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You're splitting hairs. If Shakespeare didn't write 'em for the money then what did he write 'em for? The practice of digital copying for free is similar to making old Will write the plays and put them on for free. And the upshot will be the same. No plays. And no Will.

I have, of course, read Boswell. And what I read in Boswell described a professional writer constantly struggling to get paid for his labors, often unsuccessfully. His contemporary Gibbon was stuck with producing one of the great works of the English language at the behest of a patron who, thank heaven, stayed with Gibbon despite his teasing "another damned thick, square, book - always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Mr. Gibbon?" Would you go back to that system? We don't have many patrons these days...

Patrons have been replaced by the tenure system. Destroy the writer's ability to support his family by writing and you'll end up with nothing but novels about the angst-filled lives of middle-aged creative writing professors at small liberal arts colleges who are wallowing in their own existential meaninglessness and contemplating an affair with a hot 19-year-old in their sophomore lit class.

If Shakespeare didn't write 'em for the money then what did he write 'em for?

The best insight we have into Shakespeare's personality is his works. I think he genuinely enjoyed the stage and show business - "All the world's a stage" is not just a remarkably apt metaphor for the human consition, but for Shakespeare's mental world as well.

He wrote for the joy of making his words come to life on that stage. If he'd made a million gold guineas for the Comedy of Errors he'd still have written The Tempest just to see it played.

And what I read in Boswell described a professional writer constantly struggling to get paid for his labors, often unsuccessfully.

I agree - but I do not see a man who writes merely for remuneration.

Would you go back to that system? We don't have many patrons these days...

The current system has produced a ton of embarrassingly unreadable garbage - a guaranteed press run of 1 million copies for Hillary Clinton's memoirs?

Patronage by publishing house isn't any nobler than patronage by noble.

I'll say it again: