Excerpt from The Merchant of Venice It is interesting to note that, while John Shake speare was bailiff, two companies of actors, the Queen's and the Earl of Worcester's, visited Stratford. About 1577-78 John Shakespeare fell into financial difficulties, which seem to have gone from bad to worse, until he had lost his wife's property and his official dignities. He was sued in 1585-86 for debt, and it was found that he had no property that might be levied upon. It remained for the poet to restore the family to prosperity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.