They do further demand that you shall write shorter plays;
that you shall write no tragedies requiring them to labor more than
three hours in the rendition; that you shall cut out as much as
twelve pages each in "Richard III." and "Othello," and fifteen pages
from "Hamlet," that they may not labor to weariness, and may have
more hours to recreation and improvement at the alehouse. I know not
what to do. If I yield them their demands, nothing will be left for
the owners of shares in the Globe; and if I do not, I fear mobs and
riots. Fain would I receive thy counsel, which shall have good
heed.
The next letter is the last in the period under review, and bears date
four days later than the one just quoted from William Kempe.
AT THE ELEPHANT & MAGPIE INN, LONDON, May 29, 1602.
TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
This is written to thee by John Lely, a clerk, in behalf of Nicholas
Bottom, who useth not the pen, and who says to me to tell William
Shakespeare, fie upon him that he did order the aforesaid Bottom to
be locked out of the Globe Playhouse. Hath he forgotten the first
play he, William Shakespeare, did ever write, to wit, "Pyramus and
Thisbe," when a boy at Stratford, which was played by himself and
Nicholas Bottom and Peter Quince and others, in a barn, for the
delectation of the townsmen? And is not this same play a part of his
"Midsummer Night's Dream," which beggarly play he did sell for L10,
and hath not Nicholas Bottom first and always been an ass therein?
Doth he refuse to render to Nicholas Bottom 10 shillings per week
when he can get L10 or even L11 for a beggarly play, which is nought
unless it be acted? Many a time hath he paid me from a sponging
house; often hath he given me groats for sack, and for purges when
sack hath undone me; and did I ever insult him to offer to repay him
a penny? Say to him, remembereth he not when the horses ridden by
Duncan and Macbeth upon the stage did break through the floor, who,
affrighted, did run howling away, whereby Burbage was aroused and
did pick him, William Shakespeare, from among the horses' feet and
save his life? And now, sweet Will, fie upon thee that thou didst
frown upon thy townsman.
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