> Shakespeare made a living from the performances of his plays, not the written documents. But if there was no copyright, why did the Globe owners pay him at a

> Shakespeare made a living from the performances of his plays, not the written documents. But if there was no copyright, why did the Globe owners pay him at all? Just perform the old plays for free! He was payed for creating something new, copyright was worthless because we did not live off selling old works. Copyright couldn't help Shakespeare to create more or better plays anyway, he was limited by how much boot-licking the Queen was acceptable to the audience, and how many "obscene" stuff he could sneak in without angering the Queen or the Church.