Page:A life of William Shakespeare (IA lifeofwilliamsha02lees).pdf/24

The fourth 'new' contemporary reference is probably the most interesting of all.^[1] It concerns the dramatist in his declining years. In 1613 he had retired, as far as our existing knowledge goes, from professional life to enjoy a dignified repose in his native town of Stratford-on-Avon. The only facts hitherto assigned with absolute confidence by his biographers to that year are his purchase of a house near the theatre in Blackfriars, by a decd dated the 10th of March, and his mortgaging of a part of the property next day. To these pieces of documentary evidence, each of which bears Shakespeare's autograph signature, another of almost identical date, although of a different significance, is now to be added. On March 31, 1613, the steward of the sixth Earl of Rutland paid the dramatist the sum of 'forty-four shillings in gold,' for a semi-professional service. The circumstance is set forth in the Earl's account or household-books for the years 1612 and 1613, which are preserved at Belvoir Castle, and have been lately examined and described for the first time by Sir Henry Maxwell-Lyte, Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, and Mr. W. H. Stevenson, the his-