The next letter is dated the following month, and is from Henry Howard,
an apparent pawnbroker.
QUEER STREET, LONDON, 10 March, 1593.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Actor:
These presents are to warn you that the time has six days since
passed in which you were to repay me 8 shillings, and thereby
redeem the property in pledge to me; namely, one Henry VIII. shirt
of mail and visor, and Portia's law book, and the green bag
therefor. Be warned that unless the 8 shillings and the usance
thereof be forthcoming, the town-crier shall notify the sale of the
sundry articles named.
The next letter, and the last in this period of the poet's career
(1593), is from Mordecai Shylock.
FLEET STREET, NEAR THE SIGN OF THE HOG IN ARMOR, NOV. 22, 1593.
To WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
I have been active in the way you some days since besought me;
namely, the procuring for you of a loan of L5, that you might retire
a bill upon which you were a guarantor. As I then told you, I have
no money myself, being very poor; but I have a friend who has money
with which I can persuade him to relieve your wants. Had I myself
the money, I should gladly meet your needs at a moderate usance, not
more than twenty-five in the hundred; but my friend is a hard man,
who exacts large returns for his means, and will be very urgent that
repayment be made on the day named in the bill.
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