In much tribulation do I write thee as to the contention which hath
arisen among our stock actors and supes of the Globe. Nicholas
Bottom, whom you brought from the Parish workhouse in Stratford, is
in ill humor with thee in especial. He says when he played with you
in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Every Man in his Humor," he was by far the
better actor and did receive the plaudits of all; despite which he
now receives but 6 shillings each week, while you are become a man
of great wealth, having gotten, as he verily believes, as much as
£100. Vainly did I oppose to him that the reason you had money when
he had none was in verity that you had labored when he was drunken,
and that this was to his profit, since, had not you and the other
holders of shares in the Globe saved somewhat of money, unthrifty
groundlings of his ilk would starve, as there would be none to hire
them at wages; but he avers that he is ground in the dust by the
greed of capital, and hath so much prated of this that he hath much
following, and accounteth himself a martyr. I said to him that at
your especial order he was paid 6 shillings per week, which was
double his worth, and that he should go elsewhere if he was not
content, as I could daily get a better man for half his wages; but
he will not go hence, nor will he perform, and has persuaded others
to join with him, his very worthlessness having made him their
leader, and they threaten, unless they may receive additional 4
shillings per week, and a groat each night for sack, they will have
no plays performed, nor will they allow others to be hired in their
stead. 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.