of L140. Shakespeare, however, at this raised price secured
it, leaving L60 of it on mortgage. The date of the conveyance deed is
March 10, 1613,[168] probably signed on the 11th, on which day it was
enrolled in the Court of Chancery. Besides the witnesses to this
document, there was present Henry Lawrence, the scrivener who had drawn
it up, who unfortunately lent his seal to the poet, which still exists,
bearing the initials "H. L."

Shakespeare is believed to have written two plays a year while he was a
shareholder. On June 29, 1613, the Globe Theatre was destroyed by fire
while the history of Henry VIII. was being enacted. Burbage, Hemings,
Condell, and the Fool were so long in leaving the theatre that the
spectators feared for their safety. It is not known whether this fire
would prove a loss to him. In June of that year a malicious piece of
gossip was circulating in Stratford against the good name of
Shakespeare's daughter, Susanna Hall. The rumour was traced to a man
called Lane, who was summoned to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court
at Worcester on July 15, 1613. He did not venture to appear, and he was
duly excommunicated for perjury.

It was the custom for the Corporation then to make complimentary
offerings of wine to those whom they wished to honour, and thus they
honoured an itinerant preacher, quartered at New Place, in the spring of
1614, with a quart of sack and another of claret, and this has been
supposed to prove that the poet had turned Puritan. John Combe, one of
the chief men of the neighbourhood, died in July, 1614, leaving
Shakespeare L5. Shakespeare would probably never receive it. The will,
dated January 28, 1612-13, was not proved till November, 1616. It is
clear, however, that these men were friendly at that time, and that the
mock elegy, attributed to Shakespeare, could not then have been written,
or, if written, was only laughed at. The Globe Theatre was rebuilt at
great cost that year. Chamberlain, writing to a lady in Venice, said: "I
hear much speech of this new playhouse, which is sayde to be the fayrest
that ever was in England" (June 30, 1614).

In the same year, William Combe, the new Squire of Welcombe, attempted
enclosure of some of the common fields, a design resisted by the
Corporation. This scheme materially affected Shakespeare through his
tithes, and much discussion has been waged over the true meaning of
the entries of his cousin, Thomas Green, the Town Clerk of
Stratf