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MENA.

VOL. I. theatres was a winter, and the other a fummer house. As PROLEGO- the Globe was partly exposed to the weather, and they acted there ufually by day-light, it was probably the fummer theatre. The exhibitions here seem to have been more fiequent than at Black-friars, at least till the year 1604 or 1605, when the Bank-fide appears to have become less fashionable, and lefs frequented than it formerly had been 3.

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Many of our ancient dramatic pieces were performed in the yards of carriers' inns, in which, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, the comedians, who then firft united themfelves in companies, erected an occafional ftage . The form of thefe temporary play-houtes feems to be preferved in our modern theatre. The galleries are, in both, ranged over each other on three fides of the building. The fmall rooms under the lowest of these galleries, answer to our prefent boxes; and it is obfervable that thefe even in theatres which were built in a fubfequent period exprefsly for dramatic exhibitions, ftill retained their old name, and are frequently called rooms by our ancient writers. The yard bears a fufficient refemblance to the pit, as at prefent in ufe. We may fuppofe the flage to have been raised in this area, on the fourth fide, with its back to the gateway of the inn, at which the money for admiffion was taken. Thus, in fine weather, a play-house not incommodious might have been formed.

Hence, in the middle of the Globe, and I fuppofe of the other public theatres, in the time of Shakspeare, there was an

NOTES.

King Lear, in the title page of the original edition, printed in 1608, is faid to have been performed by his majesty's fervants, playing ufually at the Globe on the Bankfide.-Sce alfo the licence granted by king James in 1603: "--and the faid comedies, tragedies, &c.-to fhew-as well within their now ufual houfe called the Globe-"

• See The Works of Taylor the water-pect, p. 171. edit. 1633Fleckno, in his Short Difcourfe of the English Stage, published in 166, fays, fome remains of thefe ancient theatres were at that day to be feen in the inn-yards of the Cross-keys in Gracechurch Street, and the Bull in Bishopsgate Street.

In the feventeen play-houfes erected between the years 1570 and 1629, the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle reckons "five innes or common offeryes turned into play-houses."

open

open yard or area", where the common people ftood to fee VOL. I. the exhibition; from which circumftance they are called by PROLEGOour author groundlings, and by Ben Jonfon," the under- MENA. fanding gentlemen of the ground."

In the ancient play-houfes there appears to have been a private box; of which it is not easy to ascertain the fituation. It feems to have been placed at the fide of the flage, towards the rear, and to have been at a lower price; in this fome people fat, either from ceconomy or fingularity. The galleries or fcaffolds, as they are fometimes called,

NOTES.

"In the play-houfes at London, it is the fashion of youthes to go first into the yarde, and to carry their eye through every gallery; then like unto ravens, when they spye the carion, thither they flye, and prefs as near to the fairest as they can." Plays Confuted, in Five Several Actions, by Stephen Goffon, 1579. Again, in Decker's Gul's Horn-book, 1609: "The stage, like time, will bring you to most perfect light, and lay you open; neither are you to be hunted from thence, though the feare-crowes in the yard hoot you, hifs at you, fpit at you." So, in the prologue to an old comedy called The Hog has loft his Pearl, 1611:

"We may be pelted off for what we know

"With apples, eggs, or ftones, from those below." See alfo the prologue to The Doubtful Heir, ante p. 7: and what you most delight in,

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"Grave underftanders,

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"Whether therefore the gatherers of the publique or private play-house ftand to receive the afternoon's rent, let our gallant, having paid it, presently advance himself to the throne of the stage. I mean not into the lords' roome, which is now but the fage's fuburbs. No, those boxes,-by the iniquity of custom, confpiracy of waiting-women, and gentlemen-ufhers, that there fweat together, and the covetous fharers-are contemptibly thrust into the reare, and much new fatten is there dambd, by being fmother'd to death in darkness." Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609. So, in the prologue to Maflinger's City-Madam : "The private box took up at a new play "For me and my retinue; a fresh habit "Of a fashion never seen before, to draw "The gallants' eyes that fit upon the stage."

See alfo, Epigrams, by Sir John Davis, no date, but printed at Middleburg, about 1598:

"Rufus the courtier at the theatre,

"Leaving the best and most confpicuous placé,

"Doth

MENA.

VOL. I. called, and that part of the house, which in private theatres PROLEGO- was named the pit, feem to have been at the same price; and probably in houfes of reputation, fuch as the Globe, and that in Black-friars, the price of admiffion into those parts of the theatre was fix-pence, while in fome meaner playNOTES.

"Doth either to the stage himself transfer,

"Or through a grate doth fhew his double face, "For that the clamourous fry of innes of court, "Fills up the private roomes of greater price; "And fuch a place where all may have refort,

"He in his fingularity doth despise."

The pit, Dr. Percy fuppofes to have received its name from one of the play-houses having been formerly a cock-pit. This account of the term, however, feems to be fomewhat questionable. The place where the feats are ranged in St. Mary's at Cambridge, is ftill called the pit; and no one can fufpect that venerable fabric of having ever been a cock-pit, or that the phrafe was borrowed from a play-house to be applied to a church. pit is a place low in its relative fituation, and fuch is the middle part of a theatre.

