Page:A life of William Shakespeare (IA lifeofwilliamsha02lees).pdf/18

But there was nothing in that paper to identify this defaulter with the dramatist, who, according to other information, was living at the time in Southwark. A newly discovered entry in the Subsidy Rolls, dated November 15, 1597, now proves that the same William Shakespeare was returned at an earlier period, in October 1596, as a defaulter for another, and a smaller, tax of 5s., which had also been levied on his goods in St. Helen's. The 'new' record bears, moreover, an annotation, of a little later date, to the effect that the defaulter had removed from Bishopsgate to the Liberty of the Clink in Southwark, of which the supreme landlord was the Bishop of Winchester. The Bishopsgate levy of October 1596, as well as that of October 1598, is now shown, moreover, to have been based on an assessment made as early as 1593 or 1594. Payment was obviously sought at the later dates in ignorance of the fact that Shakespeare had by that time left St. Helen's long since for South London. It would seem from the 'new' evidence that the attention of the Bishop of Winchester's officials was directed to the default by the Bishopsgate tax-collector, and that through them Shakespeare, with great magnanimity, ultimately paid, after he had crossed the Thames, all that was claimed in respect of his Bishopsgate lodging.^[1] There has never been any question that