(F) Shakespeare’s deposition:[1]
William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwick, gentleman, of the age of forty-eight years or thereabouts, sworn and examined the day and year abovesaid [i.e. May 11, 1612], deposeth and saith:
1. To the first interrogatory this deponent saith he knoweth the parties plaintiff and defendant and hath known them both, as he now remembereth, for the space of ten years or thereabouts.
2. To the second interrogatory this deponent saith he did know the complainant when he was servant with the defendant, and that during the time of his the complainant’s service with the said defendant he the said complainant to this deponent’s knowledge did well and honestly behave himself, but to this deponent’s remembrance he hath not heard the defendant confess that he had got any great profit and commodity by the service of the said complainant; but this deponent saith he verily thinketh that the said complainant was a very good and industrious servant in the said service. And more he cannot depose to the said interrogatory.
3. To the third interrogatory this deponent saith that it did evidently appear that the said defendant did all the time of the said complainant’s service with him bear and show great good will and affection towards the said complainant, and that he hath heard the defendant and his wife divers and sundry times say and report that the said complainant was a very honest fellow. And this deponent saith that the said defendant did make a motion unto the complainant of
- ↑ See frontispiece for facsimile of this document. Abbreviated words have been expanded.