A

Shakspeare himself ufes cock-pit to exprefs a fmall confined fituation, without any particular reference:

"Can this cock-pit hold

"The vafty fields of France-or may we cram,
"Within this wooden O, the very cafques

"That did affright the air at Agincourt."

▾ See an old collection of tales, entitled Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1595: "When the great man had read the actor's letter, he prefently in anfwere to it, took a fheet of paper, and folding fixpence up in it, fealed it, fubfcribed it, and fent it to his brother; intimating thereby, that though his brother had vowed not in feven years to fee him, yet he for his fixpence could come and fee him upon the ftage at his pleasure."

So, in the induction to The Magnetic Lady, by Ben Jonfon: "Not the faces or grounds of your people that fit in the oblique caves and wedges of your houfe, your finful fixpenny mechanicks." See poft. Verfes addreffed to Fletcher on his Faithful Shepberdefs.

That there were fixpenny places at the Black-friars play-house, appears from the epilogue to Mayne's City Match, 1639, which was acted at that theatre:

"Not that he fears his name can fuffer wrack
"From them who fixpence pay, and fixpence crack;
"To fuch he wrote not, though fome parts have been
"So like here, that they to themselves came in."

houfes

houfes it was only a penny, in others two-pence 2.

The VOL. I.

price of admiffion into the best rooms or boxes, was, I be- PROLEGO

NOTES.

So, in Wit without Money, by B. and Fletcher: "Break in at plays like prentices for three a groat, and crack nuts with the fcholars in penny rooms again."

Again, in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609: "Your groundling and gallery commoner buys his fport by the penny.” Again, in Humour's Ordinarie, where a Man may merrie and exceeding well used for his Sixpence, no date:

be very

"Will you stand spending your invention's treasure, "To teach stage-parrots fpeak for penny pleafure." "Pay thy two-pence to a player, in this gallery you may fit by a harlot." Bell-man's Night-svalk, by Decker, 1616.

So, in The Fleire, a comedy by Sharpham, 1615: "And they, like your common players, let men come in for two-pence a-piece."

Again, in the prologue to the Woman-bater, by B. and Fletcher, 1607: “ to the utter discomfiture of all two

penny gallery men.”

It appears from a paffage in The Roaring Girl, a comedy by Middleton, 1611, that there was a two-penny gallery in the Fortune play-house, which belonged to William Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich college: "One of them is Nip; I took him once at the two-penny gallery at the Fortune."

The boxes in the theatre at Black-friars were probably fmall, and appear to have been inclofed in the fame manner as at prefent. See a letter from Mr. Garrard, dated January 25, 1635. Straff. Letters, vol. I. p. 511: "A little pique happened betwixt the duke of Lenox and the lord chamberlain, about a box at a new play in the Black-friars, of which the duke had got the key; which if it had come to be debated betwixt them as it was once intended, fome heat or perhaps other inconvenience might have happened."

In the Globe and the other public theatres, they were of confiderable fize. See the prologue to If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it, by Decker, acted at the Red Bull:

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-Give me that man,

"Who, when the plague of an impofthum❜d brains,
"Breaking out, infects a theatre, and hotly reigns,
"Killing the hearers' hearts, that the vaft rooms
"Stand empty, like so many dead mens' tombs,
"Can call the banish'd auditor home, &c."

He feems to be here defcribing his antagonist B. Jonson, whose plays were generally performed to a thin audience. See Verfes on our author, by Leonard Digges, post.

MENA.

VOL. I. lieve, in our author's time, a fhilling; though afterwards PROLEGO. it appears to have risen to two fhillings and half a crown ©.

MENA.

NOTES.

d

c 16'4: See Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters,, 16 4: "If he have but twelvepence in his purfe, he will give it for the beft room in a play-houfe."

So, in the prologue to our author's King Henry VIII :

Thofe that come to fee

"Only a fhew or two, and fo agree

"The play may pafs, if they be still and willing,
"I'll undertake may fee away their billing

"In two fhort hours."

Again, in a copy of verfes prefixed to Maffinger's Bondman, 1624:

"Reader, if you have difburs'd a fhilling

"To fee this worthy ftory

Again, in the Gul's Horn-book, 1609: "At a new play you take up the twelvepenny room next the ftage, because the lords and you may feem to be hail-fellow well met."

66

So late as in the year 1658, we find the following advertisement at the end of a piece called The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru, by Sir William D'Avenant: " Notwithstanding the great expence neceffary to feenes and other ornaments, in this entertainment, there is good provifion made of places for a filling, and it fhall certainly begin at three in the afternoon."

See the prologue to The Queen of Arragon, a tragedy by Habington, 1640:

"Ere we begin, that no man may repent

"Two Shillings and his time, the author fent
"The prologue with the errors of his play,

"That who will may take his money and away."

Again, in the epilogue to Mayne's City Match, 1639, acted at Black-friars:

"To them who call't reproof, to make a face,

"Who think they judge, when they frown i' the wrong place,

"Who if they speak not ill o' the poet, doubt

"They loofe by the play, nor have their tavo fhillings out, "He fays, &c."

• See Wit without Money, a comedy, 1639:

"And who extoll'd you into the half crown boxes,

"Where you might fit and mufter all the beauties.'

See

In the play-houfe called the Hope on the Bankfide, there were five different-priced feats, from fixpence to half a crown. the induction to Bartholomew Fair, by Ben Jonfon, 1614.

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