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other persons, all of whom were of good social standing. The papers belong to a subsidiary or complemental stage of some litigation of which the full story is still to seek. The earliest of the three 'new' documents is dated April 26, 1615—one year lacking three days before the poet's death; it is 'a bill of complaint' or petition addressed to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Chancellor, by 'Willyam Shakespere gent' (jointly with Sir Thomas Bendish, baronet, Edward Newport and William Thoresbie, esquires, Robert Dormer, esquire, and Marie his wife and Richard Bacon, citizen of London); the Chancellor's 'orators' pray him to compel one Matthew Bacon to deliver up to them a number of 'letters patent, deeds, evidences, charters and writings,' which, it is alleged, are wrongfully detained by him and concern their title to various houses and lands 'within the precinct of Blackfriars in the City of London or county of Middlesex.' The second document, which is dated the 15th of May, is the answer of the defendant Matthew Bacon; he does not dispute the right of Shakespeare and the six other complainants to the property in question, and he admits that a collection of deeds came into his hands on the recent death of his mother; but he denies precise knowledge of their contents and all obligation to part with them. The final document, which is dated the 22nd of May, is the decree of the court directing the surrender of the papers to Sir