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In the time of our author, there were no less than ten VOL. I. theatres open: four private houses, viz. that in Black-friars, PROLEGO the Cockpit or Phanix in Drury Lane, a theatre in White-friars, MENA. and one in Salisbury Court; and fix that were called public theatres; viz. the Globe, the Swan, the Rofe, and the Hope, on the Bank-fide; the Red Bull at the upper end of St. John's ftreet, and the Fortune in White-crofs ftreet. The two laft were chiefly frequented by citizens.

Moft, if not all of Shakspeare's plays were performed either at the Globe, or at the theatre in Black-friars. I fhall therefore confine my enquiries chiefly to thefe two. It appears that they both belonged to the fame company of comedians, viz. his majefty's fervants, which title they affumed, after a licence had been granted to them by king James in 1603; having before that time been called the fervants of the lord chamberlain.

The theatre in Black-friars was, as has been mentioned, a private houfe; but what were the peculiar and diftinguishing marks of a private play-houfe, it is not eafy to afcertain. We know only that it was very fmall *; and that plays were there ufually reprefented by candlelight'.

NOTES.

The

They are mentioned in an ancient Treatife against Idleness, raine Plaies and Interludes, by John Northbrook, bl. 1. no date, but written apparently about the year 1580. Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abufes, p. 90, edit. 1583, inveighs against theatres and curtaines, which he calls Venus' Palaces. Edmund Howes, the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, fays, p. 1004, "That before the year 1570, he neither knew, heard, nor read of any fuch theatres, fet ftages, or play-houses, as have been purposely built within man's memory."

Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair was performed at this theatre in 1614. He does not give a very favourable description of it: Though the fair be not kept in the fame region that fome here perhaps would have it, yet think that the author hath therein obferved a fpecial decorum, the place being as dirty as Smithfield, and as ftinking every whit."-Induction to Barth. Fair. The other theatres here alluded to, were probably the Red Bull, and the Fortune, which were both near Smithfield. 4 See Wright's Hiftoria Hiftrionica, 1699.

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Wright, in his Hift. Hiftrion. informs us, that the theatre in Black-friars, the Cockpit, and that in Salisbury Court, were exactly alike both in form and fize. The fmallness of the latter

VOL. I.

PROLEGO

MENA.

The Globe, which was fituated on the fouthern fide of the river Thames, was an hexagonal building, partly open to the weather, partly covered with reeds It was a public theatre, and of confiderable fize ; and there they always acted by day-light. On the roof of the Globe, and the other public theatres, a pole was erected, to which a flag was affixed i. Thefe flags were probably displayed only during

NOTES.

is afcertained by thefe lines in an epilogue to Tottenham Court, a comedy by Nabbes, which was acted there :

ye,

"When others fill'd rooms with neglect disdain "My little houfe with thanks fhall entertain ye.' The theatre in Black-friars was fituated fomewhere near the prefent Apothecaries-Hall. There is still in that neighbourhood, Play-houfe Yard, where probably the theatre ftood. It appears to have been a very ancient play-houfe, Lilly's Campaspe having been acted there in 1584. It is uncertain at what time it came into the poffeflion of Shakspeare and his fellow-comedians. In the licence granted to them in 1603, the Globe is called the houfe where they ufually performed, and no mention is made of Blackfriars theatre. The children of the Revels fometimes acted here; indeed either they, or fome other company of children, feem to have belonged to this theatre; for, The Cafe is altered, a play of Ben Jonfon's, is printed as it was acted by the children of the Black-fryars. They were probably introduced occafionally for the fake of variety.

All the city looked like a private play-houfe, when the windows are clapt downe, as if fome nocturnal and difmal tragedy were prefently to be acted." Decker's Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, 1606. See alfo Hiftoria Hiftrionica.

The Globe, we learn from Hiftoria Hifirionica, was nearly of the fame fize as the theatre built by Edward Alleyn, called the Fortune, the dimenfions of which may be conjectured from a circumstance mentioned by Mr. Steevens, vol. I. p. 267, last edit. The Fortune is fpoken of in the prologue to the Roaring Girl, a comedy which was acted there, as a play-houfe of confiderable fize:

"A roaring girl, whofe notes till now never were,

"Shall fill with laughter our vast theatre."

See alfo the concluding lines of Shirley's prologue to the Doubtful Heir, infra p. 7.

h Wright's Hift. Hiftrion.

i So, in the Curtaine Drawer of the World, 1612: "Each play-houfe advanceth his flagge in the aire, whither quickly at the waving thereof are fummoned whole troops of men, women, and children."-Again, in A Mad World my Mafers, a comedy

by

during the hours of exhibition; and it fhould feem from a VOL. I. paffage in one of the old comedies, that they were taken PROLEGOdown during Lent, in which feafon no plays were pre- MENA. fented *.

The Globe, though hexagonal at the outfide, was probably a rotunda within, and perhaps had its name from its circular form. It might, however, have been denominated only from its fign; which was a figure of Hercules fupporting the Globe. This theatre was burnt down in 1613; but it was rebuilt in the following year, and decorated with more ornament than had been originally beftowed upon it.

The

NOTES.

by Middleton, 1608: " the hair about the hat is as good as a flag upon the pole, at a common play-house, to waft company." See a South View of the City of London as it appeared in 1599, in which are representations of the Globe and Swan theatres. From the words, a common play-houfe," in the paffage last quoted, we may be led to fuppofe that flags were not difplayed on the roof of Black-friars, and the other private play-houfes.

