In September following, a copyhold house in Walker-street, near New Place, was surrendered to him by Walter Getley.  This property was held under the manor of Rowington:  the transfer took place at the court-baron of the manor; and it appears that the Poet was not present at the time; there being a proviso, that the property should remain in the hands of the Lady of the manor till the purchaser had done suit and service in the court.  One Philip Rogers, it seems, had several times bought malt of Shakespeare to the amount of L1 15s. 10d.; and in 1604 the Poet, not being able to get payment, filed in the Stratford Court of Record a declaration of suit against him; which probably had the desired effect, as nothing more is heard of it.  This item is interesting, as it shows the Poet engaged in other pursuits than those relating to the stage.  We have seen how, in 1598, Alderman Sturly was for “moving him to deal in the matter of our tithes.”  This was a matter wherein much depended on good management; and, as the town had a yearly rent from the tithes, it was for the public interest to have them managed well; and the moving of Shakespeare to deal in the matter sprang most likely from confidence in his practical judgment and skill.  The tithes of “corn, grain, blade, and hay,” and also those of “wool, lamb, hemp, flax, and other small and privy tithes,” in Stratford, Old Stratford, Welcombe, and Bishopton, had been leased in 1544 for the term of ninety-two years.  In July, 1605, the unexpired term of the lease, thirty-one years, was bought in by Shakespeare for the sum of L440.  In the indenture of conveyance, he is styled “William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Gentleman.”

These notices enable us to form some tolerable conjecture as to how the Poet was getting on at the age of forty.  Such details of business may not seem very appropriate in a Life of the greatest of poets; but we have clear evidence that he took a lively interest in them, and was a good hand at managing them.  He had learned by experience, no doubt, that “money is a good soldier, and will on”; and that “if money go before, all ways do lie open.”  And the thing carries this benefit, if no other, that it tells us a man may be something of a poet without being either above or below the common affairs of life.

A pretty careful investigation of the matter has brought good judges to the conclusion, that in 1608 the Poet’s income could not have been less than L400 a year.  This, for all practical purposes, would be equivalent to some $12,000 in our time.  The Rev. John Ward, who became vicar of Stratford in 1662, noted in his Diary, that Shakespeare, after his retirement, “had an allowance so large that he spent at the rate of L1,000 a year, as I have heard.”  The honest and cautious man did well to add, “as I have heard.”  That the Poet kept up a liberal establishment, and was fond of entertaining his neighbours, and still more his old associates, we can well believe; but that he had L1,000 a year to spend, or would have spent it if he had, is not credible.