Shortly after his purchase of New Place, the poet found himself in a better position than ever for increasing his property and gratifying his passion for real estate. Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, sons of that James Burbage who owned "The Theatre" in which the poet is said to have been a servitor, had built the "Globe Theatre" on Bankside. It was an octagonal wooden building, in which Shakespeare's company was to be seen year after year; the poet refers to it in the opening part of "Henry V." The two brothers, from motives of prudence or generosity or both issued twenty-one-year leases of shares in the profits of the venture. Shakespeare had a share; so had Condell and Phillips and others of the company; and later the poet acquired an interest in the "Blackfriar's Theatre." Each share was proved, in the course of long subsequent litigation, to have been worth two hundred pounds a year. Setting down the poet's salary at a like amount, and his author's fees at about a hundred, we find that he must have been worth nearly L4000 a year, in our modern currency, from the time when he bought New Place to the year of his retirement. "The Globe" was burnt down in 1613 during a performance of "Henry VIII.," and was rebuilt a year later, but before the disaster occurred Shakespeare's financial position had long been assured, and it is unlikely that he held his shares when the theatre suffered. There is a story, unauthenticated but seemingly credited by many good judges, to the effect that at a moment when Shakespeare was desirous of making investments either in Stratford or London, his friend and patron Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, came very generously to his assistance. CHAPTER XII THE POET'S DOMESTIC LIFE