Was Shakespeare the Renaissance "Scrooge"?

Question: Was Shakespeare the Renaissance "Scrooge"?

Answer: These days are dangerous:
Virtue is choked with foul ambition
And charity chased hence by rancour's hand.
"2 Henry VI" (3.1.140)

There are no records indicating Shakespeare gave anything to charities while he was alive, even though he was very wealthy in his later years. By the time he was in his early forties, Shakespeare owned a lavish ten-room estate called New Place, complete with orchards, barns, and gardens. He also owned his childhood home on Henley Street and 107 acres of land in Stratford.

The Bard did leave £10 (ten pounds) to the poor in his will (which is about equal to $5000 USD) but that is hardly enough to satisfy his critics. A recent biography on the Bard revolves around his seemingly miserly character. In "Ungentle Shakespeare", author Katherine Duncan-Jones asserts:

He founded no scholarships or alms-rooms, he set up no charitable foundation either for the poor of Stratford of for those of any parish in London. He hoarded supplies of grain and malt during a period of shortage, he repeatedly failed to pay parish dues in London, and back in Stratford towards the end of his life he refused to challenge a local landowner's plans to 'enclose' local farmland." (XI)

What a pity so many details of Shakespeare's life are lost to us. Maybe those missing records would reveal a philanthropic, misunderstood Shakespeare. Certainly we see his potential for great love and compassion in his works.