witness was the Robert Miles on whose statements this narrative has already drawn. He was not of unimpeachable reputation. His long association with Brayne had ended in a quarrel. Brayne had 'charged Miles with his deathe, by certaine stripes geven him by Miles'. The widow had accused him before the coroner and procured his indictment as 'a comon barreter'. Afterwards they had become friends, and he was now maintaining Mrs. Brayne in her suit.[1] Much of his evidence, however, received corroboration from his son Ralph, from William Nicoll, a notary who had prepared the deeds connected with the partnership, and from Edward Collins, who had acquired Brayne's grocery business in Bucklersbury. Burbadge, on the other hand, relied largely on one Henry Bett, who had had an opportunity of perusing Mrs. Brayne's papers, and had then transferred his services to the other side. We cannot perhaps assume that all the evidence in the cross-suits is preserved. So far as what we have goes, there seems to have been no attempt on Burbadge's part to defend himself against the charge of indirect dealing during the early years of partnership. Nor were the main facts as to the history of the lease much in dispute. The chief issue was as to Mrs. Brayne's equitable claim to an interest in it, and this of course turned largely on the state of the account between Brayne and Burbadge at the death of the former. Miles asserted that the expenditure on the building of the Theatre in cash and credit had been practically all Brayne's, that he had started as a rich man, but had had to sell his lease and stock in Bucklersbury and pawn his own wardrobe and his wife's to get the work finished, that he was ruined, and that Mrs. Brayne was now 'vtterlye vndone' by the suit, and owed 500 marks to her friends.[2] On the other side it was claimed that Brayne's wealth, variously reputed at from £500 to £1,000, had been exaggerated, that he was already involved when he took the Theatre in hand, and that his downfall was largely due to unfortunate investments outside the partnership, especially in a soap-making business carried on with Miles at the George, where in fact Burbadge had incurred losses in helping him.[3] Bett, moreover, said that, while Brayne 'would never plainlie declare' what his profits on the Theatre had been, 'yt seemed by his taulke, that he had gayned and receyved a grete deale of monye, more than he had disbursed'.[4] The actual figures produced in the course
Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 2).pdf/410
This page needs to be proofread.