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This custom seems to have taken rife from a mifconception of a line in Ovid :

"Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatrowhich Heywood thus tranflates:

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"In those days from the marble house did waive "No fail, no filken flag, or enfign brave." "From the roof (fays the fame author, defcribing a Roman amphitheatre) grew a loover or turret, of exceeding altitude, from which an enfign of filk waved continually ;-pendebant vela theatre."-The mifinterpretation might, however, have arifen from the English cuftom.

'Tis Lent in your cheeks;-the flag is down." A Mad World my Mafters, a comedy by Middleton, 1608.

"After thefe (fays Heywood, fpeaking of the buildings at Rome, appropriated to scenic exhibitions) they compofed others, but differing in form from the theatre or amphitheatre, and every fuch was called circus; the frame globe-like, and merely round." Apology for Actors, 1612. See alfo our author's prologue to K. Henry V.

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or may we cram
"Within this wooden O, &c."
See Taylor's Skuller, p. 31, Ep. 22.

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The exhibitions at the Globe seem to have been calculated chiefly for the lower clafs of people "; thofe at Black-friars, for a more felect and judicious audience. This appears from the following prologue to Shirley's Doubtful Heir, which is inferted among his poems, printed in 1646, with

this title:

NOTES.

"As gold is better that's in fire try'd,

"So is the Bank-fide Globe, that late was burn'd; "For where before it had a thatched hide,

"Now to a stately theator 'tis turn'd."

See alfo Stowe's Chronicle, p. 1003.

n The Globe theatre, (which was fituated in Southwark, nearly oppofite to Queen-street Cheapfide) being contiguous to the BearGarden, when the fports of the latter were over, the fame fpectators probably reforted to the former. The audiences at the Bull and the Fortune, were, it may be prefumed, of a clafs ftill inferior to that of the Globe. The latter, being the theatre of his majefty's fervants, muft neceffarily have had a fuperior degree of reputation. At all of them, however, it appears, that noife and fhew were what chiefly attracted an audience. Our author speaks in Hamlet of " berattling the common [i. e. the public] theatres." See alfo A Prologue fpoken by a company of players who had feceded from the Fortune, infra p. 15. (Note 9) from which we learn that the performers at that theatre to split the cars of the groundlings," used "to tear a paffion

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to tatters."

In fome verfes addreffed by Thomas Carew to Mr. [afterwards Sir William] D'Avenant, "Upon his excellent Play, The Juft Italian," 1630, I find a fimilar character of the Bull theatre:

"Now noife prevails; and he is tax'd for drowth-
"Of wit, that with the cry fpends not his mouth.-
thy ftrong fancies, raptures of the brain,
"Drefs'd in poetic flames, they entertain
"As a bold impious reach; for they'll still flight
"All that exceeds RED BULL and Cockpit flight.
"These are the men in crowded heaps that throng
"To that adulterate stage, where not a tongue
"Of the untun'd kennel, can a line repeat
"Of ferious fenfe; but like lips meet like meat :
"Whilst the true brood of actors, that alone

Keep natural unftrain'd action in her throne,
"Behold their benches bare, though they rehearse
"The terfer Beaumont's, or great Jonfon's verfe."

The true brood of actors were the performers at Black-friars, where The Juft Italian was acted.

Prologue

MENA.

Prologue at the GLOBE, to his Comedy called the Doubtful VOL. I.
Heir, which fhould have been prefented at the Black-friars. PROLEGO
"Gentlemen, I am only fent to fay,
"Our author did not calculate his play
"For this meridian. The Bank-fide, he knows,
"Is far more skilful at the ebbs and flows
"Of water than of wit; he did not mean
"For the elevation of your poles, this fcene.
"No fhews-no dance-and what you moft de-
light in,

"Grave understanders P, here's no target-fighting
"Upon the ftage; all work for cutlers barr'd;
"No bawdry, nor no ballads ;-this goes hard:
"But language clean, and what affects you not,
"Without impoffibilities the plot;

"No clown, no fquibs, no devil in't.-Oh now,
"You squirrels that want nuts, what will you do?
"Pray do not crack the benches, and we may
"Hereafter fit your palates with a play.

"But you that can contract yourselves, and fit,
"As you were now in the Black-friars pit,

"And will not deaf us with lewd noife and tongues,
"Because we have no heart to break our lungs,
"Will pardon our vaft ftage, and not difgrace
"This play, meant for your perfons, not the place.'
The fuperior difcernment of the Black-friars audience
may be likewife collected from a paffage in the preface pre-
fixed by Heminge and Condell to the first folio edition of our
author's works: "And though you be a magiftrate of wit,
and fit on the stage at Black-friars or the Cockpit, to arraigne
plays dailie, know these plays have had their tryal already,
and ftood out all appeales.'

A writer, already quoted 9, informs us that one of these

NOTES.

• In the printed play, these words are omitted; the want of which renders the prologue perfectly unintelligible.

The common people stood in the Globe theatre, in that part of the house which we now call the pit; which being lower than the ftage, Shirley calls them understanders. In the private playhouses, it appears from the fubfequent lines, there were feats in the pit. 4 Wright.

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