your
suppliant purchased his parts [in 1634] he had no certainty thereof
more than for one year in the Globe, and there was a chargeable suit
then pending in the Court of Requests between Sir Mathew Brend,
Knight, and the lessees of the Globe and their assigns, for the adding
of nine years to their lease in consideration that their predecessors
had formerly been at the charge of L1400 in building of the said
house."[425] The lessees ultimately won their contention, and thus
secured the right to occupy the Globe until December 25, 1644--a term
which, as it happened, was quite long enough, for the Puritans closed
all playhouses in 1642.

[Footnote 424: Wallace, "Shakespeare and the Globe," in the London
_Times_, April 30 and May 1, 1914.]

[Footnote 425: The Petition of the Young Actors, printed by
Halliwell-Phillipps, _Outlines_, I, 312. Mrs. Stopes, in _Burbage and
Shakespeare's Stage_, p. 129, refers to a record of the suit mentioned
by Shanks, dated February 6, 1634.]

What disposition, if any, the sharers made of the Globe between 1642
and 1644 we do not know. But before the lease expired, it seems, Bren